The building staff, on the other hand, was warned not to speak to me, yet several employees, both current and former, did. So thanks to Pasco Cornejo, who didn’t care if I quoted him by name, and to the others who asked to remain anonymous for the sake of their present and future employment. Your perspective on the building and its occupants was invaluable. I also thank the other staff members, who were invariably gracious to me when I visited Fifteen, even as I wondered if my picture was posted behind the concierge desks.
I’m often asked how I identify and find the people who live in buildings like Fifteen (and “How did you get my phone number? It’s unlisted!”). My jocular answer is, invariably, that’s why I get paid the medium-size bucks. But the truth is, it’s a matter of good sources, hard work, and some luck, digging through press reports, deeds, mortgages, voter registrations, and other public records, cross-referencing names and addresses, and then picking up the phone in hope of gaining confirmation. I do that myself, but I also depend on researchers, most of them present or former journalism students. They may not know it, but they inspire me as well as help me do my job. So thanks to Alex Cacioppo, Alessia Pirolo, and Makkadah Saleh, who did most of the grunt work, and to Ann Ellwood, Yuyu Chen, Kristi Goldade, Chantel Tattoli, Katy Olsen, Marusca Niccolini, Dayna Clark, and Bilal Khan. Also, thanks to Dasha Boudnik, who translated Russian for me, and to David Hyun Kim, who helped me understand the romanization of Asian names.
Thanks also to journalists Stefanie Cohen, Jennifer Gould Keil, Max Gross, and Andy Wang at the New York Post; Lockhart Steele and Sara Polsky at Curbed; Christopher Gray of the Office of Metropolitan History; Roberta Gratz; Dana Thomas; the late Ada Louise Huxtable; David Patrick Columbia of New York Social Diary; Laura Gatea at PropertyShark; Taki Theodoracopulos; John Avlon of the Daily Beast; Amanda Cantrell at Absolute Return; and Joey Arak, the founding editor of Curbed, for their help and kindness. I am particularly grateful to William D. Cohan, both for his financial oversight and for his unpublished interview with Erin Callan. Anyone interested in more on Goldman Sachs should read his book Money and Power.
A number of attorneys also gave advice and assistance. Thanks to Elliot Meisel, my consigliere for all things real estate related, Judd Burstein, Jeffrey Horwitz, Patricia Cardi, Edward Mermelstein, J. Joseph Jacobsen, Michael Grabow, Jeffrey Mutterperl, David Newman, and Steven Singer.
Thanks also to Kathryn Hanes and Ajay Kapur at Deutsche Bank; Alan Segan and Gabrielle Berman of Rubenstein Public Relations; Steven Rubenstein of Howard Rubenstein PR; Todd Alhart at GE Global Research; Anna Kadysheva; Annalise Carol and B. Jay Cooper at APCO; Asher Edelman; Dr. Octo Barnett; Katie Marquedant; Bill Hooper at Time Inc.; Fredrika Low at Cornell University; Adam Friefield at NBC Sports; Ian Smith in Lyn Lear’s office; Tiffany Haynes in Norman Lear’s office; Jeffrey Sventek at ASMA; John Bickford and Debbie Hunsucker at Jeff Gordon, Inc.; Kate Wood and Arlene Simon at Landmarks West; Ken Frydman; Doug Blonsky; Lisa Castro; Michele Davis; Paul Gunther; Ellen West at Google; Rena Resnick; Steven Sandoval at Los Alamos; Kate O’Brien Ahlers in New York’s Department of Law and Cheryl Leon in its Department of Buildings; Nurit Gal Reches; Margaret Hoover; Duffe Elkins at the Indiana Limestone Company; and Mary Hedge at the MTA, for helping me find information I needed.
Also from the real estate community, thanks to Karen Duncan and Marlene Marcus of the 15CPW sales office, Judith Kessler, Patricia Garza, Carol Lamberg, Martha Kramer, Robby Browne, John Burger, Elizabeth Stribling, Pamela Liebman, Felicé Donatiello, Emily Beare, Haidee Granger, Howard Morrell, Suzanne Howard, Richard Wagman, Victor MacFarlane, Susan de França, Joanna Cutler, Maria Pashby, Ken Deutsch, Nora Arrifin, John Dyson and Meghan Haskins at Millbrook Capital Management, Donna Olshan, Larry Kaiser, Jonathan Miller, and Alice Mason.
Several of my professional colleagues were understanding about my need to sometimes put this book ahead of other work: thanks to Xana Antunes and Glenn Coleman of Crain’s New York Business; Richard Burns, Daisy Prince, William Pecover, Randi Schatz, Haley Friedlich, and Tom and Janet Allon at Avenue magazine; and Gabe Doppelt, Lucas Wittmann, and Justine Rosenthal at Newsweek/Daily Beast. I’m also grateful to Linda Buckley at Tiffany & Co., even if the good ship Charles never managed to set sail, and to John Benditt, Laurie Kratochvil, Robb Rice, and Susan Murcko, who all know why.
And thanks most of all to my wonderful friends Lavinia Snyder, Roy Kean, Barry Kieselstein-Cord, David Netto, Andrew Alpern, Michael and Patricia Jean, Pierre Crosby, Sheila Weller, and Kee Tan, and to my wife, Barbara Hodes, all of whom have always been there when I needed them and understood when I said, “Can’t talk to you now.”
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Michael Gross is America’s “foremost chronicler of the upper-crust” (Curbed) and author of Rogues’ Gallery, a history and exposé of New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art; Model: The Ugly Business of Beautiful Women; 740 Park; and Unreal Estate, the LA Times’ bestselling social history of the estate district of Los Angeles. A contributing editor of Travel + Leisure and real estate editor of Avenue, he’s written for Vanity Fair, Esquire, GQ, Town & Country, the New York Times, and New York. Mr. Gross writes his own blog, Gripepad, and has contributed to the Huffington Post and the Daily Beast/Newswee
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INDEX
A
Aarons, Philip, 100–101, 102, 129
Abrams, Marc, 327
Abrams, Russell, 326–27
Abrams, Sandra, 326–27
Agar, Barbara, 115, 138
Ahmed, Shakeel, 349
Alcoa, 64, 67
Alexandria condominium, 77
Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center, 98
Alpern, Andrew, 12, 20, 45
al-Qasimi, Sultan Ahmed, 7, 349
Alwyn Court, 29, 93
American Ballet Theater, 69, 137
American Broadcasting Company (ABC), 28, 54, 100, 101
American Circle building, 112
American Express, 246, 256, 315
American International Group (AIG), 4, 232, 259
American Museum of Natural History, 25, 26, 29, 74
American Stock Exchange, 66
Ansonia Hotel, 26
Antonelli, Alex, 361–62
Apollo Real Estate Advisors, 129–30, 132, 176
Apthorp apartment house, 28, 40
Astor, John Jacob III, 28
Astor, Vincent, 50
Astor, William Backhouse, 28
Astor, William Waldorf, 28
Astor family, 43n
automobile showrooms (“automobile row”), 31, 36–37, 111, 115, 138
Avlon, John, 134–35, 136
Avlon, John J., 111, 134, 135, 136–38, 139–41, 150–52, 155–58, 156n, 159, 160–61, 176, 205, 236n
B
Bache, Alice, 68
Bagley, Judd, 229
Bagli, Charles, 162
Bakhmat, Liudmilla, 275
Banner, Peter, 27
Barbanel, Josh, 283–84, 285, 289, 335, 342
Barclays Capital, 4, 242, 301, 310, 343
Barish, Keith, 264
Barker, Laughlin, 266
Barrionuevo, Alexei, 340
Battery Park City, 74
Bayley, John Barrington, 113n
Beare, Emily, 329, 329n, 330, 331, 341–42
Bear Stearns, 245, 249–50, 252, 254
Beekman family, 43n
Belldegrun, Arie, 324, 345
Belldegrun, Rebecka, 324–25
Belleclaire apartment hotel, 37–38
Belnord apartment house, 28, 40, 48
Ben-Haim, Amit, 289, 290, 291
Ben-Haim, Shlomo, 290–92, 295, 299, 301, 302, 335
Beresford apartment house, 10, 24–25, 40, 42, 43, 44, 126
Berk, Noel, 207–08
Berman, Charles, 200
Bernanke, Ben, 251
Bersheda, Tetiana, 340, 341
Betesh, Joseph, 263–64, 285
Beverly Wilshire hotel, Beverly Hills, 64
Bing, Leo and Alexander, 37–38
Birmingham, Stephen, 22
Birnbaum, Philip, 91
Bitelman, Faina, 353
Bizer, David Scott, 249
Blackmar, Elizabeth, 19
Blackmon, Kyle, 248
Blakely, Sara, 278–82, 283–84, 328
Blankfein, Laura, 314, 361–63
Blankfein, Lloyd, 199, 200, 201, 202, 209, 217, 223, 235, 244, 270, 312–14, 315, 318, 320, 323, 333, 358, 359, 361–63
Bloomberg, Michael, 265
Bloomingdale Road, 17, 18, 19–20, 29, 60
Bolla, Michael, 269
Bonwit Teller department store, 84, 88
Borghetti, Piofrancesco, 346
Boston Properties, 117, 118–19, 120–21, 124, 125, 130
Boutros-Ghali, Lindsay, 317
Brevan Howard Asset Management, 43n, 226, 242–43
Brewster family, 11
Breydo, Olga, 244
Breydo, Ruvim, 243–33
Brooker, Katrina, 334–35
Brooks, John, 222–23
Brower, Cynthia “Cindy,” 212–13
Brown, David, 40, 126
Brown, Helen Gurley, 40
Brown Harris Stevens (BHS), 103–04, 143, 144, 156, 158, 166, 181–82, 183, 190, 207, 224, 272, 284, 306, 343
Browne, Robby, 207, 317
Buffett, Warren, 250, 312, 335
Burger, John, 182, 183
Burke, Stephen, 6
C
Callan, Erin, 249, 251–57, 258
Campbell, Roberta, 5
Campion, Jeremiah, 30
Candela, Rosario, 38, 143, 179, 182
Capo, Gerardo, 6
Carey, Hugh, 84
Carlovich, Gregg, 305
Carnegie, Andrew, 11
Carnegie Hall, xiv, 52, 92–93, 245, 283
Carnegie Hall Tower, 204
Carpenter, J. E. R., 38, 143, 182, 263
Carrère and Hastings, 33, 41
Central Park
apartment hotels around, 38–39
clearing and building of, 19–20
Columbus Circle as gateway to, 29–30, 31
early settlements along, 18, 19–20, 21
15CPW’s lobby paintings of, 185
15CPW’s views of, 153–54, 170, 187, 191, 202, 205, 220
&
nbsp; Fifth Avenue as gateway to, 13
Central Park Place, 73, 74, 78, 100, 109, 196, 199, 333
Central Park South, 9, 10, 20, 39, 45, 69, 130, 168, 277
Central Park West, 10, 21n
alternate society as cultural haven along, 44, 45
classic apartment buildings along, 26–28, 35–36, 37, 41, 42–45, 121, 126, 130, 179–80, 271, 321
Columbus Circle and, 31, 33, 110, 118
diverse rooflines along, 38, 43
early buildings on, 23, 24, 25, 34–35, 36–37
15CPW’s address on, xiv, 173, 186
15CPW’s entrance on, 173, 185, 310
hotels along, 38, 39, 110, 167
Lincoln Square District zoning and, 99, 103
new money and resurgence of, 126, 206
street wall along, 44, 139–41, 153–54
Trump’s building with address on, 121, 123–24, 126, 131
Central Park West Historic District, 44, 45, 139
Century apartment house, 10, 42, 44, 59, 110, 121, 130, 170, 180, 189, 249, 309, 321, 348
Century City, Los Angeles, 8, 61, 63, 64
Chanin, Irwin S., 41–42, 43n, 121
Chase National Bank, 11, 43n, 58, 260
Chearavanont, Dhanin, 325
Chearavanont, Marisa, 325–26, 327
Chearavanont, Soopakij, 325
Chemical Bank, 43n, 58, 260
House of Outrageous Fortune: Fifteen Central Park West, the World’s Most Powerful Address Page 40
