Elegant Apartment at New York’s San Remo Counts Bono as a Neighbor

Central Park West is a special Manhattan address, studded with some of the city’s great classic apartment buildings (the Dakota, the Beresford, El Dorado, the Century among them) and august churches and synagogues, as well as the New-York Historical Society and the American Museum of Natural History. All are opposite Central Park.

Perhaps the most often pictured building along Central Park West is the San Remo, designed in 1930 by vaunted architect Emery Roth and known for its Renaissance-styled, twin pinnacles. Like the other apartment houses and buildings along CPW, the San Remo commands beautiful views across Central Park. It’s no surprise, then, that the tony building has been to home to many household names, including Rita Hayworth, Steven Spielberg, Steve Martin, Barry Manilow, Tiger Woods, Bruce Willis and Demi Moore, Mick Jagger, Dustin Hoffman, and the list goes on. Today, Bono and wife Alison own a duplex penthouse that was once owned by Apple visionary Steve Jobs.

There are currently about half a dozen apartments available at the San Remo, which converted from a rental building to a co-operative apartment house in 1970. One of them, a seven-room spread on the eighth floor, owned by a film editor and a pharma executive, is listed at $7.5 million with Catherine Harding at Compass. Decorated beautifully enough for any rockstar, the 3,000-square-foot unit includes three bedrooms and three bathrooms, plus a small office off the dining room.

Colorfully appointed interiors make the best of old and new, with plenty of intact prewar details, glossy dark-brown hardwood floors, and high ceilings embellished with stacked moldings. The entrance gallery features pea-green walls set off with striking contemporary lighting and vintage modern furniture, the living room sports rich, plum-colored lacquered-walls and a simple modern fireplace, and the spacious family/dining room is done in terra cotta, with eclectic furniture and some folk art on the wall. Open to the dining/family room through a wide doorway, the kitchen features acres of marble counters, white lacquered cabinets edged with stainless steel for a contemporary touch. The kitchen also offers a pantry closet and a laundry room.

Two guest bedrooms are good-sized, each with an ensuite bathroom dressed up with mosaic tile on the floor, while the corner primary bedroom incorporates a dressing area with an original stained-glass window and a marble bathroom with an oversized walk-in shower. Plenty of custom cabinetry ensures that the most ardent fashionista has room for their designer wardrobe.

Famous and not-famous residents of the San Remo enjoy the celebrity lifestyle, with full-time doorman and concierge services, a live-in super, a modern fitness center, a bike room, and a private landscaped courtyard garden. Plus, all of Central Park is just across the street. All in all, there are few finer addresses in all of Manhattan. Just don’t tell Bono when you ride the elevator with him that U2’s last few albums have been duds!