The subtitle is Fifteen Central Park West, the World’s Most Powerful Address and the author is Michael Gross (2014).
If you love New York City real estate, then you should read this book. The first half is more a story and history of development in Manhattan and the Upper West Side, with specific focus on the Zeckendorf family and the adventures in putting together a development site comprised of a full city block that eventually became Fifteen. The second half reads a bit like Page Six, running through a short description of the myriad rich and famous who bought apartments and rent in the building.
As someone who has lived in that neighborhood my entire life, the story resonated – I can remember the Gulf & Western building that preceded Trump’s hotel and condo tower, the Coliseum site that became the Time Warner Center, and the Mayflower hotel that sat where Fifteen now rises. I had not realized that the major draw to the East Side in the beginning (over the West Side) had more to do with topography and an ease of building. In a certain sense, reading about the development of this building adds to the motivation to push ahead in my current endeavors. These are the sorts of projects that I want to work on.
