820 Fifth Avenue

820 Fifth Avenue is a luxury cooperative in Manhattan, New York city, USA, and is located on Fifth Avenue at the Northeast corner of East 63rd Street on the Upper East Side.

Design

The 12 story limestone-clad neo-Italian Renaissance palazzo is one of the most expensive and exclusive apartment houses in the city. It was designed by Starrett & van Vleck and built by Fred T.Ley in 1916. The land upon which it was built was previously occupied by the Progress Club. The frontage was 100.5 feet on Fifth Avenue and 100 feet on 63rd Street. Construction cost was 1 million dollars, exclusive of the land(which cost another million).

The building comprises 12 apartments, one per floor. These apartments are lavish in scale, each containing roughly. 6500 square feet. The lower two floors consist of two duplex maisonettes , one about 7000 square feet, the other 5500 square feet. All apartments feature marble floors, and fireplaces in all major rooms. The outer walls are two feet thick and ceiling height is 11 feet(3.35m). The public rooms all face Central Park, and are accesed via the 44 foot long gallery. The five bedrooms found in each apartment all have windows on 63rd Street and the numerous (usually seven) servants rooms are in the back.

The facade is broken into five sections by four string courses and the centers of the east and south facades feature balustraded balconies.

Co-op and amenities

Originally a rental, 820 Fifth Avenue was converted into a cooperative in 1949. Similar to other co-ops in New York, potential buyers must pay entirely in cash. No financing is allowed. The cooperatives board requires potential buyers to possess liquid assets ten times the value of the apartment.

The building features a lounge for chauffeurs on the ground floor and a holding area for cars. Other features include sidewalk landscaping, including Japanese Cherry Trees, and a canopied entrance flanked by bronze lanterns. Amenities include full-time doormen, concierge, elevator operators, laundry and storage rooms in the basement, and storage rooms on the roof which are sometimes used as servants' quarters, as they have baths and small kitchen facilities.

820 Fifth Avenue is notorious for rejecting even very wealthy prospective buyers, even including some billionaires.

These apartments rarely change hands and when they do, they typically command prices above 35 million dollars.

Notable residents

• Jayne Wrightsman (widow of the late oil baron Charles Wrightsman, and president of the board of the co-op)
• Emilia Saint-Amand & H. Fred Krimendahl, II. (Limited Partner at Goldman Sachs, President and CEO of Petrus Partners LBO firm)
• Terry Semel and Jane Semel (Former CEO of Yahoo)
• Ara Hovnanian & Rachel Hovnanian (Real Estate development)
• Michel David-Weill (former director and descendant of the founders of Lazard Frères & Co.) & Hélène David-Weill (art patron and president of the board of trustees of the french association Les Arts décoratifs
• Governor Alfred E.Smith
• William Acquavella(President of Acquavella Galleries, and Donna Acquavella)
• Tommy Hilfiger
• Lily Safra
• Kenneth Griffin
• Babe and William Paley (CBS President)
• Arthur Murray and Kathryn Murray
• Robert Goelet
• Alfred Sloan Jr.(chairman of General Motors)
• Jack Levy (Senior Partner at Goldman Sachs)
• Stavros Niarchos (Greek shipping)
• Louise Crane (Crane & Co. stationary heiress)