Tasteful Friends: the former Vincent Astor Penthouse on East End Avenue

I attended a dinner party in the Gracie Square building a few years ago - apartments was great, but the views across the river from that part of town into an industrial section of Querns were a disappointing surprise.

I suppose if I had to live there...I could sell it and move to the west side. Nice to see such a large apartment all on one floor, though. Single-floor living is what one wants in an apartment.

I'm of mixed mind. It has some very fine aspects, but for me it has more the staid charm of a hotel suite than the focus and surprises of a great apartment.

Part of my disappointment is the just the size if the place. The doc or seven extra bedrooms are too much, the bedroom corridor is 90' or so long, not counting the two turns it makes. Who needs 6 or 7 extra bedrooms unless you have a bunch of kids?

The gallery is the best feature, a lovely long (56') and generous space with very nice detailing. But the attention given the architecture of that room isn't seen elsewhere. The rest are large, well proportioned, correct, and a little boring, with no great gestures, no surprises. Where I'd the room with, instead of regulation French doors or full height Windows, a grand oversized Palladian window, or a whole wall of windows? It's the penthouse so there's room to sneak something of the sort in without disturbing the symmetry below.

If you needed a 9000sf apartment with too many bedrooms, and didn't mind the river view (I don't, but not my favorite neighborhood), it's a good choice, a good value I suppose, and had some fine qualities, but given the size and situation it just strikes me as a little too correct (in which direction I lean, but it's too much so here.)

Can you imagine cleaning that whole thing?

[quote] Who needs 6 or 7 extra bedrooms unless you have a bunch of kids?

They were originally servants quarters.

Friends live nearby, on 82nd Street. He gets a car home from work (Atty who works 'til 3 AM), while wifey has to hoof it to Newark and New Brunswick (the pandemic couldn't have come along any sooner AFASC). She refuses to drive.

What a waste -- nice views, surely bright, but the apartment has no character at all, as r3 pointed out. I'm not sure how much of it is (badly) staged, and how much is original furnishings, but even a good hotel suite has more style than this place.

I'd camp in the living room.

[quote]From your terrace you can see where Gloria Vanderbilt's son jumped to his death at nearby Gracie Square.

I'd pay a million more if you could still see the body.

R7 It does seem badly staged, with some butt ugly art and furniture, but some of the lights are all sorts of wrong too. Still, all that can be fixed, all there is still lots of beautiful period detail left that can be built on to make a stunning apartment. It has heaps of potential, and could easily look like far more than the good hotel suite it looks like currently

bump the nicci thread, v8. i can't find it...

[quote]They were originally servants quarters

No, those 6 bedrooms at the left side of the floor plan were designed as family/guest bedrooms. That they share a hallway with family spaces is evidence enough, also the full size. Putting family and service bedrooms in the same end of a hallway, sharing walls wasn't done.

Period plans (Columbia library) of other penthouse apartments show a pair of servants bedrooms in the space corresponding to the kitchen shown on the Astor apartment plan.

A light-filled apartment with beautiful bones. The price seems reasonable.

Vincent Astor's third wife lived at 10 Gracie Square before they got married. After their marriage, Brooke moved a few hundred yards to 120 East End Avenue, which she hated. By this time, Vincent was nearly a recluse and insisted that Brooke remain in the apartment with him, rarely allowing her to enjoy the NYC night life. After he died, she wasted no time getting rid of the penthouse apartment and moved down to Park Avenue where she would be more centrally located to the New York social scene.

Across the street from 120 East End Avenue is One Gracie Square where after her divorce from Jack Bouvier, Janet On Assistance moved in with her two daughters, Jackie and Princess WhatsHerName.

I love the views.

I'd love to live there. Maybe the new owners will be hiring servants, I could tend the plants on the terrace.

I'm with R3. And while I know that those with enough money to purchase this apartment would turn up their noses...if it were mine, I'd have an IMPOSSIBLE number of plants in and around the terrace, and all of those windows.

[quote]Janet On Assistance ...

Datalounge legend, right here.

I love everything about it besides the location. If I can afford a $23 million home then I can afforf to hire a decorator. Of course, I'd prefer to work on it one section at a time. What I love about the layout is that the its that two bedrooms can have their own sitting rooms. So if I lived there I'd want 2 kids to give them that fabulous space but before that this would make perfect guest rooms. I'd also keep a bed in the office for my man on those nights when we want some space, or he can visit one of the other bedrooms. His choice. It has outdoor space, a view, and enough room to makea. family of 4 feel like they have their own retreats.

I love it!

That second elevator give me the creeps. I don't want to worry that someones sneaking into my place form that elevator or stairwell. Or my children sneaking out at night.