15 Central Park West

Fifteen Central Park West Condos

Architect Robert A. M. Stern literally wrote the book on New York architecture.

So it should not come as a surprise that the architect’s latest building, 15 Central Park West, demonstrates a learned understanding of the finer qualities of New York’s grandest apartment houses.

As a testament to the building’s appeal, the apartments, which include some of the priciest units in the city, pre-sold prior to construction.

Denzel Washington, Norman Lear, and Sting are among the building’s famous residents.

In its massing, proportions, detailing and materials, 15 Central Park West is a throwback to an earlier era.

The full-block complex is comprised of two towers, a 20 storey House facing the Park and a 35-storey Tower fronting Broadway, linked by generous open courtyard that serves as a private motor entrance to the building and contains a copper and glass entry pavilion.

15 Central Park West is fully clad in limestone.

There are 202 Central Park West apartments ranging from one-bedroom to four bedroom homes designed for families with family rooms and kitchens scaled for entertaining that equal their pre-war antecedents.

Each apartment features large casement windows, high ceilings, dining rooms, lots of moldings, plenty of natural light and open views in all directions.

Among the building’s common amenities are a private dining room for residents, a walnut paneled library, a screening room, private wine cellars, a health club and pool.

15 Central Park West offers something strangely familiar to the look of the new 550-foot luxury Central Park West apartment tower.

For a clue as to what that is, try looking a bit higher in the skyline.

The Indiana Limestone to be used for 15 Central Park West is from the same quarry and vein as the limestone used for the Empire State Building.

Developer Zeckendorf, LLC, and the project's architect, Robert A.M. Stern Architects, chose Indiana Limestone for their ultra-luxury residential project, where apartments are reportedly going $300 psf.

"The most elegant buildings on Central Park West have limestone," said Michael Jones, an associate and project architect for Fifteen Central Park West at Robert A.M. Stern Architects.

Jones also noted that Indiana Limestone help distinguish 15 Central Park West from the glass-and-steel buildings in the area and tie-in with many other Central Park West apartments.

"For a Central Park West apartment of this location and importance, stone was the most appropriate solution and Indiana Limestone was the most appropriate stone," a spokeswoman for the developer said.

She added that Indiana Limestone, which has a range of tones from buff to grey, is both beautiful and durable and has a compressive strength greater than any other limestone.

According to Duffe Elkins, director of sales for the Indiana Limestone Company of Oolitic, Indiana, the limestone for 15 Central Park West came from the Empire Quarry from a deposit just a few hundred yards away from where the same Indiana Limestone was quarried for use on the Empire State Building, which recently celebrated its 75th anniversary.

Elkins said more than 7,500 tons of the raw material were needed for 15 Central Park West.

He called the limestone from the Empire Quarry "unique" because of its "full-color blend is complimentary to other building materials."

This deposit's full-color blend, he explained, ranges from off-white to bright grey.

He added that it is a Class 2, medium density, ASTM-certified stone.

While Indiana Limestone can be manufactured in different ways, from panels to ornate shapes, it starts its journey for the Central Park West apartment at the quarry deposit.

There, blocks of stone for 15 Central Park West will average eight feet long and four feet high and be from two-feet to three-feet deep.

After these blocks are cut, they are sawed into slabs, varying in thickness.

Slab thicknesses were based on what had to be manufactured.

For 15 Central Park West, the stone blacks are cut into two-inch-thick panels.

"These feature a sawn finish on them," Elkins added.

After the panels were processed, they were loaded onto a palette, and then they checked for quality; then sent to Canada to be affixed to precast concrete backings.

From Canada, they are shipped to the project site in New York for approval and then erected onto the new Central Park West apartment.

In all, Fifteen Central Park West features more than 85,000 panels covering 290,000 square feet on the building's facade.

Each panel, with its precast concrete backing, weighed from 6,000 pounds up to 20,000 pounds each.

The limestone panels with the precast concrete backings took a year to complete.

In addition to the facade, Indiana Limestone was used for the building's cornices and string course.

String courses are one-foot tall and two-inches thick.

It was also used for the pilasters; columns at the top of the building to help frame the skyline, for a two-story-high arch that will be open to the sky and visible from Central Park, on the east and west elevations; for balconies and balcony brackets, parapets, and at the base of the building's bay windows.

$1.1 billion in total sales so far for the Robert A.M. Stern-designed luxury neo-classical building, 15 Central Park West.

All of the 200 residences were immediately sold.

The Central park West apartments range from $2 million for a one-bedroom overlooking Broadway to $45 million for a full floor penthouse with Central Park and Hudson River views.

15 Central Park West is currently under construction and initial occupancy is slated for the second quarter 2007.

With over $1.1 billion in sales in only seven months, Fifteen Central Park West has reached record-breaking levels in condominium sales for a single development in New York City and throughout the country.

The average price of an apartment at 15 Central Park West is $9.5 million and fourteen of the apartments sold were over $20 million each.

Furthermore, many of the purchasers are New Yorkers that presently live in beautiful co-op buildings on Central Park West, Fifth Avenue and Park Avenue.

In addition, many buyers are coming from affluent suburban locations such as Bedford, Greenwich, New Canaan, Westport, Scarsdale, Princeton, a sure sign that 15 Central Park West represents the height of luxury living and convenience in the entire metropolitan region.

Stern's design for Fifteen Central Park West is comprised of two wings: The House (20 stories) and The Tower (43 stories) which connect at the base.
Renowned designer David Spon of Wine Cellar Concepts to create a $2 million wine cellar.

Residents can purchase their own private wine cellar for $80,000-$200,000 to house a bottle collection ranging from 900 to 4,000.

Construction of the building's concrete-framed superstructure began in August 2006 and construction was completed inlate 2007.

15 Central Park West is an icon added to the New York City skyline.

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