Joseph Evan - Manhattan classic New Yorks finest prewar apartments

Upper East Side: Fifth Avenue

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Upper West Side: Central Park West

Upper West Side: West End Avenue

Upper West Side: Riverside Drive

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For many New Yorkers, real estate is an obsession. Dinner-party discussions quickly turn to addresses, views, lobbies, and maintenance fees. Its an expensive and arduous struggle to find a home you love; the hunt involves walking through many apartments that are overpriced letdowns. You may find it difficult to suppress a surge of real estate envy when visiting friends perfect new places, listening to their long stories about the lucky happy ending that occurred just after they had lost all hope of finding a home. We yearn for what we probably cant ever afford: one of those extraordinarily beautiful apartments we see in glossy magazines and real estate ads, flawlessly designed right down to the doorknobsthe trophy homes, photographed with celebrity owners who describe their regular jaunts to the Paris flea markets to find just the right side table.

Prewar apartment houses, constructed between 1870 and 1935, contain some of the most consistently desirable homes in the city. On average they cost significantly more than their newer counterparts; these great works of architectural design almost never come on the market because residents cant imagine leaving, except feet first. New Yorks prewars ignite extraordinary passion; living in a prewar designed by one of that eras celebrated architects in one of their best buildings is a priceless luxury, often marking a persons entry into high society.

Walking along Manhattans Park Avenue or the streets of the Upper West Side, you may wonder how this passion for prewars originated. Though pleasant, their architecture is generally calm and unexceptional. A location on Fifth Avenue overlooking Central Park is impressive, but arent they just nice apartment buildings?

If you have the opportunity, visit a few of these apartment homes for a firsthand look. Perched high above the noisy streets, filled with light, and sometimes commanding spectacular skyline views, prewars have come to define the elegance and glamour of living in New York City. They have the beauty, proportions, and elegance of private houses; prewars were deliberately designed to convince families to give up their town houses, matching or surpassing them architecturally while providing the luxuries of twenty-four-hour doormen and a dedicated superintendent. Some buildings even had a private dining room and chef facility. They are quiet, and the air is fresh and cool. Instead of the gritty city being on the other side of a thin wood front door, theres always a doorman or two watching the street for you. Near good schools, restaurants, museums, and all the city offers, they offer privacy, security, and stately architecture, with an almost obsessive attention to detail in the woodwork, fine wood floors, moldings, brass door handles, and many other handcrafted features.