The last resident of the fabled Carnegie Hall Towers studios are about to move out, according to an article yesterday by Verena Dobnik at huffingtonpost.com.

The article said that Elizabeth Sargent, "a one-time dancer noted for her bold sexual poetry, is now in her 80s and in remission from cancer" and "has until August 31 to clear out" of the ninth floor apartment she has lived in for 40 years.

"All of her neighbors are gone, forced out...[of the affordable studios that for more than a century housed some of America's most brilliant creative artists," the article maintained.

"Musicians, painters, dancers and actors thrived in the two towers built by 19th-century industrialist Andrew Carnegie just after the hall went up in 1891. The towers - one 12 stories high, the other 16 - housed more than 100 studios, some with special skylights installed to give painters the northern light they prize. Over the years, Marilyn Monroe, Grace Kelly and Robert Redford took acting lessons here and Lucille Ball had voice coaching. James Dean studied scripts and Leonard Bernstein, music. Women once lined up on the street to visit an alluring resident - the young Marlon Brando. His studio space on the eighth floor was demolished in early July," according to the article.

Editta Sherman, a 98-year-old photographer, had a studio that's still filled with portraits of Hollywood and Broadway stars. She's not been allowed to sleep there since early July and must also remove her belongings by Aug. 31.

She and Ms. Sargent recently signed agreements with Carnegie in exchange for new midtown Manhattan apartments where rents will be subsidized by Carnegie for the rest of their lives, the article said.

The building is undergoing a $200 million renovation that will create administrative offices for the Carnegie Hall Corporation and a youth music program named after Sanford "Sandy" Weill, the former chairman and CEO of Citigroup.

When Carnegie Hall announced the project in May 2007, 18 studios were occupied and dozens of other artists rented teaching space.

According to the Associated Press, the cast-iron staircases and some original walls in the "towers" will survive, but "What's left inside is just a shadow of the bustling labyrinth of corridors, stairways and studios where modern American dance took its first steps, created by choreographers like George Balanchine and Martha Graham. Debris now spills down a stairway leading to a rooftop studio."

In 1960, developers wanted to tear down the entire Carnegie Hall building to construct a high-rise on the site, but violinist Isaac Stern led a successful public campaign against demolition and the city bought the property for $5 million.

Mr. Weill and his wife, Joan, have pledged $25 million toward the project - which includes a lavish rooftop terrace with a nearby dining area accessible by a glass elevator - to be named after the couple, according to a confidential legal document obtained by the AP.

The city and the state have committed $50 million in taxpayer money for the project, with another $56 million coming from a Carnegie Hall bond sale.

An article by Daniel J. Wakin in the October 11, 2007 edition of The New York Times reported that the architectural firm of Natan Bibliowicz had been hired to design the renovation. He is the son-in-law of Mr. Weill.

The warren of studios is quite extraordinary and without question one of the city's most important cultural landmarks and their destruction is equal in egregiousness to the demolition of the great studio building at 51 West 10th Street.