"I don't have a clue, I just don't know," said the towheaded actress. "I have uptown, downtown, east, south, I just don't know. Oh, God! If you see me lost, help me out."

Luckily, the 38-year-old performer, who just gave up a seven-year gig on the bitchy L.A. soap Melrose Place , will find herself wandering around one of Manhattan's toniest neighborhoods: Park Avenue at 61st Street, where she recently signed a one-year lease for about $35,000 per month on a three-bedroom penthouse. Real estate sources familiar with the space, which is located in a condominium built in 1915, describe it as measuring 4,000 square feet, with four and half baths, a library and a working fireplace. Although there are no terraces, the property has open city views and needs no renovations. It was also for sale, for $6.9 million.

Since Ms. Locklear's decision to vacate the West Coast, her real estate search has focused on the East 50's and 60's. In July, she was spotted with a broker on East 64th Street between Park and Madison avenues, where several town houses are currently for sale; she also made inquiries about a three-bedroom penthouse at 150 East 57th Street, according to real estate sources, which was asking a rental fee of more than $25,000 a month.

Instead, Ms. Locklear–who is moving east with husband Richie Sambora, the guitarist for Bon Jovi, and infant daughter Ava Elizabeth–opted for the Park Avenue penthouse, where the owner was seeking $38,000 per month. Real estate sources said the rental contract was effective as of late July.

UPPER WEST SIDE

IAN SCHRAGER'S MAJESTIC MANSION MIGHT BE READY BY THE MILLENNIUM! Hotelier Ian Schrager, who set a Central Park West record in November 1997 with his $9 million purchase of a 14-room apartment in the Majestic, 115 Central Park West, has just sold his old place, a duplex at 15 West 81st Street, for $3.15 million.

Real estate sources said the hotelier has finally accepted an offer for the price he wanted because he expects the extensive renovations on his new home to be completed by the end of the year.

Mr. Schrager bought the 81st Street apartment, a high-floor duplex, for $1.75 million in the fall of 1995. He renovated it shortly thereafter in a modern-looking design scheme that did not jell with the prewar architecture of the rest of the 1930 building. "You [felt] like there was no prewar detail left," said one broker familiar with the apartment, who described it as "very sleek." Numbering seven rooms all together, the property has a large living room, dining room, and kitchen with an adjoining maid's room on the lower floor; the upper story contains three sizable bedrooms with accompanying baths.

Just two years after buying the duplex, Mr. Schrager set his sights 10 blocks south, where he bought two combined apartments at the Majestic, also a 1930 building, for a total of $9 million. The apartment gave him control of the entire 19th floor, with its five bedrooms, six and a half baths, two kitchens, two fireplaces and several servants' rooms. The 14-room space also boasts a 75-foot-long terrace with views of the park. At the time, agents familiar with the purchase told The New York Times that Mr. Schrager would "probably spend a couple of million dollars" on renovations.

A month after the Majestic deal was finalized, Mr. Schrager put his old apartment on the market for $3.3 million. He then hired architect Omer Fenik and filed for alteration permits with the city's Buildings Department in February 1998. At the time, the idea was to install new walls, new plumbing and finishes, and central air-conditioning. In October, he switched to architect Rodolfo Arguellas and requested additional permission to remove plumbing fixtures and interior partitions. As recently as Aug. 3, the hotelier applied for permits to erect more partitions and conduct other renovations–a request that Buildings Department officials denied on Aug. 7. Another source familiar with the hotelier's plans said that Philippe Starck, who designed Mr. Schrager's Paramount and Royalton hotels, is overseeing the apartment design process.

Mr. Schrager has continued to live in the 81st Street duplex with his wife, Rita Narona Schrager, and two young daughters, making it difficult for brokers interested in viewing the apartment. Meanwhile, he continuously fiddled with the price, dropping it as low as $2.75 million in May 1998, several months before he took the property off the market altogether. In June 1999, the hotelier put the apartment up for sale again, at the final price of $3.15 million.

Sources familiar with Mr. Schrager's plans said he expects to complete the work on the Majestic apartment by the end of the year, when he wants to move in. For that reason, the finalization of the deal to sell the 81st Street duplex–on which a contract is expected to be signed imminently–will likely be delayed for several months. A spokesman for Mr. Schrager said he was unavailable for comment.

MURRAY HILL

10 Park Avenue

One-bed, one-bath, 800-square-foot prewar co-op.

Asking: $299,000. Selling: $295,000.

Charges: $867; 50 percent tax deductible.

Time on the market: one week.

GARMENT MAN KEEPS TIES TO EAST 30'S. He was in the garment business. But he had retired to the Virgin Islands, mostly. He and his wife kept a studio at 10 Park Avenue, between 34th and 35th streets, but it was feeling a little small. They discovered this corner unit, with its sunken living room, windowed kitchen, and prewar beamed ceilings, in the same building. A couple in their 30's, he's an investment banker, had taken off for Florida themselves eight years ago. After one deal that failed at the eleventh hour, the two couples met. The larger space, 800 square feet with one bedroom and

a bathroom, was elixir enough for the older couple to keep some clothes in the city. Broker: Bellmarc Realty (Bill McCarten).

UPPER EAST SIDE

170 East 87th Street (Gotham)

Three-bed, three-bath, 1,745-square-foot postwar condo.

Asking: $906,000. Selling: $906,000.

Charges: $987. Taxes: $771.

Time on the market: two weeks.

HER VERY OWN BROKEN-DOWN PALACE. After six years of being neighbors in the same Upper East Side building, a mother of two approached broker Marysue

Bailey about finding her a swanky new apartment. The woman wanted to remain in the neighborhood so her kids, ages 10 and 13, could stay in the same schools. She also wanted a few amenities: like a pool, health club and doorman. The three-bedroom apartment at 170 East 87th Street was striking for all the wrong reasons. The prior tenants had ravaged the place, breaking the washing machine and one of the sinks, and uprooting tiles from the kitchen. But the seller promised to fix all that, and for its size–1,745 square feet, which includes three full bathrooms–the apartment was still a good buy at $906,000. Broker: Prudential-M.L.B. Kaye International Realty (Marysue Bailey).

MIDTOWN

60 Sutton Place South

Two-bed, two-bath, 1,350-square-foot postwar co-op.

Asking: $650,000. Selling: $650,000.

Charges: $1,514; 50 percent tax-deductible.

Time on the market: one week.

THE TERRACE TARIFF. The seller of this two-bedroom, two-bath apartment wanted $675,000. But even a terrace overlooking the East River didn't sway her broker from insisting on pricing it at $650,000. Considering that a couple paid every penny of that, it's unclear who knew best. Probably the buyers, an accountant and his wife who were living just across Sutton Place in a one-bedroom pied-à-terre , looking for an extra bedroom and a river view. The terrace is big enough for cocktails with friends; the living room, off the foyer, is also a nice size; and the spare bedroom overlooks the building's gardened courtyard. Broker: Halstead Property Company (Lise Molinari); Douglas Elliman (Norma Hirsch).

100 West 57th Street (Carnegie House)

Two-bed, two-bath, 1,450-square-foot postwar co-op.

Asking: $520,000. Selling: $490,000.

Charges: $1,445; 30 percent tax-deductible.

Time on the market: six weeks.

AN ARGUMENT AGAINST WALLS. This apartment is about to become the first loft ever on West 57th Street. A couple in their 60's figures they don't need walls anymore, so they're gonna take a wrecking ball to this two-bedroom apartment near Carnegie Hall. Post-renovation, they'll no longer have any secrets: for instance, that somebody let the price of this apartment go from $465,000, their initial bid, to $490,000. The wall-lovers they're replacing, a 30-something couple, lived in the apartment since the early 1990's but they're moving to Southern California, where they barely have doors. The place will look especially cavernous without the baby grand piano, once owned by Leonard Bernstein, which was the last thing to be moved out. "One of the first things [the seller] said to me," recalled broker Brett Grabel, "was, 'The piano's worth more than the apartment.'" Wait till the new owners get finished with it. Broker: William B. May Company Real Estate (Brett Grabel); Wohlfarth & Associates Inc. (Rick Wohlfarth).

BROOKLYN HEIGHTS

33 Willow Street

Three-bed, two-bath, 1,000-square-foot co-op.

Asking: $395,000. Selling: $410,000.

Charges: $656; 60 percent tax-deductible.

Time on the market: one week.

FROM ON THE RIVER TO IN THE RIVER. The owners of this full-floor, brownstone apartment, a couple in their 40's, decided to bail out of Brooklyn to move onto a houseboat. As it turned out, their timing was perfect for an attorney and her husband living in Cobble Hill. The three-bedroom apartment, situated between Cranberry and Middagh streets not far from the Promenade, occupies the fourth floor in a five-story brownstone and is filled with light. It also boasts a country-style kitchen and a laundry room. Perhaps to save themselves the hassle of lugging furniture up those four flights, the buyers even decided to take some of the sellers' furniture. You don't need a lot of sofas and armoires out on the open sea. Broker: Corcoran Group (Loretta Maresco; Nancy Giddins).

The faculty of Cooper Union, which owns the site at the convergence of Lafayette Street, Astor Place and Fourth Avenue, would love to get its hands on the property. The last undeveloped triangular intersection in the city, it has been called "one of the great building sites left in the world" by John Jay Iselin, the president of the college.

But a plan by the board of trustees of the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Art and Science to develop 26 Astor Place does not guarantee involvement of the Cooper Union faculty. Nor students. Nor alumni. And that has them fuming.

Even outsiders are stunned. "It is a profoundly important site for that part of the city," said George Ranalli, dean of the architecture school at the City College of New York. "It is a very important intersection and crossroads from the southern part of New York to upper Greenwich Village to the main grid of the city."

"Certainly, I would imagine that if they were going to do it, then a Cooper alum and/or faculty member should be on the short list for any project considered by the institution. They have a pool of quite good people from the faculty and alumni," Mr. Ranalli said.

The cash-starved college has made arrangements to lease the site to the Related Companies, who are also developing the Coliseum at Columbus Circle, which will develop it into a commercial space, in partnership with Ian Schrager, the hotelier and former manager of Studio 54. The plans call for a 100-room hotel and a movie theater. The school will make about $1 million a year.

The architect has not yet been selected. At a meeting in late May, faculty members were told by Anthony M. Tung, a member of Cooper's board, that the list under consideration was to be kept secret.

"He was run out of there on a rail. I've never seen such anger," said Rod Knox, a graduate of Cooper and a faculty member for 23 years.

The initial list of architects developed by a board committee was to consist of one-third faculty members, one-third alumni and one-third outsiders, but it will be up to Related and Mr. Schrager to pick two finalists, at their own discretion. The decision should take place before the fall. Neither Mr. Schrager nor Jeff Blau, executive vice president of Related, will say who's on any of the lists.

Board chairman Robert Bernhard, however, told The Observer the names of the architects considered for the short list have changed since Mr. Schrager hooked on to the Related deal. Reportedly, he is interested in such well-known architects as Rem Koolhaas, Herzog & de Meuron and Peter Zumthor. "I would want to have a world-class architect, perhaps one that hasn't built in New York City," Mr. Schrager said from his South Hampton, L.I., home.

The problem that the faculty and others see is that none of these names are even remotely associated with the school. And neither, in style and reputation, is Mr. Schrager.

"Cooper should not be building a sleazy hotel for Eurotrash clientele. That's the kind of people these hotels attract. The Delano, the Royalton, the Mondrian, they're hardly compatible with an institution of Cooper's caliber and legacy," said Alexander Gorlin, an alumnus of the school and a winner of the Rome Prize in architecture.

The deal is widely seen as a slap in the face to those who have helped make Cooper's Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture "perhaps the most important architecture school in the world," according to Domus , the architectural journal. Its graduates include Ralph Lerner, dean of the Princeton University's School of Architecture; Stanley Allen, a tenured professor at Columbia University; Toshiko Mori, a tenured professor at Harvard University's Graduate School of Design, and Daniel Libeskind, the creator of the Jewish Museum in Berlin. Its professors include such architectural bigwigs as Peter Eisenman and Raimund Abraham, and its dean, John Hejduk, rebuilt Cooper's renowned Foundation Building.

Many feel it's certainly an insult to the legacy of Peter Cooper, an inventor and industrialist, who founded the school in 1859 as a private, tuition-free educational institution, offering degrees in art, architecture and engineering. The endowment specified that the school should be "as free as air and water" and dedicate itself to "the future improvement of humankind."

"[Peter Cooper] would die again if he knew what was going on," said Mr. Knox. "For him to find out what his legacy turned out to be, he would be appalled. He was never one for pure mercenary gain.

"It's all about money, money, money. It's a short-term gain, because they're selling out the place," he continued.

One faculty member who asked to remain anonymous said, "Why can't they act as a developer themselves rather than hand it over to some half-assed commercial developer? What in God's name makes the goals of developers so prescient? If you hand a shovel over to a mounted soldier, do you think that he is going to make a garden or is he going to put the horse at full gallop and try to take someone's head off with the shovel?"

The land is now a parking lot, in the shadow of the Joseph Papp Public Theater, across from the landmark Astor Place subway station. Last summer, the Cooper Union board began sending requests for proposals to various developers in the city. One, Scott Resnick of Jack Resnick & Sons, said he worked for three years on his proposal for a residential tower, with a cultural component. It was rejected in favor of Related's. Related will own the rights to the property for 99 years. It does not need either community board or city planning approval to proceed and can build up to six times its base square footage of 17,776, said Richard Barth, the director of the Manhattan office of the City Planning Commission.

According to President Iselin, the school hopes to gain around $1 million per year from the site, through lease fees and a tax loophole created by the city as compensation for Cooper's public service that allows Cooper to receive all the tax revenues from the site.

An outside audit prepared by KPMG Peat Marwick L.L.P. for the board and obtained by The Observer shows that Cooper needs the cash. In 1997, the school's operating deficit was $7.84 million; in 1998, the loss rose to $8.56 million, an increase of 9.2 percent. (A spokesman for Cooper Union put the deficit at $5 million for the coming year.) Some faculty said better management--for example, a better lease deal for the Chrysler Building site, a prime source of Cooper Union income--would ease the deficit.

But it's the way the deal has been done, as much as the fact that it's being done at all, that has the Cooper Union faculty and alumni irritated. Many are miffed that the list of architects has been kept hidden from the Cooper community, spinning the rumor mill out of control. Some have even said that the architect has already been chosen and the school is simply not telling anyone. Mr. Knox said, "It seems like all the deals are going on in smoke-filled rooms."

One professor said the secret list "keeps everyone on edge. Some are privileged [to the information] and some are not. It's Animal Farm . You have got to be kidding! It's Orwellian! They should make it an open competition!"

Other architects echo that idea. They are concerned that the school is ignoring a chance to foster a productive architectural competition. Such competitions are common in Europe. But U.S. architects rarely have the chance to compete. "It is a unique opportunity that an educational institution, especially one with such a prestigious group of alumni and faculty and with a legacy for public service like Cooper, has an architecturally important piece of land to develop," said Mr. Gorlin. Reed Kroloff, the editor in chief of Architecture , a monthly trade magazine, agreed: "The main value of any competition of that kind is to generate rich ideas that don't necessarily result from pre-programming the way they have done it … Absolutely, an open competition would have been the best thing they could have done."

Elizabeth Diller, one of this year's MacArthur award winners and an alumna, said: "It's too bad that a school that has spawned so many interesting people doesn't have a chance to display its wares … It would be done with a different kind of spirit if it were done by an alum. It's like building for the family."

Added Mr. Knox, "As an architecture school, we have an obligation to practice what we preach."

Mr. Tung, however, dismissed the idea of an open competition with a laugh. "That's extremely unrealistic and idealistic," he said. He claimed that only 1 percent of Cooper alumni are opposed to the development plan. Charles Gwathmey, another board member, said that he did not know of any other institution that had developed land using an internal competition. "The Cooper faculty," he added, "is always angry, very independent, very theoretical and very out of the norm."

Robert Bernhard, board chairman, an investment banker at Munn, Bernhard & Associates, said the board had actually considered holding an open competition. "That's a lovely concept," he said, "[but] we felt that we would be subsidizing another philanthropic institution and that's not our business … We need to make money from this building.

"It was imperative for the health of the school to really get the most economically out of this site," he said. He dismissed the complaints of the faculty and alumni: "Usually, with a project like this, the people who may not have quite the talents that they think they have are upset because they weren't included."

But the deal does include an architectural competition--of some kind. Related and Mr. Schrager will submit the names of two finalists to the board, and the architect who is not chosen will receive $100,000--a practice unprecedented in architecture, according to Mr. Kroloff of Architecture magazine. "I have never seen a loser get that much," he said. "If I were a member of their faculty, I'd be curious."

Or enraged. Mr. Gorlin said, "It's astounding. I'm speechless. I don't see why alumni would ever donate money after that. Who would want to pay for Rem Koolhaas' fee? Why would I as an alumnus? There's a 2,000-year-old history of competitions where the winner wins and the loser gets publicity. So if, in fact, the point is to raise as much money as possible, why would they do this? It's senseless."

"I've given up on the school," said Ms. Diller. "[It] hasn't proven to be generous to its own."

For Mr. Friedman, Goldman's co-head of merchant banking and the chairman of AMF Bowling Inc., the seven-figure purchase represents quite a step up, propertywise. His last home purchase, according to real estate records, was the 1988 acquisition of a fourth-floor condo unit in 30 East 85th Street. The three-bedroom apartment, which set Mr. Friedman back $1.055 million when he bought it 10 years ago, is now on the market for $1.75 million, real estate sources said, and may be a bit of a tough sell. "It's so low," said one broker familiar with the 2,500-square-foot space. "Half of it faces the back of the building and noisy Madison Avenue."

By contrast, Mr. Friedman's new apartment-until recently, the abode of Mandalay Pictures chairman Peter Guber-is a 5,200-square-foot affair on Fifth Avenue in the East 70's. Brokers familiar with the full-floor unit describe it as a 15-room property that has been reduced to nine rooms, with three large bedrooms, six-and-a-half baths and an exercise room. The apartment is "absolutely Art Deco," said one source familiar with the space.

Mandalay's Mr. Guber, whose main office is in Los Angeles, first put the co-op property on the market in March 1998 at an asking price of $18 million, with an option to buy the furniture. In recent months, the price was reduced to $15 million-prompting Mr. Friedman to enter into a more than $13 million contract that included some furnishings, according to real estate sources who said the sale should be finalized in late June, pending co-op board approval.

MURRAY HILL

NEW OWNER CAN PLAY HIS MOZART LOUD, VERY LOUD. After two years of living it up in Murray Hill, rock musician Lenny Kravitz has sold his three-story town house at 157 East 35th Street for $1.76 million, according to real estate sources. Since the sale was finalized on May 12, Mr. Kravitz has been espied looking at houses uptown, but has not yet gone into contract, according to sources.

Built in 1890 for sculptor Malvina Hoffman (she studied under Rodin), the house is located between Third and Lexington avenues and overlooks a planted private courtyard called Sniffen Court. Brokers familiar with the property said Mr. Kravitz bought the place for $1.485 million in 1996, with the idea that he could live and work there. Eventually, the ground floor became a recording studio, wallpapered with a black soundproofing fabric, and the two-car garage became half parking facility, half disco.

"There was not an ounce of light in the whole downstairs," said Nan Schiff, who represented the house's buyer, a businessman and his family. "It was covered in black fur." The buyer had spent his real estate search driving around the city with a list of for-sale properties, looking for the right house. Since he was concerned about being had in the sellers' market, the idea of purchasing a place that needed renovations intrigued him-especially if it involved a discount on the asking price. With bedrooms that had been made into offices and windows covered over by the "fur," Mr. Kravitz's brick town house was exactly the place: After five months of languishing on the market, the businessman negotiated almost $500,000 off the asking price.

Since the house will be getting $1 million worth of renovations over the next year, the buyer has moved from his old place on 14th Street to a Kips Bay rental apartment, from which he can closely supervise his contractors. Reached for comment, Andrea Lucas, who represented Mr. Kravitz, would only say, "It's a one-of-a-kind house."

A spokesman for Mr. Kravitz confirmed the sale, but was unaware of his current property search. "He spends most of his time in Miami now, but he's currently on tour in Europe, and coming back to America in mid-August," she said. Mr. Kravitz's Miami residence is a house on the water in South Beach, she added.

UPPER EAST SIDE

115 East 86th Street

Two-bed, three-bath, 1,900-square-foot prewar co-op.

Asking: $875,000. Selling: $875,000.

Charges: $1,793; 45 percent tax-deductible.

Time on the market: one month.

COUPLE GOES ABROAD, AND A ROOM VANISHES. A lot can change in a few years, as this couple learned when they returned from an overseas stint to face the sellers' market in Manhattan. Their last place had been a seven-room apartment on the Upper East Side, which they sold for about $900,000 in 1995; this time around, they paid almost the same price for a co-op unit with one less room. Disappointed as they were with the neighborhood's raging property values, they stepped up to the plate and were the first bidders to offer the full asking price. For $875,000, they've now got a two-bedroom apartment in a 1927 building near good schools for junior. They're already in the midst of scraping floors and painting walls. Broker: Halstead Property Company (Barbara Wilson).

UPPER WEST SIDE

311 West 97th Street

Two-bed, 1.5-bath, 1,300-square-foot prewar co-op.

Asking: $515,000. Selling: $480,000.

Charges: $906; 55 percent tax-deductible.

Time on the market: three months.

SING FOR YOUR SUPER. A self-described "wimp" and his wife are selling this six-room apartment between West End and Riverside Drive, located in a building respected for being in fiscal, and physical, order. Scott Leonard, a 33-year-old lead singer of a five-man a cappella musical group called Rockapella, and his wife and young'un are moving to Florida (Grandma will baby-sit). Rockapella appeared regularly on the PBS television series Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego? and more recently in a Folger's "The best part of waking up …" commercial. The Leonards broke into show biz as a two-person group at Disney World in Orlando, Fla.: He sang, she danced. The Mouse moved them to Tokyo, where they worked at the theme park's Japanese satellite. Mr. Leonard read a help wanted ad for Rockapella, and saw his ticket back to the States. "I always wanted to move to New York, but I didn't want to go there without a job, because I'm a wimp," he explained. When the tips got big, Mr. Leonard and his wife moved from a New York City rental into this co-op, where they renovated the kitchen and baths, painted the walls and converted the maid's room into a studio. Next stop: Tampa. If it gets too hot, the Leonards still have a rental on 76th Street and Amsterdam Avenue. Broker: Bellmarc Realty (Merope Lolis and Mary Jo Palumbo).

CHELSEA

409 West 21st Street

Two-bed, one-bath, 950-square-foot prewar co-op.

Asking: $439,000. Selling: $400,000.

Charges: $525; 50 percent tax-deductible.

Time on the market: five months.

APARTMENT MAKES MAN GO WEAK IN THE KNEES. Knee surgery forced this sexagenarian bookseller to move out of this brownstone co-op between Ninth and 10th avenues. Although he had put money into renovating the kitchen just last year, the bum knees made it increasingly hard to handle the four flights of stairs to his top-floor apartment, and he decided to opt for an elevator building instead. The place was a bit of a tough sell: Even roof access couldn't attract a buyer at $489,000, so the seller eventually lowered his asking price to $439,000. At that point, a financial guy and his fashion-industry wife were willing to negotiate. They wanted prime Chelsea space in which to start a family and, being in their late 20's, they're still spry enough to handle the uphill climb. Broker: Bellmarc (William Norman).

SOHO

45 Greene Street

Two-bed, two-bath, 2,170-square-foot condo.

Asking: $1.2 million. Selling: $1.2 million.

Charges: $588. Taxes: $482.

Time on the market: two months.

WELL, IT MATCHES HIS TOQUE! Thanks to its white walls and empty space, brokers dubbed this SoHo condo a "vanilla box." The building's sponsor has been offloading apartments here one by one since early 1998, when the place was converted from a factory into living space. As a result, the properties are furnished with the bare, certificate-of-occupancy-required essentials: Toilet. Sink. Kitchen counter. The bachelor restaurant-owner who bought this apartment viewed it as something of a tabula rasa for his decorating dreams. Hailing from Jericho, L.I., this was his first Manhattan property buy, but he was no rube: When another bidder skipped town without signing a contract first, the restaurateur served up a higher offer, and- bon appétit !-it was his. Broker: Douglas Elliman (Louise Phillips).

Clarification

Last week, Manhattan Transfers erroneously reported that designer Tommy Hilfiger had purchased art from Acquavella Galleries Inc. Mr. Hilfiger did not in fact buy art from the gallery. The Observer regrets the error.