740 Park: The Story of the World's Richest Apartment Building [Kindle Edition] Author: Michael Gross | Language: English | ISBN:
B000XU8EJ6 | Format: PDF, EPUB
Download 740 Park: The Story of the World's Richest Apartment Building
Download books file now Download 740 Park: The Story of the World's Richest Apartment Building [Kindle Edition] for everyone book mediafire, rapishare, and mirror link For seventy-five years, it’s been Manhattan’s richest apartment building, and one of the most lusted-after addresses in the world. One apartment had 37 rooms, 14 bathrooms, 43 closets, 11 working fireplaces, a private elevator, and his-and-hers saunas; another at one time had a live-in service staff of 16. To this day, it is steeped in the purest luxury, the kind most of us could only imagine, until now.
The last great building to go up along New York’s Gold Coast, construction on 740 Park finished in 1930. Since then, 740 has been home to an ever-evolving cadre of our wealthiest and most powerful families, some of America’s (and the world’s) oldest money—the kind attached to names like Vanderbilt, Rockefeller, Bouvier, Chrysler, Niarchos, Houghton, and Harkness—and some whose names evoke the excesses of today’s monied elite: Kravis, Koch, Bronfman, Perelman, Steinberg, and Schwarzman. All along, the building has housed titans of industry, political power brokers, international royalty, fabulous scam-artists, and even the lowest scoundrels.
The book begins with the tumultuous story of the building’s construction. Conceived in the bubbling financial, artistic, and social cauldron of 1920’s Manhattan, 740 Park rose to its dizzying heights as the stock market plunged in 1929—the building was in dire financial straits before the first apartments were sold. The builders include the architectural genius Rosario Candela, the scheming businessman James T. Lee (Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis’s grandfather), and a raft of financiers, many of whom were little more than white-collar crooks and grand-scale hustlers.
Once finished, 740 became a magnet for the richest, oldest families in the country: the Brewsters, descendents of the leader of the Plymouth Colony; the socially-registered Bordens, Hoppins, Scovilles, Thornes, and Schermerhorns; and top executives of the Chase Bank, American Express, and U.S. Rubber. Outside the walls of 740 Park, these were the people shaping America culturally and economically. Within those walls, they were indulging in all of the Seven Deadly Sins.
As the social climate evolved throughout the last century, so did 740 Park: after World War II, the building’s rulers eased their more restrictive policies and began allowing Jews (though not to this day African Americans) to reside within their hallowed walls. Nowadays, it is full to bursting with new money, people whose fortunes, though freshly-made, are large enough to buy their way in.
At its core this book is a social history of the American rich, and how the locus of power and influence has shifted haltingly from old bloodlines to new money. But it’s also much more than that: filled with meaty, startling, often tragic stories of the people who lived behind 740’s walls, the book gives us an unprecedented access to worlds of wealth, privilege, and extraordinary folly that are usually hidden behind a scrim of money and influence. This is, truly, how the other half—or at least the other one hundredth of one percent—lives. Direct download links available for Download 740 Park: The Story of the World's Richest Apartment Building [Kindle Edition]
- File Size: 1246 KB
- Print Length: 576 pages
- Publisher: Broadway Books (December 18, 2007)
- Sold by: Random House LLC
- Language: English
- ASIN: B000XU8EJ6
- Text-to-Speech: Enabled
X-Ray:
- Lending: Enabled
- Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #13,984 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
- #2
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Arts & Photography > Architecture > History & Periods - #3
in Books > Arts & Photography > Architecture > History - #5
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Nonfiction > Politics & Social Sciences > Social Sciences > Sociology > Urban
- #2
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Arts & Photography > Architecture > History & Periods - #3
in Books > Arts & Photography > Architecture > History - #5
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Nonfiction > Politics & Social Sciences > Social Sciences > Sociology > Urban
Don't be fooled by the exciting sounding "apartment porn" review by Forbes -- this is one tedious book. While there were some very interesting sections (on the building's architect Candela, a brief history of cooperative apartments in NYC, and John D. Rockefeller), they were few and far between. The majority of the text is dull and repetitive. The author was able to get dirt on a number of current and former residents of 740 Park, but he could not get his hands on a floor plan or any decent photos of these luxurious apartments? All in all, quite a disappointing read.
By DLP
Well, the author definitely spent a lot of time researching this book. That is obvious. I really thought this would be another Bonfire of the Vanities type of book about the rick and famous and their habits, lifestyle etc. I am half way through the bookand I've had enough. There are about 5 paragraphs about each tenant that ever lived in 740 Park.This book is almost like a school textbook with a little history of this and that person except this book is about an apartment building. Not enough information on each tenant for me to develop an interest in the subject, just enough information on who lived in which apartment during which years.
The book started off well enough but after awhile, I lost complete interest in the history of each unit and who lived there, etc. I actually can not remember half the people who subleased, leased or bought the apartments after awhile.
Great attempt. The writer, as I mentioned, definitely did a through research on the history of this building and is obviously a gifted writer. However, a short and brief background information on each tenant failed to draw me in. I would recommend this book to anyone who is doing research in real estate in NY, but would not recommend this book for just reading for enjoyment.
By Sennie
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