Vintage Appeal: Why A-Listers Love New York’s Vintage Residential Buildings
variety.comKathy A. McDonald Vintage residential buildings are often the digs of choice for Manhattan’s cultural class. Timeless charm and classic architectural style are a given.
Decades of history and sometimes screen credits are attached to these prestige addresses. Even the names are cinematic: The Dakota, the Ansonia, the Belnord, the Apthorp and the Arconia — the last one maybe the fictional star of “Only Murders in the Building” but its charms illustrate the style’s appeal.
What they have in common are grand pre-war edifices that can’t be replicated today due to their superior construction materials, priceless interior finishes, large floor plans and ornate stone facades.Nora Ephron famously detailed her attachment to the Apthorp in “The New Yorker.” She described the 1908-built, block-sized building on the Upper West Side as an urban miracle; its peaceful central courtyard a sheltered park “where the city falls away.” (The building is a major backdrop in the Meryl Streep and Jack Nicholson starrer “Heartburn,” which is based on Ephron’s autobiographical book).
Recently an 8,557-square-foot, nine-bedroom, 10-bath completely renovated condominium (a combination of three apartments) listed for $26 million in the landmark building, which has been home to numerous entertainment pros from Ephron and her sister screenwriter and novelist Delia Ephron to Rosie O’Donnell and both Al Pacino and Robert De Niro.The Belnord also has a storied legacy.
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