One of the city's - and the world's - greatest residential skyscrapers, the San Remo at 145 Central Park West is the city's most beautiful apartment building and one of its most prestigious addresses.
In this episode of "Real listings, imagined lives," an aging movie star looks back on the parties she hosted and the luminaries she entertained in her corner co-op in the iconic San Remo, a star in its own right situated at a prime location on Central Park West. The sprawling, 14-room combination residence measures over 5,500 square feet with four bedrooms and five and a half baths, but its flexible layout allows it to accommodate five bedrooms or three bedrooms and extra entertaining areas. San Remo, #15EF is currently on the market for $25 million.
Floorplan of the San Remo's #15EF (Warburg Raalty)
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In the series "Real listings, imagined lives," we take inspiration from real-life listings and overlay an imagined story. The traditional real estate listing descriptions are fictionalized to add fascination and a New York edge. The series envisions residents, neighborhoods, culture, and more around NYC homes for sale. New Yorkers are anything but ordinary, and so their home descriptions should not be either. So our stories take creative license and New York chutzpah to reveal the most interesting aspects of listings as we imagine the lives lived in these amazing homes and neighborhoods.
I always wanted to live in and with the stars. I bought this magnificent high-floor apartment with my fourth husband - or was it my fifth? I can't keep track, but I do know I have entertained here every weekend for as long as I can remember. Husbands come and go, but my girls were always by my side. (Marilyn and I used to swap our top marriage tips. Oh, poor, sweet Norma Jean.)
All images of The San Remo via Warburg Realty
Angela Lansbury always told me she loved the blue of my living room walls. I told her it was because it was the same blue as her eyes. Oh, boy did Angie and I have a raucous time laughing about all of our ridiculous male co-stars (wait, she told me to call her "Dame").
Liz Taylor was something. She would always do a great spin in my foyer as soon as she entered. After that, she’d fling off her luxurious fur and throw it to whichever admirer she had at her beck and call.
Kitchen
Shirley MacLaine kept me laughing and laughing with all her juicy secrets about her Rat Pack pals — Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, and Sammy Davis Jr. That girl was a hoot! She always boldly sat at the head of the table - and I noticed that she always made sure it was the head that had the view of the park.
Then there were my great male friends. Sidney Poitier was always someone I could count on to come over with fine cigars, great scotch, and amazing stories about growing up impoverished and how he worked so hard to lose his accent, which I begged him to reincarnate for me as we sat by the fire.
Oh, Mel Brooks! Mel is such a mensch. That guy is there through thick and thin. And boy, he gets me laughing so hard my stomach aches for hours afterward. He loved to convene in my office. Of course, he’d sit in my office chair and if I started to bore him, he'd just swivel to look out the window.
Then there was my dear David, known to most as Sir David Attenborough. He was the one who inspired me to put those mirrors on the window insets to amplify the sunlight and the extraordinary view of nature through the whole room. He could stand at that window for hours and narrate all of the wildlife he saw in Central Park.
Last, but not least, is… well, I won’t give names because a girl never kisses and tells but he loved that four poster bed of mine. Don’t judge (wink).
Once upon a time, the penthouse supposedly belonged to a major action movie star and his waif wife with a husky voice. She used to say, "There was just nothing like it. The location, architecture, and history of the San Remo were on a completely different level."
We all feel a bit that way in the glorious San Remo. The time may have come for them to sell, and younger, more fickle stars may have flitted in and out, but I won’t leave here until they cart me out at the very end. I was never very good at being a wife, but I make a solemn vow of “until death do us part” to my steadfast San Remo.
We all feel a bit that way in the glorious San Remo. The time may have come for them to sell, and younger, more fickle stars may have flitted in and out, but I won’t leave here until they cart me out at the very end. I was never very good at being a wife, but I make a solemn vow of “until death do us part” to my steadfast San Remo.
Central Park views
The San Remo probably has the most magical silhouette in all of New York City (via Douglas Elliman)
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Contributing Writer
Michelle Sinclair Colman
Michelle writes children's books and also writes articles about architecture, design and real estate. Those two passions came together in Michelle's first children's book, "Urban Babies Wear Black." Michelle has a Master's degree in Sociology from the University of Minnesota and a Master's degree in the Cities Program from the London School of Economics.
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