In the recent past, Manhattan’s Upper West Side has seen a decline in residential desirability. Changing tastes and a new crop of rich young buyers are mostly to blame — those buyers couldn’t see the appeal of creaking brownstone stairs that alerted residents to their neighbors’ comings and goings, or didn’t value the elegant but decidedly outdated pre-war apartment houses without many contemporary amenities. Instead, loads of buyers and renters turned to downtown NYC, in favor of luxury units in amenity-rich high rises. However, there are a swanky handful of new (or newly renovated) buildings shaking real estate things up and bringing the Upper West Side back to its desirability of yore.
With pretty, tree-lined streets and well-preserved pre-war architecture, the Upper West Side has a well deserved reputation for intellectual bohemianism, high culture and social credibility. An Upper West Side address often signifies at least a modicum of wealth and the neighborhood sports a myriad of great attributes that contribute to a cosmopolitan lifestyle — swathes of green spaces including Central and Riverside Parks, Columbia University, world-class museums and historic brownstones a-plenty. While the neighborhood is also saddled with a less flattering reputation for high-nosed stuffiness — not to mention it can be desolate on summer weekends as many of its residents head for the Hamptons — if you want to live life in Manhattan at a slightly subdued pace, the Upper West Side very well could be for you.
Have a look at five buildings bringing modern-day luxury to the Upper West Side. A warning: contemporary elegance in classy Manhattan surroundings comes at a shockingly steep price.
