Actress Julia Stiles may not make the news much these days, but she found her way into Variety over the weekend with the sale of her Gramercy duplex apartment. The three-bedroom pad, which sits in a six-unit brownstone building at 310 East 15th Street directly across from historic Stuyvesant Square, was placed on the market last summer for $3.5 million. While the apartment saw a price chop just a few months after being listed, Stiles still managed to finagle $2.7 million from a less than famous buyer—a pretty nice profit considering she originally paid $1.995 million for the unit 10 years ago.
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Features, Gramercy Park, History
With a prime location overlooking Gramercy Park, accessible solely to those with keys, the 183-year-old Renaissance revival Gramercy Park Hotel was built on the site of infamous architect Stanford White’s home (which had replaced the house where novelist Edith Wharton was born) nearly 90 years ago. The neighborhood, the park, and the hotel date as far back as the 1830s, when more than 60 swampy lots were allocated to developers looking to lure downtown city folks to a new “uptown” community. In time, those lots were transformed into what is now 39 dwellings surrounding a leafy park reserved for a select few lucky enough to live in luxurious homes framing the two-acre park between 20th and 21st Streets at Irving Place. But it wasn’t until 1925 that the stately hotel opened its doors at 2 Lexington Avenue. By 1930, it was extended westward along the park frontage on 21st street, and today it is one of the city’s most coveted quarters.
Cool Listings, Interiors
Do you think too many of the new buildings coming up nowadays look like glassy, reflective eyesores? Then you’ll be happy to set your eyes on this brand-new tower located at 234 East 23rd Street developed by the Naftali Group. With floor-to-ceiling casement windows, the facade is plenty modern, but the building is most striking because of its red brick nod to the Gramercy neighborhood it calls home. The units in the building just were just listed today, and you can get your first peek of the interiors right here.
Architecture, Gramercy Park, Interiors
Turning a grand three-loft townhouse into a functional two-family home was no easy task for the architects at Fractal Construction. Built in 1848 and owned by the Isaly family, the Gramercy building was steeped in history and the many problems that come with old age.
Not only did Fractal’s Ulises Liceaga have to re-design the former triplex into two dwellings, he also had to replace the basics, like the electrical and plumbing systems. Liceaga added an entire new floor to make sure each family had enough space and gave each apartment open floor plans that connected the living room, kitchen and dining room.
Architecture, Features, Interiors, Manhattan
Manhattan is known for hosting more than a handful of the world’s most luxurious homes — many of which are perched hundreds if not thousands of feet above ground. Though few folks will ever get to see the interior of anything higher than their 5-story walk-up, we’re offering up a look into how New York’s loftiest live.
From the “smallest” to the tallest, take a peek into the penthouses of 10 of Manhattan’s supertall condos ahead. And just to give you a little more context, the Empire State Building soars 1,250 feet high.