Especially on a dark afternoon like this one, you stare up at the twin-towered, 53-story, 2,800,000-square-foot, sharp-edged, nefariously shiny Time Warner Center and wonder what really goes on in the multimillion-dollar condos. According to James B. Stewart's 19,148-word epic on the financial world's collapse, it was in this Bank of America sprawl--on the north tower's 57th floor--that chief Ken Lewis met Merrill Lynch's John Thain on Saturday, Sept. 13, 2008, to talk about a merger.

They were alone. "I'm not interested in a 9.9-per-cent stake," Mr. Lewis reportedly said. "Well, I didn't come here to sell the company," Mr. Thain told him. "That's what I'm interested in," said Mr. Lewis. The companies merged. It did not go smoothly: Mr. Thain has resigned, and Mr. Lewis has announced he'll be leaving, too.

It's not clear if the apartment had been listed for sale. Its buyer is listed as a limited liability corporation called Tata Real Property. "Bank of America regularly reviews our real estate portfolio across the enterprise to ensure we are efficiently managing our portfolio," a spokesperson for Bank of America said, "and delivering cost saving results."

mabelson@observer.com