BUNGALUX

WHAT MAKES THIS A BUNGALUX

For $19 million were you expecting something finished?

• • A History Lesson:
• • The Sherry Netherland Hotel replaced William H. Hume's New Netherland Hotel of 1892.
• • The small lobby entrance is adorned with sculpture panels salvaged from the William K. Vanderbilt mansion that was demolished to make way for the Bergdorf Goodman store nearby on the southwest corner of the avenue at 58th Street. During its construction, a major fire broke out in its scaffolding before its standpipes were functioning, but the hotel was not destroyed. The 570-foot-high, 38-story building was the world's tallest apartment hotel when it was opened and all the floors above the 24th had only one apartment each.
• • Because it was erected during the Prohibition, the Sherry Netherland, shown at the left from across Fifth Avenue, developed by Louis Sherry and Lucius Boomer, did not have major dining facilities, although its basement was converted in the 1970's to a very exclusive private disco and restaurant known as Raffles that within a few years was renamed Doubles and redesigned by Valerian Rybar in bright red colors.
• • Unlike the Pierre, which was located in a residential zone, the Sherry Netherland's retail frontage has always been supremely elegant. The long-term tenant of the corner store has been La Vieille Russe, specializing in extravagant Russian bibelots. South of the entrance, the restaurant space has been operated for several years by Harry Cipriani as one of the city's most elegant restaurants. North of the entrance, Diane von Furstenberg commissioned architect Michael Graves (one of our fave architects, by the way) to design an opulent salon in 1984 that was subsequently taken over by Geoffrey Beene.
• • The Sherry Netherland has 165 apartments that were converted to cooperatives in 1954. It has spectacular views of Fifth Avenue, the Plaza Hotel, Central Park South and Central Park.