The Beresford

Overview

Designed by the architect Emery Roth, The Beresford, completed in 1929, is one of the most prestigious addresses in Manhattan and one of city's most elite co-ops running along Central Park West. In recent years, apartments have sold for between $3 million and $22 million. One unit is currently listed for $62 million, making it one of Manhattan's most expensive properties. It is one of four Roth apartment blocks on Central Park West, including The El Dorado, The San Remo, and The Ardsley. The Beresford is the largest by volume. Its mass is relieved by horizontal belt courses, staggered setbacks governed by the 1916 Zoning Resolution, which provide some apartments with terraces, and architectural detailing that gives an impression of Georgian houses embedded in the mass. It takes its name from the Hotel Beresford, which had occupied the site since 1889. The Beresford has two very prominent street-front facades, crowned by its three distinctive octagonal copper-capped corner towers, the eastern facade overlooks Central Park; and the southern facade overlooks Theodore Roosevelt Park, the park that contains the American Museum of Natural History.

The massive block is opened to the west, giving it a U-shape, wrapped round a central court. Three elevators give separate access to small foyers, originally each accessing two apartments of a scale that was eliminated in New York, both by the stock market crash and the new Multiple Dwellings Law.

Notable residents

The building's residents have included comedian Jerry Seinfeld, actress Glenn Close, singer Diana Ross, tennis player John McEnroe, former Citigroup CEO Vikram Pandit, Meyer Lansky, actor Tony Randall, fund manager Bill Ackman, reporter John Stossel, musician Laura Nyro., Film producer David Brown and his wife Helen Gurley Brown, editor of Cosmopolitan magazine.