By Kim Velsey 5/17/12 2:21pm

Picture 5

The Unlikely Protesters of Park Avenue: Neighbors Wave Sheets at Planned Toll Brothers Tower

The residents of Carnegie Hill are not particularly experienced in protest techniques—they are more likely to walk through throngs of the demonstrators than to walk among them. But a new Toll Brothers development on Park Avenue has inspired angry Upper East Siders to take up the picket.

In a vertical city like New York, simple signs on sticks do not do much good, so neighbors have resorted to a more high-flying technique for their “visual protest” this morning, unfurling homemade banners from one of their buildings that read “Save Our History.”

“We’re all rookies at this, not professional protesters,” said Lucinda Ballard, who lives in 1112 Park Avenue, right next to the two pre-Civil War townhouses that the Philadelphia-based Toll Brothers is almost certainly planning to replace with a tower, but has thus far refused to confirm. Read More

By Elise Knutsen 1/20/12 3:27pm

Manhattan Transfers

6 Photos

That's a whole lot of terrace.

The Frick’s Sick $6 M. Penthouse

In terms of real estate, the Frick Collection occupies one of New York’s most enviable residences. The museum, housed in Henry Clay Frick’s former mansion at 1 East 70th Street, represents a largely bygone era when New York’s industry titans lived like kings in lordly city estates. Unbeknownst to most, however, the Frick Collection was, until very recently, in possession of another abode: a Park Avenue penthouse.

While the apartment cannot be compared to the Frick’s primary homestead, it is a substantial home nonetheless. The two-bedroom, two-bath penthouse sits atop 1112 Park Avenue, a pre-war co-op at the corner of 90th Street—making it just two blocks from The Guggenheim, it so happens. Read More