Home of the Week: Gloria Vanderbilt Once Called This $50 Million New York Mansion Home. Now You Can Too.
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A spectacular seven-story Manhattan townhouse where Gloria Vanderbilt lived as a child has just gone on sale for $50 million.
Built in 1891, this historic mansion at 39 East 72nd Street on New York’s swank Upper East Side, is fresh out of a multi-year, multi-million-dollar restoration which has seen the building transformed into a sleek, sexy, modern home.
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Add to that “spacious.” With a total of 12 bedrooms, 11 full bathrooms, and a multitude of living, dining, work and kick-back spaces, the townhouse sprawls across 18,500 square feet.
Take one of two elevators to the roof deck, and there are not one but two terraces offering over 1,500 square feet of outdoor space.
Perfect for al fresco entertaining, taking in the Manhattan skyline—or simply gazing down at the flagship Ralph Lauren Polo store across the street on Madison Avenue.
Love the building but don’t need all that space? In an interesting twist, the Manhattan property is currently configured as three separate apartments, each with its own character, layout and price tag.
The four-bedroom, 5,300-square-feet, first and second-floor unit is available for $11.5 million, while the exquisite four-bedroom, 5,000 square-feet, nine-room duplex on floors three and four, is listed for $13.5 million.
But the crowning glory is the building’s jaw-dropping penthouse occupying the fifth, sixth and roof deck floors. Covering 5,700 square-feet of interior space, it’s on the market for $25 million.
According to listing agent Lauren Muss, of Douglas Elliman, the townhouse could easily be reconfigured to turn it back into one super-sized single-family home, or transform the space into high-price rental units.
Much has already been spent on creating this architectural masterpiece. View the building on Google Maps and it still shows it from a few years ago as a bland, nondescript, white-washed office building with rusty in-window air-conditioning units.
But back in 2014, a group of developers led by Magnetar Development and Mink Development rescued the townhouse, paying a reported $19 million.
They then called on the cutting-edge New York architects CetraRuddy to give the exterior a classic brownstone look with a complete, new sandstone-clad facade with elegant cornicing, and a reconfigured, more elegant entry.
Inside, it’s a sea of stunning walnut and limestone flooring, kitchens with Calacatta marble slab countertops, custom lacquered wood cabinetry and best-of-the-best appliances from Gaggenau, Viking and Miele.
The bathrooms feature either Calacatta, or Blue de Savoie marble floors, Kalista fixtures, Toto or Duravit toilets, and Victoria and Albert free-standing tubs. And on the walls, clean white or soft shades of beige and gray paint.
“The developers and architects had one simple goal,” explains Lauren Muss. “To create the perfect paradigm of Upper East Side modern luxury, while solidifying the legacy of the property.”
As for that legacy, the American equestrian and gambler Reginald Claypoole Vanderbilt owned the home back in the early 1900s. His daughter, actress, writer, heiress and queen of Jeans, Gloria Vanderbilt was born and lived here until her father passed the following year.
Vanderbilt, whose son is CNN journalist Anderson Cooper, died in June this year at the age of 95.
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