This impressive, pre-war, 12-story apartment building at 41 Central Park West on the northwest corner at 64th Street is a cooperative and has 85 apartments.

Like the Dakota, its famous neighbor eight blocks to the north on Central Park West, this building has its entrance on the sidestreet with a manned gatehouse. The Dakota has an arched entrance that leads to a large courtyard with entrances at each of its four corners. Harperley Hall has an open court in the shape of a "T" with three entrances along the top of the "T." While many buildings have deep "light courts" such as this, most are not as "finished" as the facades here facing the court.

The building is surrounded by an attractive and tall wrought-iron fence in front of a "moat." The building, which has sidewalk landscaping, has many wrought-iron balconies and one continuous balcony that curves round the building's Central Park West corner two floors down from its cornice. There are also numerous window surrounds with pilasters. The apartments have high ceilings and large windows.

The very handsome building is across 64th Street from the distinguished, low-rise building of the New York Society for Ethical Culture, which affords many of its apartments better views and more "light and air."

The building has four lantern stanchions but no health club. It has a garage for 11 cars and two lushly landscaped roof decks, one on each wing.

It is close to the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, and many restaurants and stores. It is very convenient to excellent bus service and subway stations are a few blocks away.

One of its residents for several years is Madonna, the rock diva.

The building was completed in 1910 and was designed by Henry W. Wilkinson.

A September 7, 2011 article by Andrew Keshner in The New York Law Journal said that New York State Supreme Court Justice Louis York ruled that Madonna's upstairs neighbor at her Central Park West building who complained about blaring music that shook her walls and floor can proceed with claims against the pop icon and against the cooperative building's board and manager.

"One of the most basic functions of a residence is to provide shelter from the outside world for its occupants to think, interact and relax in peace," the judge maintained, adding that "if the noise caused by Madonna's activities prevented Plaintiff from being able to use her apartment for these purposes, then the warranty of habitability has been breached," the article said.

Karen George had alleged that music coming from Madonna's apartment, which was used for dance training and exercise routines, was loud enough to force her to leave several times and greatly hampered her own entertaining, the article said, adding that "she claims that in June 2008 she alerted the board and management of 1 W. 64th St. in addition to Madonna's representatives, but no one took sufficient steps to fix the problem."

The article said that "Ms. George sued the board and Midboro Management for breach of the warranty of habitability, private nuisance, attorney's fees and injunctive relief that would have forced Madonna to comply with building rules preventing unreasonable noise. She also sued Madonna for nuisance and injunctive relief."

The defendants responded that the music was only played during the day, never longer than three hours and never at volumes prohibited by the city noise code, the article said, adding that "they argued Ms. George denied access to her apartment in September 2009 and other times, which made sound assessment impossible." "Ms. George said she did allow access, and any denials were made for good reason," the article said.

"Madonna submitted an affidavit this past March saying she no longer used the apartment to exercise or dance but constructed a studio in one of her other New York City properties. In June 2011, the parties stipulated that Ms. George would drop her injunctive relief claims. Justice York narrowed the claims in an Aug. 19 decision, but - noting a dispute about the music's volume - let Ms. George proceed with her nuisance allegation against Madonna and the breach of warranty allegation against the building defendants," the article said.

With the reasonableness of the sound in dispute, Justice York wrote, whether "the noise in question possessed such qualities as to violate the warranty of habitability is a question of fact which must be left for trial," the article said, adding that "Justice York said he was not convinced by the building defendants' arguments that they were protected by the business judgment rule or that Ms. George had unclean hands because she refused to grant access to her apartment for measurements."

The judge "did, however, remove the building defendants from the nuisance claim," the article said.