READ THIS: HOUSE OF OUTRAGEOUS FORTUNE Fifteen Central Park West, the World’s Most Powerful Address by Michael Gross Our Coverage Sponsored by Stribling and Associates
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The Michael Gross Hit Parade continues here! We're not sure another author has been featured every year since 2010 on Whom You Know in a book review: Michael Gross is and has proven to be in a class by himself ever since we read 740 Park and like a fine wine, his writing only keeps getting better as time goes on. The latest and greatest from the guy who does outrageously excellent research is another book a Manhattan building: House of Outrageous Fortune, otherwise known as 15 Central Park West. You're even going to learn the Roman Law of Condominium...He returns to the East Coast in this latest work; the last book we reviewed was an unprecedented history of Beverly Hills, and he spoke to us afterwards here. In House of Outrageous Fortune, Michael Gross crosses Fifth Avenue leaving Park Avenue behind him and walks down Central Park South bringing us to a wild walk on the westside.
Turning the pages of this book is like unwrapping a present of quality knowledge about the city that many of us reside in, and for those of you that don't live here, after you read
House of Outrageous Fortune you'll see many more reasons and facts on why Manhattan is in a class by itself, which is what Whom You Know has been saying all along. More than that,
Gross does not simply look at the building: he looks at the story behind it. In this case, part of the story is the rise of Donald Trump and we are still laughing at the acronym that didn't make it, thanks to his attorney. We were thrilled to see Elizabeth Stribling quoted right off the bat early in the book on page 13: "Suddenly, 'the idea that you need a fancy co-op to be socially acceptable is gone with the wind,' says Elizabeth Stribling, founder of an eponymous brokerage. 'New York has become much more of a moneyed town, and buildings are now being created for them. Money trumped the club.'" Later, Gross quotes Stribling on Onassis on page 86. We were also pleased to see Mover and Shaker Peter Pennoyer quoted on the opening page, and later Mover and Shaker Sara Blakely's purchase of an apartment (37A) in this majestic building designed by Robert A. M. Stern, whom we've met at New York Landmark Conservancy events.
We love how the real estate developer Zeckendorfs were committed to quality in building the "consummate residence of its era" (p. 175) in contrast to Goldman Sachs appetite for profit trumping all. We also commend them for their pride in doing it their way and not changing their style but rather deleting it for those that wanted customization. From a physical standpoint, the residence itself has elements that echo the best of the Upper East Side (see page 179), however, the philosophy of ownership at the House of Outrageous Fortune is the "concrete embodiment of the persistence of the American Dream." (p. 261).
Gross captures key quotes, and as he should, critically examines how the international economic decline came to be with seeds sewn during the Clinton Administration (page 249) "when it became public policy to encourage home ownership, and the financial industry did all it could to make that 'dream' come true."
You'll capture all the best lines to be heard at the next cocktail party you're at thanks to Gross's attention to detail, including the story of a onetime Indian trail called Bloomingdale Road which is not the yellow brick road to the department store you may think in Manhattan. You'll learn what the point is from which distances to and from Manhattan are measured...clue: it's steps away from 15 Central Park West. And did you know the first hedge fund was started way back in 1949? The colorful personalities that punctuate each page will regale you and the stories are priceless and Gross found them-we'd tell you but we want you to read it for yourselves. Though we did make it to the liquidation sale of the Plaza and the Surrey, we are sorry to learn we missed the one at the Mayflower...
Intriguing, historical, informative, enthralling. Outrageous? Absolutely. I found Michael Gross’s latest oeuvre to be all of the above, and therefore, a must-read. I am an admirer of decorative prewar limestone edifices and enjoyed reading about the history that led to its reincarnation by famed architect Robert A.M. Stern as the obvious building material for 15 Central Park West. Fifteen Central Park West, as you will learn from this well researched book, is the culmination of decades and generations of real estate knowledge, civic planning, foresight and hubris that merged at the location of Central Park West and Columbus Circle. Originally farms and forest occupied Manhattan until city planning began in earnest with the establishment of the grid pattern of Manhattan by the city commission in 1811. The East Side attracted the wealthy, whereas the West Side, the upper middle class. Apartment hotels such as the Dakota and Beresford were developed to fill a need for private homes without the cost, with their central housekeeping and dining facilities. Central Park West enjoyed 1920’s magnificence with buildings by Emery Roth and others. Then stock the market crashed. Gross chronicles the course of the city’s economy and the role of the real estate titans, including Trump, Zeckendorf, Brown Harris Stevens and Bing and Bing to name a few names, over the ensuing decades. The 1907’s tested the survival of the city, which rebounded in the 1980’s. Hedge funds profits and salaries soared. Goldman Sachs thrived. Money arrived in New York often from international sources, not earned by the traditional Upper East Side co-op Board candidates. The stage was set for the curtain to rise at the corner of Columbus Circle and Central Park West.
However, lest you think this book is all about bricks and mortar, I am pleased to report it is also a gripping chronicle of those who chose to call Fifteen home. Gross also provides us with some gossip tidbits such as how Kelsey Grammer’s then wife discovered the other woman courtesy of a staff member’s faux pas. I was uplifted by the last section of the book detailing how several families immigrated to the United States with nothing in their pockets and through hard work and persistence purchased their condominium dreams. They bought homes in a building with a private dining room, screening room, health club with a pool whose temperature was the source of controversy, and called Lloyd Blankfien, Sting, Sandy Weill, and Denzel Washington “neighbor”. I will not give away the ending, which was not a surprise to this New Yorker who would have done the exact same thing, if only.
Where to invest in New York City real estate? According to Michael Gross, there’s only one address you need to know: 15 Central Park West. In his new tell-all real estate book, “House of Outrageous Fortune”, Mr. Gross waltzes us around the highs, lows and backstreet gossip of this Tower of Power. Coveted by the rich and richer, inhabited by the mighty few, 15 Central Park West houses some of the best known names in Hollywood. As well as their bosses. From the original developers, the Zeckendorfs, to the un-shy celebrities who share its hallowed halls, names are readily bandied about like table tennis balls in play. Mr. Gross leaves no stone unturned as he outlines the historical and current factual tidbits about the backstory of this building. Calling out the spirits of the long dead-those who helped establish the boundaries of Manhattan neighborhoods- “House of Outrageous Fortune” cracks the ice of snobbish secrecy. Dishing the dirt about the how,why and where coincides delightfully with the who and when of an iconic building where only the elite dare set foot. Published by Atria Books, “Outrageous Fortune” delineates just that : the .01% reality. In a market well known to Mr. Gross (just read some of his previous books for juicy backstories about other establishments in NYC), 15 Central Park West may well be Mecca. Read about it, dream about it, let it be your shining star in real estate heaven. With a balanced sense of humor and an eye to the precise, Mr. Gross’ book will entertain and provide untold bits for your next cocktail party.
In today's society, there are, as always, the "have-s" and the "have-not-s." However, over a span of the last 20 years or so, a new class has arisen - the "have so much, it's simply unfathomable-s," and nothing signifies the age of the über-rich quite as well as Fifteen Central Park West. And nobody chronicles the story of Fifteen Central Park West and its exquisitely wealthy inhabitants as well as author Michael Gross. Critically acclaimed for his previous book about another famous piece of real estate, 740 Park, Gross takes an unprecedented look behind the scenes of one of the most coveted addresses in the world. To put Fifteen CPW in the proper context, Gross gives a thorough history of real-estate development in New York City, including the shift from the established East Side co-ops (restricted to "old money") to the more welcoming condominiums, which not only accept the noveau-riche, but celebrate them. The groundwork for Fifteen Central Park West was laid by Donald Trump and the Time Warner Center, which made the formerly undesirable location of Columbus Circle a popular destination for New Yorkers and tourists alike. Suddenly, the area had finally come into its own, and the time was ripe for the most luxurious of luxury buildings to arise. In the writing of House of Outrageous Fortune, Mr. Gross had first-hand access to the heads of the legendary Zeckendorf real estate dynasty (the developers of the property), as well as their financial backers, giving him amazing insight into the building itself and the story behind it. Full of mind-boggling facts and figures (the condos sell for HOW much per square foot?!), as well as inside stories about some of the famous people who live or have lived there (Sting, Alex Rodriguez, Denzel Washington, Jeff Gordon, hedge fund head Daniel Loeb, executives from the Google, Yahoo, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, and more), Fifteen Central Park West is an engaging and entertaining read, for New Yorkers and non-New Yorkers alike.
Michael Gross, you wear out our green highlighter and we are glad for it. Nobody does research better, and note to publishers: you ought to pony up-he deserves super-sized compensation for this quality.
There's only one Michael Gross, and House of Outrageous Fortune has earned our Highest Recommendation.
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Previous coverage of Michael Gross on Whom You Know:
In New York, a city obsessed with real estate, no building has gained the jaw-dropping celebrity of Fifteen Central Park West. “Fifteen Central Park West is more than an apartment building,” writes Michael Gross at the start of his penetrating new chronicle, HOUSE OF OUTRAGEOUS FORTUNE: Fifteen Central Park West, the World’s Most Powerful Address (Atria; March 11, 2014; $28.00). “It is the most outrageously successful, insanely expensive, titanically tycoon-stuffed real estate development of the 21st century.” What’s more, he adds, “Fifteen represents a massive paradigm shift in the lifestyle of New York’s rich and famous.”
With dazzling detail and Gross’ trademark gimlet eye, HOUSE OF OUTRAGEOUS FORTUNE relates the colorful and convoluted story of not only Fifteen’s inspired genesis and costly construction, but the flashy lifestyle it has engendered in a once moribund Manhattan neighborhood. Gross, who has been called America’s “foremost chronicler of the upper-crust”(curbed.com), has enjoyed unprecedented access to the people behind this already legendary building, including the scions of the fabled Zeckendorf real estate dynasty, and their financial backers, Goldman Sachs, and an Israeli billionaire, as well as those who live there—or wanted to. As he reports on big money, massive-ego power plays over the creation and occupancy of New York’s most desirable address, Gross identifies Fifteen as a bellwether of the city’s changing social landscape.
“The clash of titans was the first indication that 15CPW would become an apartment building like no other, a new colossus both literally and figuratively, a status signifier nonpareil, and a towering symbol of its time,” Gross writes. “It was a sign of a generational shift in the makeup of the 0.1 percent who dance on the head of the pin of American wealth, evidence of the torch passing from the aging financial lions of the mid-20th century to the brash new 21st- century crop of cats.” As Gross explains, the astonishing sums spent on apartments show how much wealthier today’s wealthy have become. The range of buyers, who hail from around the globe, are evidence of the new mobility of great wealth. And the source of those buyers’ wealth spotlights the new economic sectors that have generated the new new money.
Gross frames this story of contemporary excess with a historical overview of prime residential real estate in New York, examining how the seismic shift from co-ops, whose exclusive boards keep out “undesirable” residents, to more freely inclusive condominiums beginning in the 1970s, meant the newly wealthy, including foreigners and ethnic Americans, could lay claim to their own piece of the luxurious rock that is Manhattan. He also provides a history of the long-beleaguered area surrounding Columbus Circle, which remained unfashionable for decades until Donald Trump and Time Warner put it back on the map, paving the way for Fifteen Central Park West.
Denzel Washington, Sting, Alex Rodriquez, NASCAR’s Jeff Gordon, hedge fund runner Daniel Loeb, as well as Russian oligarchs, and the top executives from Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, Lehman Brothers, Google, and Yahoo! all bought apartments in Fifteen Central Park West, which boasts two concierge staffed-lobbies, a walnut-lined library, a screening room, a sixty-seat dining room with a private chef offering room service, and a subterranean health club complete with a seventy-foot swimming pool. The building’s classic beauty, sprawling apartments and extraordinary amenities redefine our vision of what it means to be unimaginably rich.
HOUSE OF OUTRAGEOUS FORTUNE is, “Both an incisive social commentary on our modern Gilded Age and an irresistible peek behind the walls of 15 Central Park West, otherwise known as ‘Limestone Jesus,’” says Karen Abbot, author of Sin in the Second City and American Rose. “With characteristic audacity and wit, Michael Gross has deftly chronicled the immense egos (and bank accounts) of the nouveau riche who reside at Manhattan's most coveted address.”
About the Author
Michael Gross is the author of Unreal Estate, Rogues’ Gallery, 740 Park, and Model: The Ugly Business of Beautiful Women. A contributing editor of Travel + Leisure, he created the blog Gripepad and has written for Vanity Fair, Esquire, GQ, New York, The New York Times, The Daily Beast/Newsweek, Huffington Post, and other publications. He is the Real Estate Editor of Avenue and a regular columnist for the New York Post’s quarterly luxury real estate supplement.
House of Outrageous Fortune: Fifteen Central Park West, the World’s Most Powerful Address
Michael Gross
ISBN: 9781451666199
416 Pages
