Manhattan House, Once Grace Kelly’s Home, Gets Landmark Status
NEW YORK (AP) — Manhattan House, the mammoth white-brick complex that attracted notable residents such as Grace Kelly and Benny Goodman, was awarded landmark status Tuesday.
The complex, comprised of 10 21-story structures built between 1949 and 1951, occupies an entire block, bounded by East 65th and 66th streets and Second and Third avenues.
The buildings made white brick a fashionable building material and popularized balconies in residential high rises after World War II, landmark officials said.
“Manhattan House set a new standard for apartment construction in New York City and gave modernism a strong foothold here,” Landmarks Preservation Commission Chairman Robert B. Tierney said in a statement. “Although Manhattan House inspired many new architectural imitators, very few came close to what it achieved.”
The New York Life Insurance Company commissioned the firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill to design Manhattan House, which also features large picture windows, glass-fronted balconies and landscaped gardens.
Grace Kelly, who become Princess Grace of Monaco, lived at Manhattan House briefly as she pursued an acting career in the early 1950s. Jazz clarinetist Benny Goodman also lived there, dying in his apartment in 1986. Former Gov. Hugh Carey had an apartment there as well.
More recently, the building, which is owned by developer Jeremiah O’Connor, has generated controversy over plans to convert the more than 500 apartments to condominiums. The owner will now need the commission’s approval for most exterior changes, officials said.
The commission also gave landmark status to the Lord & Taylor building on Fifth Avenue, a 10-story Italian renaissance revival structure housing one of the city’s oldest department stores.
The gray brick-faced building was designed by the architecture firm of Starrett & Van Vleck and completed in 1914. The store’s windows are a favorite during the holidays.
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