A makeup-free Maggie Rizer, one of the evening's co-hosts, said the event was "all about incorporating young, up and coming artists with fashion—and I love fashion. If you don't support the young ones … Also, it benefits diabetes, which a few people in my family have." Rizer, whose father died of AIDS, is also working on a documentary on the subject, but said the project had been put on hold. "We're in the process of finding another production company."

The Daily Transom wondered if the current move away from conspicuous consumption-socialites finding it fashionable to stretch their salon appointments from every four weeks to every six!—might lead towards a dressing-down trend, but Rizer shot that theory down: "People tend to start dressing more expensively, I think ... People in fashion tend to do the opposite, anyway."

The recession was the unescapable theme of the night—even the ladies in the powder room were atwitter about much of the same: "I'm going to have to sell my shoes!" one said, prompting an anguished "Noooooo!" in reply.

Photographer and flâneur John Norwood was there, like a friendly uncle, eager to talk.

"People will actually start partying harder, but less often," he predicted. "A bartender friend of mine said during the week, it's slower now. But on weekends, it's crazy!" (The working-class ethic of partying reemerges!)

"I have to wonder if the lifestyle we're used to is going to continue. This is my fourth event tonight and it's only, what time is it, 9 o'clock?"

Another reporter remarked that the crowd was rather "pushy" for a benefit—"like a bunch of linebackers." Indeed, the sound of wineglasses breaking would punctuate the rest of the evening. A cater-waiter confirmed that the second-floor ballroom was more crowded than it had ever been.

But wait—there was Ally Hilfiger, daughter of fashion designer Tommy.

"Yes?" the tiny brunette replied brusquely, peering over the rims of her huge black-framed glasses, and stepping back into her heels, which she had kicked off. Her hair was twisted into a messy, intellectual bun.

Of her art, she said, "It's broadened and developed." Her previous paintings featured various iterations on the number eight. "It's very different now—I spent four months by myself painting [in the Caribbean]."

And now? "I'm starting my own collection of women's clothing." Inspired by? "Everything!" she said with a grin. She conceded that the recession was "a very big trend … I watch CNN and listen to NPR all day, every day, while I work. … We need to learn how to adjust, no matter which background we come from. We have to be very loving and supportive to each other during this economic crisis."

Heavily bearded artist Michael M. Koehler had two pieces in the show, both photographs from New Orleans. Speaking of hard times!

"The first wave of photography I saw from New Orleans—it was all these images with no people in them," he said. "I wanted to show that people's day-to-day struggles can be as beautiful as that image of a car up in a tree." One of his works, a 6-foot-high photograph, showed a stoic black man standing inside his post-Katrina house, with the high-water marks somewhere near the ceiling.

The show also included a cheeky work by Thomas McDonnell titled "Caucasians on Clinton Street Chewing Khat," clearly a comment on the street's gentrification.

Young Liam McMullan, in a lime green T-shirt, surveyed the scene from the back of the room. He had just written his first column for Page Six Magazine, a surprisingly funny, dry-humored scenester report. How's the editing process going? "Well, they dilute my snark and replace it with a little bit of douchebag ... but that's O.K."

Towards the end of the evening, it was announced that the benefit had raised over $150,000. As if on cue, another wineglass fell to the floor and shattered.

On Tuesday, Sept. 16, the post-work crowd on 42nd Street was treated to a procession of coquettish cocktail dresses and floor-sweeping evening gowns worn by Manhattan's uptown set as they exited their chauffeured cars--or pedicabs as we saw in the case of one unfortunate couple--into Cipriani's for the annual New Yorkers for Children gala. While some opted for the eye-catching tiered gowns like Julie Macklowe, portfolio manager for Sigma Capital Management and wife of William Macklowe, president Macklowe Properties, who arrived in a voluminous blue dress. Others, like Julia Restoin-Roitfeld, went for the simple sparkly black mini, T-shirt and blazer.

We've selected our 10 favorite looks from the gala; click the slideshow above to take a look.

One of the photographers in the pit at Fashion Week is a 17-year-old girl whose mother used to drag her to the shows. [NY Times]  

There is hope that New York's Garment District will be saved, say CFDA officials. [WWD]

New York designers got artsy, crafty, and sculptural this week. [Vogue UK]

A New York Ranger who isn't Sean Avery showed up at the Tommy Hilfiger show on Thursday. [WWD] 

Christian Siriano's collection was actually not so bad. [Daily News]

New York Fashion Week is over, and soon the spotlight falls on London. [Vogue UK]

According to the deed, Mr. Jonze paid $2,647,450.

What distinguishes his 2,590-square-foot eighth-floor apartment?

“Slamming river views,” said celebrity broker Michael Bolla, who’s marketing the building. “Dead-on river views.”

Other slamming tidbits include a Poliform kitchen, a massive living room with fireplace, and neighbors like Tatum O’Neal and Lance Acord, the cinematographer for Mr. Jonze’s adaptation of Where the Wild Things Are.

(Mr. Acord also works with Spike’s ex-wife, the filmmaker Sofia Coppola.)

Then there’s Brigitte Lacombe, the French artist known for her still photography on film sets, including Mr. Jonze’s 1999 breakthrough Being John Malkovich.

According to city records, Ms. Lacombe also has a place at 7 Essex Street, a chic condo across the street. As it happens, that’s where Mr. Jonze is coming from too. Earlier this month, Mr. Jonze sold his apartment there for $1.659 million. He bought it for a bit less only last December, taking it from the building’s sponsor, Christopher Prokop.

“It was customized throughout, incredibly high-end and beautifully done,” said Citi-Habitats’ Danny Davis, who was Mr. Jonze’s broker for 7 Essex. “The developer had moved into the unit. He pimped it out, basically.”

But?

“If you want to know the truth, [Mr. Jonze] never moved in,” Mr. Davis said. “He had the opportunity to buy a considerably larger loft. I shouldn’t speak for him, but it was just about space.”

The Forward Building was designed by George Baum in 1912 to house the Socialist-minded, Yiddish-language Jewish Daily Forward. Its famous content included the “Bintel Brief,” an advice column for immigrants, and later contributions by Elie Wiesel and Art Spiegelman.

After 9/11, architect Ronald Castellano got the building for just $23.5 million, even though its buttery neoclassical exterior had been renovated less than two decades earlier. He individually designed 29 apartments from the 39 units that had been there.

They went on the market early this year. “We’re sold—finito!” Mr. Bolla said this week.

But Mr. Jonze didn’t grab the final apartment: “The last deal was to a beautiful lady from the Upper East Side.”

And perhaps yet another friend-of-Spike?

Mr. Bolla would not elaborate.

Producers Producer Sells at Hampshire For $3.15 M.

Broadway theater magnate Rocco Landesman, who produced The Producers, has sold his Hampshire House co-op for $3.15 million, according to city records.

The Central Park South apartment went to Willem Cordia, a Dutch financier.

“It was the most convenient place I’ve ever lived,” said Mr. Landesman, who confirmed the sale but would not confirm the price. “I miss the easy access to 15 great restaurants.”

How to describe the old Hampshire House? “Elegant, upscale, makes you want to go ‘Oooh, this is fancy,’” said Corcoran’s Ric Swezey, who represented Rocco and his wife Deborah Landesman.

For example, there’s an evening pianist who plays in the Dorothy Draper–designed lobby. Then there’s the house car and driver: “It’s hard to get a cab at theater time,” Mr. Swezey explained.

Mr. Landesman became the president of Jujamcyn Theaters in 1987, producing shows like Big River, Angels in America and Proof. He bought the company in 2005 for a reported $30 million.

According to his broker, the producer kept his Tonys on the fireplace mantel, plus posters and pictures commemorating his shows around the apartment.

Though Central Park South is known as a street of pieds-à-terre, Mr. Swezey said the Hampshire House is “more like a little residential community.” A little residential community that includes Luciano Pavarotti, and has previously counted Rupert Murdoch, Frank Sinatra and Ava Gardner as members.

Will the Dutch financier move in for good? His broker, Sotheby’s International Realty’s Gabriele Devlin, would not comment.

This April, city records show that the Landesmans paid $4,233,883 for a three-bedroom penthouse atop the Heritage at Trump Place. According to Prudential Douglas Elliman’s Gilad Azaria, who has sold extensively in the building, penthouse perks include “a beautiful Jacuzzi with views of the East Side.”

Were there other reasons for the couple’s move? “We loved our apartment on Central Park South, but needed a little more living space,” said Mr. Landesman. “My youngest son can have a place to stay when he’s home from boarding school, and so forth.”

The apartment was 1,500 square feet, though the views made the place seem vast. “When you’re inside, it just feels so big,” Mr. Swezey said, “because your front lawn is Central Park.”

The cool thing about the Hampshire House, according to the broker, is its dead-center location on Central Park South. “The other cool thing about this particular apartment is that it’s between the 10th and 14th floors. Almost perfect: a little bit above the tree-line, but not too high.”

No offense intended, though, to the couple’s new Trump penthouse.

Marianne Boesky Sells in Tribeca for $4.3 M.

Art dealer Marianne Boesky has sold her Richard Gluckman–designed penthouse at 39 N. Moore Street for $4.3 million. Television executive Brian Lacey bought the 2,850-square-foot duplex.

The prewar apartment has a professional kitchen, two terraces and the requisite library with fireplace (with a bonus 25-foot ledge to display art).

“It was raw space when I bought it,” said Ms. Boesky. “I brought Richard in before I closed--I wanted to make sure he was on board!” (That’s Richard Gluckman, who’s worked for Versace and with Richard Serra; he also designed Pittsburgh’s Andy Warhol Museum.)

The Tribeca apartment was dark and narrow, but Mr. Gluckman had a solution for that: skylights. Really, really big skylights.

“We made light shafts and extended them down two or three floors,” Mr. Gluckman said. “I think the vertical shafts of light and the moving plastic walls which we used to segregate the internal space were very effective.”

But the roof garden is brightest of all: “We had a park up there,” said Ms. Boesky. “It was really so nice.”

Her broker Roger Erickson, a senior managing director at Sotheby’s International Realty, enjoyed the open spaces too. “I really feel it was one of the all-time best terraces in Tribeca,” he said about the patio off the library. “You looked uptown, and it was a view forever.”

Mr. Erickson also admired the penthouse’s neighbors: “Tom Freston had lived across the hall,” he said.

But then there was the shimmering art. “We have a big beautiful butterfly by Damien Hirst, with a blue-sky background,” Ms. Boesky said. Plus: “A great Barnaby Furnas, one of his suicide paintings, and a Martin Kippenberger from ’94, a big flower and dog’s face.”

Above the fireplace, Richard Gluckman’s 25-foot ledge displayed works on paper: some Cindy Sherman, some Felix Gonzalez-Torres too.

Harvey Keitel sold the apartment to Ms. Boesky in 1998, though it was before he ever moved in. City archives don’t reveal how much Ms. Boesky paid.

Can the new owner, Brian Lacey, match the seller’s discriminating taste? Ms. Boesky said he connected with the place right away: “He bought it in the middle of the apartment.”

According to his Web site, Mr. Lacey has distributed over 3,000 television episodes to 100 countries. He was behind the global marketing of ultra-mega successful Japanese shows like Pokémon and Yu-gi-oh.

“It’s a fantastic space,” he said about his new duplex. “One has a sense of the first floor being public—the layout and the feel and the design. But the second level has a wonderful, warm private space.”

That’s a dichotomy Ms. Boesky has been thinking about too, because she’s moving into an apartment above her built-from-scratch gallery at West 24th Street and 10th Avenue. Who designed it? “There are four—no, five—Gluckman galleries on 24th, so I had to find someone else!” she said. “He’s awesome, but I couldn’t be the sixth.”

So Debra Burke built the new Marianne Boesky Gallery, which opened last Saturday. “I’ll miss Tribeca a lot, but I have a 2-year-old daughter. I’d like to spend more time with her, so it works.”

Their apartment is on the second floor, though there’s a little artist’s apartment for visitors in between.

How will the young Miss Boesky handle the proximity to high art? “Even at 2, she knows to respect it,” said her mother. “To keep a certain distance—she looks, and touches very gently.” The little girl’s grandfather is the arbitrageur Ivan Boesky, an inspiration for Gordon Gekko’s character in Wall Street.

Model Rizer Settles Debts on $1.9 M. Condo

By the time porcelain-faced supermodel Maggie Rizer sold her 1,895-square-foot Franklin Street apartment this summer, she had been repeatedly sued by her building’s board of directors and was ready to move away.

“They brought a lawsuit against her, but it’s over now; everything’s cleaned up,” said her attorney, the iconic entertainment lawyer Ed Hayes. “Her stepfather threw her financial affairs into chaos. She owed them money, and she paid them.”

In October 2004, Ms. Rizer’s stepfather pled guilty to stealing the young Calvin Klein model’s $7 million fortune, which he squandered on a multiyear Quick Draw binge. Afterward, she couldn’t keep up on the mortgage for her two-bedroom condo at Franklin Tower, where Mariah Carey keeps a Mario Buatta–designed triplex penthouse.

So in 2005, the building’s board sued Ms. Rizer in New York State Supreme Court for more than $21,000. At the time, board lawyer David Abramovitz told The Observer that his client had sued her before, and she had paid up.

Franklin Tower dropped the lawsuit? “Yeah.” Were there any hard feelings? “You can’t blame the co-op,” Mr. Hayes said. “She was behind.”

So, to recap: “She sold the apartment, she took the proceeds, paid off her debts,” said Mr. Hayes, “and I think she wanted to live outside the city anyway.”

But the proceeds weren’t monumental. According to the deed, Channappa Chandra, a chief orthopedic surgeon at the University of Tennessee College of Medicine, paid Ms. Rizer $1.9 million for the Tribeca place. She had bought it six years earlier for $1.6 million.

Maybe Ms. Rizer wanted something higher? The buyer’s broker, Century 21 NY Metro executive vice president Philip Kiracofe, has a different theory: “I know she has two dogs, and one of the things they mentioned was that she was looking for more room for them to run around, somewhere outside the city.”

"You gotta understand, when somebody says, 'Yo, yo, what do you think of Flavor Flav, he's doing TV now,' I say, 'No, we have to tell Flavor Flav TV is kinda doing him right now,'" Chuck told a packed house at N.Y.U.'s Tishman Auditorium on Feb. 26. The occasion was a weekend-long discussion of It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back, Public Enemy's most celebrated album, and arguably one of the best pieces of recorded music in any genre. Never mind that the night before the band had reunited for the first time in years to perform together before such stars as Missy Elliott, Naomi Campbell, Russell Simmons, Lil' Kim, Fat Joe and Q-Tip at a benefit party for the Jam Master Jay Foundation, where they stormed their way through hits like "Welcome to the Terrordome," "Public Enemy No. 1," "911 Is a Joke," "Rebel Without a Pause," "Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos" and "Bring the Noise."

But never one to mince words, Chuck, dressed down in a crew-neck sweatshirt and trademark black baseball cap, skipped over self-congratulatory reminiscences to attack the cultural malaise currently being endorsed by his onetime band mate. He may be a little older now, but the rapper-activist looked just as imposing and defiant as the young man staring out from the cover photo of It Takes a Nation ….

"MTV and Viacom have extended the teenage years to age 29," Chuck went on. "Now people are so deep in fantasy that Americans have to watch TV for 'reality.'

"When we made this album there was a crack epidemic going on. Today we have another epidemic: 'Consumption' is the new crack."

The crowd at Tishman didn't seem to mind when Chuck moved the Public Enemy tribute on to broader topics of discussion. After all, many of the audience members had already sat through two days of various panel discussions singing the praises of It Takes a Nation ….

In addition to heaping endless amounts of praise on the album, panelists focused on another thread, espoused by everyone from former Public Enemy publicity agent Craig Davis to Chuck D himself: Contemporary hip-hop is drowning in the bling-bling abyss of albums like 50 Cent's Get Rich or Die Tryin'.

"The rap groups I deal with now," said Mr. Davis, "I just shake my head. Here comes another guy talking about bling; here comes another guy talking about his .22." As promised, Davis shook his head.

Chuck D was slightly kinder toward 80's-era mainstream rappers like Fresh Prince and LL Cool J, citing them as both a boon to P.E.'s own efforts and a routine to be avoided:

"I liked LL Cool J, but I felt we should talk about what we know," Chuck D said. "When we did this album I was 10 years older than LL. We weren't going to be rapping about making out with girls."

Fellow P.E. alumnus Hank Shocklee, who is currently writing a book on the creation of It Takes a Nation … , joined Chuck D for the weekend's final discussion. Looking a little sleeker in form-fitting black pants and jacket, with a military-surplus cap snug on his head, Mr. Shocklee fixed the crowd with an ominous stare as he blasted the current rap scene.

Addressing the African-American members of the audience, Mr. Shocklee told the crowd, "Black culture has been replaced by hip-hop culture. Black culture is not representing you anymore-hip-hop is."

When a frustrated record producer in the audience asked Mr. Shocklee for advice on dealing with the younger generation of bling-obsessed rappers, Mr. Shocklee pointedly told the man he "might want to consider changing the genre of music you work in."

"I'm not telling you what you want to hear," Mr. Shocklee added, "I'm telling you what you need to hear. This problem is too big for one individual to take the responsibility of fixing."

Times certainly have changed since Public Enemy burst on to the scene. Hip-hop may dominate the airwaves today, but in 1988 Public Enemy's publicity team had to drag journalists, sometimes kicking and screaming, to interviews with the group.

"White media were terrified of these guys," said former Public Enemy publicist Leyla Turkkan. Though she wouldn't name names, Ms. Turkkan related the tale of one journalist ("Someone who participated in a panel this weekend") who cowered in terror as Ms. Turkkan drove him to an interview with Public Enemy. The Transom's mind was racing: Was it John Leland, or maybe Robert Christgau?

After distancing themselves from the current rap scene, Chuck D and Mr. Shocklee described their own conception of It Takes a Nation … as an album with firm roots in rock, punk and soul music. Chuck D emphasized this point onstage by including Vernon Reid and Will Calhoun, of acclaimed rock outfit Living Colour, in the final panel discussion.

"We're part of a hidden history of rock 'n' roll," Reid said. "The history you usually get doesn't include the Isley Brothers; it doesn't include 'World Is a Ghetto.'"

Mr. Reid pointed out that rock outfits like Bad Brains and Fishbone were a vital inspiration to his own music, and he was quick to add that the pigeonholing of black musicians into hip-hop perpetuates ridiculous stereotypes.

Mr. Reid related the story of a backstage confrontation with Alex Van Halen, right after brother Eddie (the talented one) and new VH front man Sammy Hagar paid tribute to Living Colour in the pages of Rolling Stone. The bumbling Van Halen brother told Mr. Reid that while Eddie was a big fan, he himself could not understand why an African-American man would want to wail on the guitar.

"I just don't get that shit," he reportedly told Mr. Reid.

Though Mr. Reid admitted that he was "feeling pretty ghetto," he chose to sagely put the other Van Halen in his place.

"Why don't you go ask your brother?" replied Mr. Reid. "He's a real musician."

-Jamey Bainer

Going for Broke

There must be a support group for this kind of thing-Celebrity Daughters Embarrassed by their Lawbreaking Daddies. Long before pop tart Lindsay Lohan's father was making a full-time career out of racking up tabloid headlines with allegations of his wife-threatening, brother-in-law-beating, car-crashing high jinks, supermodel Maggie Rizer's stepfather was doing his best impression of a bad dad.

John Breen pled guilty last October to robbing Ms. Rizer of $7 million and gambling away plenty of the cash in a Quick Draw spree that started in 1998-leaving her unable to pay the mortgage on her condominium. As a result, the board of Franklin Tower, the posh Tribeca building where she bought her 1,895-square-foot two-bedroom apartment in 2000 for $1.6 million, sued the freckle-faced model in State Supreme Court on Feb. 18 for $21,186.29 plus lawyers' fees.

"It's not the first time that they've filed suit against her," says the board's lawyer, David Abramovitz. "The last time they sued, they worked it out and she paid up. Why she hasn't paid now, I really don't know."

Ms. Rizer's lawyer insists that she will pay back the board in full. "She was broke but she's going to straighten it out," says Ed Hayes. "She owes them money, she'll get it, she's back at work now." Ms. Rizer, who modeled for Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger, is lining up work and recently celebrated her 27th birthday with David Schwimmer and Keith Richards' daughters, Theodora and Alexandra, at downtown lounge Pink Elephant. Further, Mr. Hayes claimed that he was preparing to file suits on Ms. Rizer's behalf against several banks and investment houses for breach of fiduciary duty, for in effect allowing her fortune to be fleeced by her stepfather.

Mr. Breen, who could face up to 800 years in jail, was due to be sentenced on several felony counts in early January, but the case has been postponed. In the meantime, the gambling spree has roiled Ms. Rizer's upstate hometown of Watertown, where Mr. Breen gambled away most of the money on Quick Draw machines at a bar called Speak Easy, which is owned by the town's mayor, Jeff Graham. In early February, two machines were turned off by New York State Lottery officials who are conducting an investigation into the incident.

And Ms. Rizer, frustrated by malicious comments about her inability to read a bank statement or to keep track of her own fortune, which were posted on Jefferson County's Web board, has gone on the attack. Here it is verbatim: "[F]irst off.. of course i asked for statements. sadly, they were falsified … and please, i'm an intelligent girl …. these statements were also accepted by the united states government , italian, french and U.K… so- if i accepted them, .. i'll give myself the benefit of the doubt. check the facts, please- they're facinating." She also shot back at her family's detractors. "[L]astly, point no fingers at my family. this subject is between john, myself, and his pathetic 'friends'-ex …. and my fabulous lawyer. So back off … i will not be intimidated, i never have been."

-Marcus Baram

"Eight-seventeen is one of the few prewar condos in New York and the biggest on Fifth Avenue–and, I think, historically the one that everyone wants to get into," said Michele Kleier, a co-owner of Gumley Haft Kleier who is presently showing the sixth-floor apartment at 817 Fifth Avenue, which is priced at $12.5 million. "It feels like a co-op: It has high ceilings, wood-burning fireplaces and spectacular views."

It acts a lot like a co-op, too. The Solomons had to submit an application similar to a co-op board package–which, along with an interview, is the basis for co-op boards to vote to admit or reject a potential new resident. In this heated market, many condos have started requiring much more documentation and references from applicants, and many have even begun interviewing them.

Brokers said that the Solomons' deal did not fall apart because their application package was weak but because they submitted plans to renovate the apartment, and those plans were not acceptable to the condo board. "They can not approve a renovation," said one broker about the extent of power the 817 Fifth board wields. "They can give [the buyers] a very hard time."

David Solomon and his wife Sarah, an actress, wanted to significantly renovate the 6,300-square-foot apartment, formerly a doctor's office. "That was the problem," said a broker familiar with the deal. The apartment had undergone a two-and-a-half-year conversion from an office into a 15-room apartment shortly before Dyson's death, a source familiar with the deal said. "The building was giving them a very hard time because they dealt with years of work."

Enduring those years made tenants–who include Steve Wynn and Richard Gere–incredibly sensitive to any proposed renovations. According to one broker who has worked with the building, the 817 Fifth board now presides over a waiting list of current tenants seeking to renovate. "The fancier the condo, the more approvals are needed for everything," said Ms. Kleier.

Scott Durkin, chief operating officer of the Corcoran Group, said 817 Fifth probably has work rules that allow noisy construction only on the weekdays, and then only between 8 a.m. and 3 p.m. Such rules tend to lengthen projects. Mr. Durkin added: "The grass [out front] hasn't even grown back yet" from Dyson's renovation.

Dyson's triplex went back on the market for $14.5 million on Feb. 23, a couple of days after the Solomons' deal to buy the apartment fell through. Around the same time, one broker with knowledge of their plans reported, the couple made an appointment to check out a $22 million, 10-room co-op apartment at the Pierre Hotel on Fifth Avenue.

At least they'll have an idea of what they're in for.

IN TOP-SECRET TRIBECA, MAGGIE RIZER FEELS ANONYMOUS Shortly before suiting up and taking the runway before hundreds of ogling, fashion-obsessed New Yorkers, supermodel Maggie Rizer, 23, the all-American face of Tommy Hilfiger's ads, moved on Feb. 1 into a $1.6 million hideout at 90 Franklin Street.

Ms. Rizer, whose freckled face and blue eyes are plastered all over Manhattan, said she's finding Tribeca to be a more private place to live than her former home, a rental in a brownstone in the West Village that she shared with her sister, a law student. She also likes having a doorman. "I feel like the doormen are the only [people] seeing me there every day!" said Ms. Rizer.

The condo near Church Street, which started life in 1931 as the Corn Exchange Bank, has a level of service once unheard of below Houston Street, including a 24-hour doorman, a full-time concierge, two porters and a handyman. "It's nice because you don't see anyone," Ms. Rizer said. "There are three elevators and 17 floors, so you don't run into that many people."

Memo to Maggie: Lauren duPont, a fashion editor at W and Vogue 's gossipy Web site, Style.com, and daughter of the chief executive of Sears, Roebuck & Company, lives in the building in a three-bedroom apartment that she and her husband bought for $1.3 million last August.

Ms. Rizer is not totally uncritical of her trendy new home. "In Tribeca, you actually have to go to a grocery store," she said. But she moved into the neighborhood for the extra space, not for the delis.

Unlike her neighbor, Mariah Carey, who has hired Mario Buatta to wrap her $9 million triplex penthouse in chintzy fabric, Ms. Rizer and her boyfriend, Jorge Zavala, a student, have been giving their place "a little facelift" of their own.

"We did a lot of garden-sunset kind of colors; one of the bathrooms is very orangish-reddish," said Ms. Rizer between catwalk struts in New York and Milan. The 1,895-square-foot apartment has two bedrooms and two bathrooms, and maintenance is $1,084. "There are greens and blues and yellows. It's a bit eclectic."

Ms. Rizer said she's still looking around for the right artwork to spruce the place up, but she has installed some antique doors, some of which she bought in India. She's still waiting for a big mahogany bed from Indonesia. "It's kind of a work in progress," she said.

Right about now, Ben Stiller–whose new film Zoolander is a parody of the fashion flock–is kicking himself for never moving into the apartment he once owned in the building.

CARNEGIE HILL

1185 Park Avenue

Three-bed, 3,800-square-foot co-op.

Asking: $4.9 million. Selling: $4.8 million.

Charges: $2,790; 38 percent tax deductible.

Time on the market: five and a half months.

THE ALTERNATE SET OF REAR WINDOW One of the very few grand-courtyard apartment buildings left in Manhattan, and the only one still standing on Park Avenue, this co-op has 185 apartments. Designed by Schwartz & Gross–among the most prolific apartment-house designers of the early 20th century–this 1929 building reflects the firm's movement from Renaissance- to Gothic- and medieval-inspired details, also evident in their designs at 44 Gramercy Park North and 14 East 75th Street. Entry to the bucolic central courtyard, by car or on foot, is gained through a Gothic triple-arch entrance and driveway. The very large courtyard leads to six elevator lobbies, each of which serves only two apartments per floor. The façades facing the courtyard are also rich in Gothic detail. Other building amenities include an 800-square-foot basement gym detailed in black granite and pine trim, built in 1995 out of a former "ironing" room that had been used for storage. A couple–New Yorkers in the vacation-planning industry–bought this apartment in January from a European couple who had used it as a pied-à-terre, according to broker Norma Hirsch of Douglas Elliman. The nine-room apartment is on a lower floor; it has three bedrooms and a library. The living room (with a wood-burning fireplace), dining room and master bedroom all face Park Avenue.

UPPER EAST SIDE

575 Park Avenue

Two-bed, two-bath, 1,200-square-foot co-op.

Asking: $1.15 million. Selling: $1.2 million.

Charges: $3,516; 15 percent tax deductible.

Time on market: five months.

SIZE ISN'T EVERYTHING The price of this petite two-bedroom co-op was reduced by $100,000 in June to attract buyers, but when a contract was signed on Nov. 2, it was for $50,000 above the asking price. The sale price works out to be $1,000 a square foot–a lot to ask for an apartment, even in this market. But this wasn't just any apartment, which may be why the owners held out for five months before making a deal with the buyer, a real estate developer and his wife. The apartment is in the prestigious prewar Beekman Hotel, and the building's rich history, provenance and ideal location won out in the end. This 10th-floor apartment overlooks Park Avenue and has been extensively renovated, according to Claire Ratusch of Douglas Elliman, the exclusive broker on the deal. The apartment features a wood-burning fireplace, a granite and mahogany gourmet kitchen, oak floors set in the old-fashioned herringbone pattern, and architect-designed built-ins and closets. The Old New York flavor is guaranteed in this building by its architecture: a classic, buff-colored brick façade with terra-cotta trim and the ubiquitous limestone base, and a bright, well-appointed lobby with Old World hotel fixtures and the Park Avenue Café restaurant. (That spot has previously been occupied by such storied restaurants as Le Perigord.) These diminutive domiciles have long been popular as pieds-à-terre, given the building's prime location. Former tenants have included actor Douglas Fairbanks Jr., who died in May of last year, and financier Henry Kaufmann. Another throwback to earlier times: included with the monthly maintenance is maid service–and, in this case, the sale price also included some of the traditional furnishings installed by the sellers, longtime occupants.

UPPER WEST SIDE

263 West End Avenue

Two-bed, two-bath, 1,250-square-foot co-op.

Asking: $650,000. Selling: $635,000.

Charges: $1,087; 47 percent tax deductible.

Time on the market: Five months.

DIALING BACK TO MILDLY GREEDY Back in the spring of 2000, when the real estate market was peaking, a couple looking forward to retirement put their four-and-a-half-room apartment in fair condition on the market for $625,000. When they got an offer right away, they started getting greedy. "There was enough interest that we thought we could raise the price," said David Dernberger of the Halstead Property Company. They may have spoken too soon. After they raised the price by $25,000, the Nasdaq meltdown cooled the market and the frenzy stopped. They finally got a couple with no children to sign a contract in October for $635,000. "It survived the best of times and the worst of times," said Mr. Dernberger. "We sold it for more than it originally came on the market for at the worst of times," he said. The deal closed on Feb. 12.

FLATIRON DISTRICT

23 West 16th Street

One-bed, one-bath, 1,500-square-foot co-op.

Asking: $1.095 million. Selling: $1.095 million.

Charges: $1,308; 47 percent tax deductible.

Time on the market: five months.

NATIONAL LAMPOON'S PERMANENT VACATION This 1,500-square-foot, one-bedroom apartment was formerly owned by Michael O'Donoghue, the late satirist perhaps better known as Mr. Mike, who was the head writer for Saturday Night Live from 1975-80 and one of the original contributors to National Lampoon. According to Carol Shainswit, an associate broker at the Corcoran Group, O'Donoghue lived in this apartment, the parlor floor of a converted townhouse, for 20 years until his death in 1994. His wife has since remarried and put the place on the market last spring. Although people were interested, there was no serious offer and so she took the apartment off the market for the summer. When it was returned to the market in September, the apartment–which has 13-foot ceilings, two fireplaces, a formal living room and dining room and original moldings–sold in just a few weeks. The sale closed on Jan. 23; a financial executive and his wife are moving in. They may or may not know that, after Mr. O'Donoghue's death from a brain tumor at the age of 54, his apartment was decorated with his CAT scans for his wake.

Correction

In the Feb. 12 issue, it was reported that Sharon Baum of the Corcoran Group sold the Vanderbilt Fabbri Mansion at 11 East 62nd Street to the Japanese government for $21.5 million in December 1998. Ms. Baum marketed the townhouse for a year, but Jed Garfield of Leslie J. Garfield & Company procured the Japanese government as a buyer when his company and Simon-Rudd Associates were marketing the house.