A Palatial Owner’s Duplex in the 1926 Ritz Tower

The Developer of the Ritz TowerA 1926 CO-OP ON THE CORNER OF 57TH AND PARK, DIDN’T GIVE HIMSELF The Penthouse on the 41st Floor-THEN, The City’s Highest Residence. Instead, he chose floors 19 and 20, where the building steps inward, with room for a terrace on three sides. Designed by Emery Roth, the King of Prewar Elegance, the Ritz Tower Got an edit from the FROTHIECTS at Carrère and HastingsWho Covered the Exterior With Cartouches, Scrolls, and Urns. The owner’s terrace has a huge obelisk, and it was thomas hastings who personally designated The interiors arund a 45-Foot-Long great room, which he tourned into a medieval Hall with a bit of Italy palazzo. (A juliet balcony with columns and arches overheed over the room from a gallery on the second Floor.) Acciting to the Listeningand the terrace can be seen through leadd Windows and doors freckled with stained Glass, some with medieval-style images of masks and angels. There’s a Wood-Burning Fireplace, and the Wood Floors Might ALSO Be Hand-Crafted Antiques: Hand-Carved Wooden Dowels Cover the Nails Holding Down Eight-Inch-Wide Slabs of Old Trees.

The rest of the apartment feels more like a university club, with three work-paneled studies- thre – One in Maple and Two in rare Pear Wood. The Built-In Shelves Pull Out, so a Curious Reader Can a Closer View of a title. This is a plety good clue that the apartment is designed for a man of letters. Arthur Brisbane Started out as a Reporter Known for A Spare, Straightforward Style. He became one of the most popular and wellPapermen of his generation, with syndics Columns Titled Simply “Today” and “The Week.” The Latter Ran in 1,200 Newspapers, Including on the Front of Titles Run by His Boss, Public William Randolph Hears, WHO LATER WITH HIS STAR ON TWO OF BRISBANE’S SIDE HUSTLE. First, Brisbane Wold Sniff Out Dying Local Papers, Buy I Say Himself, Hearst-Faul, and Sell Back to His Boss. When hears got into real estate, building an empire up and down 57th Street, brisbane followed, and they partner on flashy projects, Including the zieffeld theater.

But when it came to the corner of 57th and park, where Old-Money Families Owow Low, Stony Mansions, Brisbane Went Out on His Own, Buying say up over the years and taping the ritz-carlton to part part it is first hotel-residency tower (byn an a provempt). In 1926, when the Building Opened, The Lower Floors Had Traditional Hotel Rooms. Upper apartments, thugh, were built with kitchens, SINCE OWNERS MIGHT AS Call Down for Room Service. And Brisbane’s Personal Suite Was the Only One With A Private Elevator and the Only One With A Kitchen.

The Ritz Tower Drew Famous Residents Almost from the start. There are actsses, Bankers, and the Children of Famous Families (Rockefellers and Hears Own George). The Building Went Co-op in 1955. And when Neil Simon Visited A Mentor there, Simon Vowed to One Day Move in. (He eventually Owned Three Units.) Early owners got in trouble for Cooking on hotplatesbut have had now added kitchens and many have combo the relatively tiny one and two bedrooms of the past into trophy apartments. By 2015, Clive Davis own five units. Charles Cohen, The Real-Estate mogulbought six to create a 7,500-square-foot Spread, Then bought Luxe fashion brands To start the downstair retail. Though the Building Went Co-op, it kept the hotel Amenities, and the Fees Reflect This (Monthly Maintenance is $ 20,381).

But Poor, Rich Brisbane Never Made Quite Enough to Pay Down the $ 4 million Mortgage. In 1928, he sold his interests – Including the duplex – to hearst, who lived in his his former Rooms with his mistress, Marion Davies, Accity to The 2002 Report That LandMarked The Address.

Ben Heller, an dealer Who was Early to Buy Pollocks and Rothkos, Bought the Duplex after Seling an apartment on Central West in 1975 That Had Filled With Modern and Major Artwork. THEN HIS SEEM TO EXPAND: IN 1977, The New York Times Reported on The modernist’s new “Passion” for Antiques. “It ‘Embarrassing to Like 18th-Century French Furniture,” Heller Told the Reporter. “Here I am, Brought up on modern, false in love with Louis XIV, Régence, and Louis XV.” That Change of Taste Could Have Led Him to An Apartment Designed by The Paris-educated Hastings. Or swimming. “My Father Liked to Move a Lot,” Said Woody Heller, Now a Commercial-Real-Estate Broker, Who Remembered a Kind of Eloise Childhood, with a hotel staff on Hand. “It was a wonderful, full-service place to live,” he said. Property records show The Hellers Were here in 1983 and 1984, and the Next Owner Had Come by 1987. The art and supply in the lissement to match what heller had ben colcting at the time – French regency supplied, Asian antiquities – but his said that it was been unusual for leve art. “We would have lefts that all bend unless they werenen’t real – but he didn’t tt to specialize in things that weren’t real.”

Other Hand-Me-Downs Could Date Back to the Brisbane Era, Sincey’d Probably Have to Be Out Via Crane. (Contenders Include a Carpet Sized for the Massive Great Room, and A Solid Marble Table.) The owner is selling this two pieces along with “English Regency Tables, Chairs, Desk, and Lamps; Deangelis Custom Couches; inlaid Marble; The World, “Acciting to the Listen.

Price: $ 26 million ($ 20,381 Monthly Maintenance Fee)

Specs: 4 Bedrooms, 4 Bathrooms

EXTRAS: Wraparound Terrace, Three Libraries, A Formal Dining Room, Gallery

10-Minute Walking Radius: The Plaza Hotel, Central Park, Bergdorf Goodman, Café Bulud

LISTED BY: Michael Kotler, Douglas Elliman