PART II NOVEL COMING SOON!
UN PLAZA POINTS OF INTEREST!
MORE ON UN PLAZA HISTORY AND WHO LIVED THERE AND WHAT THEY THOUGHT!
JOANNA CARSON IN TIME MAGAZINE ON LIVIN' AT THE UN PLAZA
People Who Live in Glass Houses
Posted Friday, Apr. 25, 1969
"The United Nations Plaza is a building of high achievers," says Joanne Carson. "People who live here are not climbing. They have arrived." The building is United Nations Plaza, a 32-story cooperative apartment complex that hovers above Manhattan and the East River, across the way from U.N. headquarters. The "high achievers" certainly include Joanne's husband Johnny, along with Author Truman Capote, TV Producer David Susskind, Actor Cliff Robertson, Dress Designer Bonnie Cashin and assorted corporation executives. Robert F. Kennedy had a six-room terrace on the 14th floor. Secretary of State William Rogers' one regret about his duties in Washington is that they keep him away from his six-room suite in U.N. Plaza. "Gee, how I miss that apartment," he says.
As well he might. For 336 families who can afford the price of admission, the U.N. Plaza's twin towers offer the best views in Manhattan. From behind its huge windows (when the wind blows the smog away), residents of "the Compound," as they affectionately call it, can see north to Westchester County, south to New York Harbor and the open ocean beyond, east to Kennedy Airport, and west to the New Jersey Palisades.
Prices range from $75,000 for a one-bedroom apartment up to $275,000 for a nine-room duplexplus maintenance charges of as much as $2,000 a month. A U.N. Plaza apartment can be a profitable investment; a three-bedroom suite that cost $65,000 in 1966 was sold two years later for $155,000a profit of 140%.
Services provided for residents are spectacular. Valets, seamstresses, luggage handlers and caterers are on call, and six uniformed security guards patrol the building's hallways and entrances to keep away thieves and party crashers. Tom Shelley, the day desk captain in the cavernous, cathedral-like main lobby, has been described as "a college housemother" and "the equal of the concierge at the Ritz"; he forwards mail and halts newspaper deliveries for absent tenants, and he knows where to rustle up a singing waiter on short notice.
For residents who have their own live-in maids, the seventh floor of each tower is mostly devoted to servants' quarters. There is also a bank, a brokerage house, a playground, a restaurant, doctors', dentists' and lawyers' offices. "It's your own private little Utopia," sighs Joanne Carson. Truman Capote says: "My theory is that you can stay in this building and never leave it. You can go from one dinner to another for a month without duplicating."
Raspberry Tart. Money is the main tie that binds U.N. Plaza residents. Considering the variety of their taste in decor, it seems to be the only tie. An exporter and his wife inhabit an eight-room West Tower penthouse whose walls are completely covered with dark green Vermont marblegiving their apartment a curiously tomblike atmosphere. Capote's apartment features a red-on-red dining room ("Like a hot raspberry tart," he says), and a prominently displayed pink china jar labeled "Opium," which was a housewarming gift from Jacqueline Kennedy.
Leslie Siegel once lived at:
860 UN Plaza
Apt. 23E (Once occupied by Price Albert of Monaco)
New York, NY 10017
860 United Nations Plaza, located between First Avenue & East River Drive
To obtain pricing information for 860 United Nations Plaza, please call us at 212-755-5544.
This twin-towered, 38-story apartment and office complex commands impressive views of the United Nations to the south, midtown to the west and the East River to the east.
The six-story base of the large development contains about 300,000 square feet of office space and the cooperative apartments share an expansive, corporate-style lobby overlooking an enclosed garden court.
The full-block project has its own block-long driveway that makes for an impressive entrance. It was designed by Harrison, Abramovitz & Harris and erected in 1966.
The towers are huge and a bit ungainly and the apartments are notable mostly for their large and tall windows and views. The tower facades are in the Miesian tradition of crisp rectilinearity and are reminiscent of, but inferior to, the Seagram Building and the former Union Carbide Building, both on Park Avenue.
For more information about buying an apartment in 860 United Nations Plaza, please call us at 212-755-5544, or contact us by email
WHAT IS 860 UN PLAZA NEW YORK, NY 10017
Cooperative
Built in 1966
Located in Turtle Bay/United Nations
167 Apartments
39 Floors
50% Down
36% tax deductible
Full-time Doorman
Full Service Garage
Health Club
Elevator
Wonderful views
Large, impressive lobby
Proximity to United Nations and its gardens
Doorman
Garage
MORE ABOUT WHERE THE OSBERG KIDS LIVED AT THE UN PLAZA; UNITED NATIONS PLAZA A