15 Central Park West

15 Central Park West is a 35-floor luxury condominium at the corner of West 61st Street and Central Park West on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City, opposite Central Park. The building was designed in a New Classical style by the 2011 Driehaus Prize winner Robert A.M. Stern. Construction was completed in 2008 for $950 million (equivalent to US$1.1 billion in 2019). 15 Central Park West was described in *The Master Architect Series* as one of New York's most prestigious residential addresses, and its residents have included actors, athletes, CEOs, hedge fund managers, and billionaires.

## Development

The building's location, described as "the most expensive site in Manhattan" (purchased for $401 million in 2004, equivalent to $530 million in 2019, comprises an entire, albeit small, city block on Central Park West on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, formerly occupied by the somewhat dilapidated Mayflower Hotel (a 1926 Neo-Renaissancebuilding designed by the architect Emery Roth) and a vacant lot. The building was designed in a New Classical style by Robert A.M. Stern Architects. It was constructed by developers Arthur and William Lie Zeckendorf of Zeckendorf Development, grandsons of real estate developer William Zeckendorf, in partnership with Goldman Sachs and Eyal Ofer's Global Holdings Inc. 15 Central Park West is considered by some to be one of New York's most prestigious residential addresses.

## Design

As designed, 15 Central Park West is divided into two sections, a 19-story tower on Central Park West known as "the house," joined by a glass-enclosed lobby to a 35-story tower on Broadway. It includes such amenities as a private driveway to screen residents from paparazzi, a cinema with 20 seats, and a 14,000-square-foot (1,300 m2) fitness center with a 75-foot (22.86 m) swimming pool.

15 Central Park West's limestone facade uses material from "the same quarry that was a source for the Empire State Building". The floor plan was designed so that almost all rooms have an open view and layouts that borrow heavily from the styles commonly found in the 1920s.

## Notable residents[edit]

Notable residents have included actors Robert De Niro, Denzel Washington, Mark Wahlberg, and Kelsey Grammer; musician Sting; television writer and producer Norman Lear; baseball player Alex Rodriguez; NASCAR driver Jeff Gordon; and sportscaster Bob Costas. Several chief executives have lived at 15 Central Park West, including Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein; former Citigroup CEO Sandy Weill; former Barclays CEO Bob Diamond; former Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang; former Warner Bros president Alan F. Horn; and hedge fund managers Daniel Loeb and Daniel Och. Entrepreneurs have also lived in the building, including Dmitry Rybolovlev and his daughter Ekaterina Rybolovleva; Jesse Itzler and his wife Sara Blakely; brothers Eyal Ofer and Idan Ofer; Les Wexner; Marcel Herrmann Telles;  Sultan bin Muhammad Al-Qasimi; Omid Kordestani; and Min Kao. Both Zeckendorf brothers also bought units at the building.

Arthur MacArthur IV, the son of General Douglas MacArthur, lived in the Mayflower Hotel that previously occupied the site until 2004. When the building was demolished to make way for 15 Central Park West he moved to Greenwich Village. Another resident of the former Mayflower Hotel was Herb Sukenik, who received a $17 million payment to move out, along with a condo for life. This is believed to be "by far the highest price ever paid to [relocate] a single tenant in the city of New York."