By Jonah Wolf 4/23 7:05pm

Higher Education

The soon-to-be-former home of Collegiate School.

Kickin’ Out Old School: Puffed Up Prepsters Warily Eye Collegiate’s Modern Move

Collegiate School is defined on Urban Dictionary as “a haughty, arrogant school.” When the Upper West Side boys’ academy is trailing in a basketball game and rivals start chanting “score board,” the Collegiate heckling squad has been known to chant “college board” in response.

The academy regularly lands toward the top of various publications’ rankings of secondary schools by college matriculation, and it boasts a distinguished alumni list including Cesar Romero, Peter Bogdanovich, Edgar Bronfman Jr. and John F. Kennedy Jr.

Significantly less distinguished has been its campus, a clumsy architectural hodepodge of three buildings around the intersection of Broadway and 78th Street, patched together by time and improvisation.  Read More

By Elise Knutsen 12/06/11 11:32am

Manhattan Transfers

Clarissa and Edgar Bronfman

Edgar Bronfman Jr. Loves His Wife to the Tune of $16 M.

Edgar Bronfman Jr. announced yesterday that he was stepping down from his position as the chairman of Warner Music Group, effective January 31. Turns out he is stepping down from his perch at 812 Park Avenue, as well.

According to city records, Mr. Bronfman has transferred sole control of the triplex penthouse to his wife Clarissa Bronfman, with whom he bought the home in May for $16 million. Read More

By Richard Siklos 2/02/10 9:33pm

Zee Hangover

Did you notice all the gauzy coverage of the merger of America Online and Time Warner last month? It was pegged to the 10th anniversary of the deal, now widely derided as the “worst merger in history” and which cost shareholders more than $100 billion.

But it’s starting to feel like a long time Read More

By Max Abelson 5:46pm

The Observer 100 Index: Week One

This year will bring either a dazzlingly financial apocalypse (the analyst Howard Davidowitz has said we’re on “a death march”), a revival that catapults New York into a new era of giddy splendor, or an uneven and slow sludge back to normalcy. Manhattan will expire, sparkle, or crawl.

One comparatively easy way to take the Read More

By Staff 5:46pm

Introducing the Observer 100 Index

This year will bring either a dazzlingly financial apocalypse (the analyst Howard Davidowitz has said we’re on “a death march”), a revival that catapults New York into a new era of giddy splendor, or an uneven and slow sludge back to normalcy. Manhattan will expire, sparkle, or crawl.

One comparatively easy way to take the Read More

By Joe Pompeo 11/24/09 1:04am

The Bed-Stuy Bronfman

On a cold, miserable afternoon in mid-November, Ben Bronfman stepped out of a cab in front of the United Nations and walked through the security checkpoint, past the clusters of tourists in the lobby, and up to the Delegates Dining Room on the third floor, where there was a fancy luncheon to ramp things up Read More