205 West 57th Street #5/6BCD

The Building

The Osborne, one of the few buildings in Manhattan that can actually be termed historic, was built between 1883-1885 making it contemporaneous with the Dakota on Central Park West and one of the city's earliest luxury buildings. The architecturally-impressive landmark, situated cattycorner to Carnegie Hall at 57th Street and 7th Avenue, is a rare example of the original development of multi-family dwellings for well-to-do residents.

The building's design draws on elements of both Romanesque Revival (the heavy, rusticated stone exterior and deeply set windows) and the emerging Renaissance Revival style indicated by its refinement, proportions and strong horizontality. The lobby itself is a fine New York treasure: inch upon inch of intricate, multi-colored 19th century carved wood and ceramic tile in the entranceway and main corridor. Some have thought the windows in the mail room were designed by John LaFarge or his studio. Because of proximity to Broadway and Carnegie Hall, and legendarily thick floors and walls, the high-ceilinged corridors have felt the footsteps of major theatrical, design and music legends, from the Redgraves to Ralph Bellamy to Van Cliburn to Leonard Bernstein (who, it is said, kept residents awake till all hours refining his score for WEST SIDE STORY).

The Apartment

This is one of the most clear cut and fantastic bargains on the market, priced at under $650 a square foot in a prime historic building. Apartments 5DB-5DC-6DC are a combination duplex facing south onto 57th Street. You enter into a double-height living room with a bay, three section floor to ceiling window - a dramatic, expansive area perfect for entertaining and certainly large enough for the family piano There is also a full powder room/bath. On the first floor of the duplex, you have a large dining room with a small kitchenette, and a large bedroom and bath at the end of the hall. The second story of the duplex, reached via a marble stairway, has a gallery area that could be converted back to a bedroom, a small kitchenette that would make a wonderful wet bar, another bedroom and a full bath. The approximate Square Footage is 2600, which awaits your vision. We have alternate plans available for prospective buyers to see which would be, of course, subject to approval by the building board. The seller is serious and given the right circumstances will consider holding the mortgage.

It is unusual to find this amount of space in an historic building, most of which have been carved into smaller apartments, and also at the most central location you can find in New York City. The unit has not been inhabited for a long time and awaits your vision. There is transportation, shopping, theater, concerts and restaurants in every direction just outside the door. Here is your chance to make a piece of history your own, and to create your own history in it.