Financial institutions, law firms and luxurious hotels are what this area is all about. Located between 5th and 3rd Avenue and roughly between 40th and 60th street Midtown east is primarily a business district. During regular working hours on weekdays it is one of the busiest parts of the city where businessmen and women as well as tourists walk the streets tirelessly and endlessly. Among the many attractions here are: the famous Rockefeller Center, the Saint Patrick Cathedral and the fabulous and newly renovated Grand Central Terminal.

However, besides busy and somewhat noisy streets Midtown also has parts, which are more residential. Towards its northern part, in the vicinity of Central Park there are a number of magnificent luxury towers, which stand tall above the park offering breathtaking views. The most impressive- the jewel of the area is the Trump Tower. Located directly on Fifth Avenue the building is the office and home of the New York real estate magnate Donald Trump who resides on the top floors of the tower he himself built. Most residents who decide to live in the area usually work around midtown as well. They like the convenience of walking to work and having the 850acre park right on their front step. The area from 55th street and up has some of the best and most exotic restaurants the city has to offer. Among the more known are The Russian Tea Room and the Tratoria. The luxury comes at a price of course. Since many residents are known public figures, celebrities, and other wealthy individuals, the rents and sales prices are among the highest in the city. But if you can afford it, there are few other places that will provide you with proximity to work, best restaurants, and an escape in the city quote s biggest park all within walking distance.

One more aspect that makes the area even more attractive is the exclusive shopping that 5th Avenue offers. Gucci, Armani, Versace and Tiffany’s are just some of the designers who offer their products to the very selective crowd who comes to shop there.

If you ever need to venture to other parts of the city (not that you would need to) transportation is excellent with 6 different subway lines and the Grand Central Terminal within a five minute walk from anywhere in the area.

The heart of the city, this area has it all: great architecture, great corporate monuments, great transportation, great restaurants, great stores, great hotels, the United Nations, great religious institutions, and even a few parks. Despite such assets, however, it is not widely considered as the ultimate residential address but those who live here and thrive on its convenience scoff at those who yearn for the chic of the Upper East Side, the zest of the Upper West Side, the wildness of the West Midtown district, the sedateness of the Murray Hill District, the wackiness of Greenwich Village and the inconvenience of "downtown" enclaves.

Eat your hearts out, they probably say, from their perches high up in Trump Tower designed by Der Scutt and Swanke, Hayden & Connell, Olympic Tower, designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, the Ritz Tower, designed by Emery Roth, 500 Park Avenue Tower, designed by James Stewart Polshek & Partners and Schuman, Lichtenstein, Claman & Efron, and the Galleria, designed by David Kenneth Specter, some of the city’s most celebrated and expensive high-rise, mixed-use towers.

Sure, Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s are fine, but we’ve got Saks Fifth Avenue, designed by Starrett & Van Vleck, Brooks Bros., and Paul Stuart to dress us up.

Elaine’s, Sardi’s, "21," Shun Lee West, Provence, Les Pleiades and Canton are fine, they might murmur about restaurants elsewhere, but we’ve got Le Cirque 2000, P. J. Clarke’s, the Four Seasons and the Oyster Bar. The World Financial Center, the Woolworth Building, the San Remo and Beresford apartments, the Washington Square Arch, and the Empire State building are impressive, speaking of great structures, but we’ve got the Chrysler Building, Seagram Building, designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe with Philip Johnson, Lever House, designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, the Helmsley Building and Grand Central Terminal, both designed by Warren & Wetmore, the United Nations Secretariat Building, designed by international team headed by Wallace Harrison the Ford Foundation Building, designed by Kevin Roche John Dinkeloo & Associates, Citicorp Center, designed by Hugh Stubbins & Associates, the Lipstick Building, designed by Philip Johnson and John Burgee, the former IBM Building, designed by Edward Larrabee Barnes & Associates, on the southwest corner of Madison Avenue and 57th Street, the Sony Building (formerly the A.T.&T. Building), designed by Philip Johnson and John Burgee, on Madison Avenue between 55th and 56th Streets, and, yes, the MetLife Building, designed by Walter Gropius, Pietro Belluschi and Emery Roth & Sons.

St. John the Divine Cathedral and Riverside Church are divine as are Temple Emanu-El and Grace Church and Trinity Church, but, hey, they say devoutly, we’ve got St. Patrick’s Roman Catholic Cathedral, designed by James Renwick Jr., and William Rodrigue, on Fifth Avenue, St. Bartholomew’s Episcopal Church, designed by Bertram G. Goodhue, on Park Avenue, St. Peter’s Church, designed by Hugh Stubbins & Associates, at Citicorp Center and the Central Synagogue, designed by Henry Fernbach on Lexington Avenue at 55th Street. The Plaza Hotel, Alquonquin Hotel and the Chelsea Hotel are truly quaint and the Carlyle and the Stanhope Hotel are nice, but our guests stay at the Four Seasons, designed by I. M. Pei & Partners, the Waldorf Astoria, designed by Schultze & Weaver, and the St. Regis, designed by Trowbridge & Livingston, in great style.

The New York Yacht, University, Union and Metropolitan Clubs are very fine, but only the Racquet & Tennis Club, designed by McKim, Mead & White, on Park Avenue between 53rd and 54th Street has a court tennis facility.

What don’t we have? We don’t have...the theater district and the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, or even cineplexes, although there are a few movie theaters.

Residents here argue, of course, that they are only a stone’s throw or so from great entertainment complexes, adding, a bit meekly, that they do have the Warner Bros. Studio Store and the Disney Store on Fifth Avenue.

Nobody, and nowhere, is perfect, of course, but this area is pretty darn good as far as convenience and ambiance.

There are many New Yorkers who would give a lot, really a lot, to own one of the townhouses that share the large communal garden Turtle Bay Gardens between Third and Second Avenues and 48th and 49th Streets. Residents there have the best of low-rise living with the glamour of high-rise surroundings, they argue convincingly. Perhaps most importantly, this area has the Urban Center Bookstore in the north wing of the landmark townhouses designed by McKim, Mead & White at the New York Palace Hotel on Madison Avenue between 50th and 51st Streets, the city’s best resource for information on architecture and buildings.

There are many other important landmarks in this area including 570 Lexington Avenue, originally the RCA Victor Building, designed by Cross & Cross, the New York Marriott Marquis Hotel on Lexington Avenue that was formerly the Shelton Hotel, designed by Arthur Loomis Harmon, the Fuller Building, designed by Walker & Gillette, on the northeast corner of Madison Avenue and 57th Street, the United Nations Plaza mixed-use complex on First Avenue, designed by Kevin Roche John Dinkeloo & Associates, across from the United Nations, Tudor City and the Fred F. French office building on Fifth Avenue both developed by Fred F. French, and the former Charles Scribner’s Sons Building, designed by Ernest Flagg, on Fifth Avenue.

The Grand Central Terminal area has lost some of its cohesiveness as Donald Trump stripped the masonry off the former Commodore Hotel on 42nd Street to convert into a Hyatt Hotel and the Milstein Organization stripped the masonry off the former Biltmore Hotel on Madison Avenue to convert into a deep red polished granite office building. Both formerly buildings were part of the "Terminal City" complex designed to complement the architecture of the terminal and should have been declared landmarks, but were not. The city won a celebrated landmarks controversy when the U.S. Supreme Court upheld its landmark designation of the terminal and the city’s denial of permission to transfer all the terminal’s unused development rights to one nearby site, for which Kohn Pedersen Fox, the architectural firm, had designed a spectacular building on Madison Avenue bigger than the Chrysler Building.

Another major landmarks controversy involved the denial of approval by the city for a proposed office tower in the south garden on Park Avenue of St. Bartholomew’s Episcopal Church, which several years afterward opened up an outdoor café on the site in pleasant weather, a nice amenity for Park Avenue but not one that will meet the church’s economic needs as indicated by its former leadership.

Both landmark cases were praised by many civic groups for reaffirming and strengthening the city’s right to make landmark designations, but some observers have cautioned that the rulings were much narrowing and that the issue of "taking" - the public confiscation of private property for public use without compensation - has not yet really been resolved.

The 1990’s, of course, were a time of political correctness and the courts are not always insensitive to political trends and may at some point revert to more consistent interpretations. In the meantime, the church’s café is very nice for everybody and Madison Avenue site is finally being redeveloped on a much smaller scale by a different developer. The two landmark issues were viewed as major citywide concerns by most civic groups and other important design issues have not attracted as much attention, a reflection perhaps that the residents of this area are not as vocal and organized as in some other communities. The decision of IBM to abandon its fine building, but more importantly to close its great art gallery that was perhaps the finest museum space in the city with a very impressive exhibition track record was not protested by many citizens, nor stockholders. Similarly, the city’s granting of permission to Sony to enclose public spaces for its own showrooms in the former A.T.&T. building was perhaps the most egregious violation of the spirit of zoning in recent decades but raised hardly a whimper in the civic activist crowd.

The demolition of the Third Avenue "El" in the mid-1950’s eventually led to the redevelopment of Third Avenue and a great deal of the area to the east. Third Avenue, thanks in large part to the daring urban design incentives of the William Kaufman Organization, builders of 747, 767 and 777 Third Avenue among many other office buildings, is quite interesting now and could be said to have a sense of humor, something that is usually quite scarce in architecture. Although a fair number of "white-brick" apartment towers sprouted in the area, the last quarter of the 20th Century witnessed a generally improved appreciation of good design. Some of the better apartment towers in the area that resulted were Dag Hammarskjold Tower at the southeast corner of Second Avenue and 47th Street, designed by Raymond & Rado, the Cosmopolitan at 145 East 48th Street, designed by Gruzen Samton Steinglass.

Second Avenue is usually congested with traffic heading for the Queens-Midtown Tunnel and Third and First Avenues are usually congested with traffic heading for the Queens-Midtown Tunnel and Fifth and Madison Avenues are congested with commuter buses and tourists.

More parks are needed, but improbable given land values. Thankfully, however, the Grand Central Business Improvement District has shown great civic leadership and has vastly improved much of the area with very attractive street furniture and signage, undoing years of incompetence and neglect by many city administrations.