15 Central Park West

also 2 West 62nd Street, 1 West 61st Street | Lincoln Square | built 2005

Open on the map15 entries

Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.

  1. 1898

    Composer Vincent Youmans is born on the site where the Mayflower will rise

    Vincent Youmans, who goes on to write the songs of the musical No, No, Nanette, including Tea for Two, is born in 1898 on the site later covered by the Mayflower Hotel. A plaque recording the birth was fixed to the hotel's facade, and a Times writer called it the most notable event in the site's history, since it happened before the hotel existed.

    Source: Internet Archive

  2. 1926

    The Mayflower-Plymouth hotel opens on Central Park West, designed by Emery Roth

    The east half of this block was first occupied by the Mayflower, an 18-story, 365-room hotel in the Neo-Renaissance style designed by Emery Roth. It opened in 1926 as the Mayflower-Plymouth. The wealthy Goulandris family of Greece acquired it and the other buildings on the block between 1973 and 1978, and its ornate terracotta trim was removed in 1982.

    Source: Wikipedia

  3. 1964

    Arthur MacArthur IV, General Douglas MacArthur's son, moves into the Mayflower and lives there in near-total anonymity

    Arthur MacArthur IV, the only son of General Douglas MacArthur, lived at the Mayflower Hotel from 1964 in near-total anonymity. When developers bought the building in 2004 he was one of four long-term residents of rent-regulated apartments, all there at least 30 years, who had to be persuaded to leave.

    Source: Wikipedia

  4. 1979

    August

    The Bolshoi Ballet is staying at the Mayflower when dancer Alexander Godunov defects

    The Bolshoi Ballet troupe is lodged at the Mayflower Hotel in August 1979 when Alexander Godunov, one of its leading dancers, defects to the United States. The Times later counted the episode among the hotel's few distinctions. Guidebooks from 1964 to 1983 had praised it mainly as a comfortable, unpretentious place beside the park.

    Source: Internet Archive

  5. 1982

    The Mayflower's terra-cotta pediments, cherubs and swags are knocked off its facade

    In 1982 the Mayflower loses the neoclassical ornament that gave it character. Terra-cotta pediments, pilasters, cherubim and swags are knocked off the facade and the surface is patched over. By 2004 a New York Times writer treats the hotel as a plain background building of the kind Emery Roth designed along Central Park West.

    Source: Internet Archive

  6. 2004

    Zeckendorf's group buys the Mayflower and the empty lot beside it for $401 million

    In 2004 the Mayflower and an empty lot stretching to Broadway sell for $401 million to a group of William Lie Zeckendorf and Arthur Zeckendorf, Goldman Sachs's Whitehall real estate fund and an investment company controlled by Eyal Ofer. The buyers say nothing about their plans, though the firm of Cesar Pelli had worked on earlier schemes for the site.

    Source: Internet Archive

  7. 2004

    Hundreds of bargain hunters pick over the closed Mayflower's chandeliers, pedestal sinks and baby grand

    After the guest rooms close in October 2004, hundreds of bargain hunters roam the hotel as its furnishings are sold off. Televisions sit stacked by the dozen in the Conservatory restaurant, and more than thirty pedestal sinks fill the lobby where the front desk stood. Buyers can take cut-glass chandeliers, bronze mail-chute boxes with eagles, a Yamaha baby grand for $6,500, or the kitchen's swinging doors for $40 a pair.

    Source: Internet Archive

  8. 2005

    The last Mayflower tenant, Herbert Sukenik, holds out through demolition and walks away with $17 million

    Herbert Sukenik, a Ph.D. and longtime Mayflower resident, refused to leave even after demolition of the hotel began. According to Michael Gross's book on the building, the Zeckendorfs finally paid him $17 million and housed him in an Essex House condominium for $1 a month.

    Source: nymag.com

  9. 2005

    August

    The Zeckendorfs pick Robert A.M. Stern's limestone design after most architects pitch glass slabs

    The Zeckendorfs invite six architecture firms to propose a building, and most offer modern glass slabs. They choose Robert A.M. Stern Architects with SLCE Architects, whose scheme has two limestone towers of different heights. Stern later says he drew every detail by hand, without computers, and the plans are shown to the community in August 2005.

    “…the Zeckendorfs selected a proposal by Robert A.M. Stern Architects and SLCE Architects, which called for two limestone towers of different height…”

    Source: Wikipedia

  10. 2006

    June

    Sales pass $1 billion after Denzel Washington buys in, and the developers throw a party

    By June 2006, nine months into sales, condo contracts at 15 Central Park West topped $1 billion once Denzel Washington bought a unit, and the developers marked it with a "Billion-Dollar Bash." Buyers announced in the press included Sting, Bob Costas, Jeff Gordon, Norman Lear and bankers Lloyd Blankfein and Sanford Weill.

    Source: Wikipedia

  11. 2006

    October

    Best Buy leases half of the retail podium on Broadway for $75 million

    In October 2006 the electronics chain Best Buy leases about half of the building's retail base for $75 million, one of Manhattan's largest real estate deals of the year. The shops on Broadway sit below the tower's amenity floors, with double-height storefronts that zoning rules required.

    Source: Wikipedia

  12. 2007

    August

    Paul Goldberger finds Robert A.M. Stern's limestone pastiche seductive

    Reviewing 15 Central Park West for The New Yorker in 2007, Paul Goldberger described a full block of limestone, about 85,000 pieces, split into a 20-story House and a 35-story Tower topped with a loggia modeled on Rosario Candela's 1040 Fifth Avenue. He called the building deeply seductive and suggested its conservatism may explain why it became the most financially successful apartment building in New York's history.

    Source: The New Yorker

  13. 2007

    Daniel Och's $45 million penthouse briefly becomes the most expensive apartment in the city

    Hedge fund manager Daniel Och buys a penthouse for $45 million, making it the most expensive apartment in New York at the time, as the building opens in August 2007. The record is quickly beaten by an apartment at the Plaza Hotel. The sale is one of many in a building where, by mid-2006, about 150 units had already sold.

    “The building contained the city's most expensive apartment at the time, a $45 million penthouse owned by hedge fund manager Daniel Och…”

    Source: Wikipedia

  14. 2011

    December

    Dmitry Rybolovlev is revealed as the buyer of Sandy Weill's $88 million penthouse

    In December 2011 The Observer reported that the Russian fertilizer magnate Dmitry Rybolovlev was the mystery buyer of Sanford Weill's penthouse at 15 Central Park West for $88 million, the most expensive home sale in Manhattan history at that time. Developer William Lie Zeckendorf had sold another penthouse for $40 million the previous December.

    Source: observer.com

  15. 2023

    Best Buy closes its store in the podium, leaving the building's retail space in doubt

    Best Buy closes its store in the retail base in early 2023, which puts the retail portion of the building at risk of foreclosure. The retailer had leased about half of the podium in 2006.

    “Best Buy closed its store within the building's retail podium in early 2023…”

    Source: Wikipedia

Further reading

Nearby

All 48 buildings with stories in Lincoln Square