An unusual Carnegie Hill mansion of majestic proportions â€" it is 25 feet wide â€" and distinguished by the ultimate in urban convenience items, an en-suite garage offering direct and discreet entry into the home, sold for $24,912,140 and was the most expensive sale of the week, according to city records.
Off Fifth Avenue at 1 East 94th Street, the 15-room house was built in 1892 and given an external face-lift in 1921 by Cass Gilbert, the architect whose most famous creation is the Woolworth Building, the tallest skyscraper in the world at the time of its completion in 1913. Gilbert, a pioneer of the skyscraper genre, was evidently fond of wide spaces as well: he not only designed and renovated 1 East 94th, but also lived there for a time.
The most recent master of this grand limestone town house was the music mogul and hiphop enthusiast Lyor Cohen, who resigned, golden parachute in hand, in September as the chief executive for recorded music at the Warner Music Group. Mr. Cohen, who got his start in the music business as the road manager for Run-DMC, bought the six-bedroom, seven-bath town house in 1999 for $9.175 million. He then commissioned an extensive interior renovation and modernization that mandated the installation of a private gym (he is an exercise buff) and, he said in a 2009 interview, a sauna big enough to fit all the men in his family.
The house has an elevator, a pair of powder rooms, and outdoor entertainment options that include a large terrace and a planted patio. Mr. Cohen, who divorced in 2006 and is now linked to the fashion designer Tory Bu! rch, had been trying to sell the house since 2010, when it went on the market with a $28 million price tag (since trimmed to $26 million). The listing agent, Serena Boardman of Sotheby’s International Realty, declined to comment on the transaction.
The buyer’s identity was shielded by a limited liability company, Hilltop East 94th Street.
In a runner-up transaction that presented yet another example of the year-end rush to consolidate luxury sales before harsher tax implications kick in, the lavish duplex penthouse condominium at the Park Laurel that had been owned by J. Michael Evans, the vice chairman and global head of growth markets at Goldman Sachs, sold for $23.75 million. Mr. Evans, who is on the short list to succeed Lloyd C. Blankfein to lead Goldman Sachs, had previously used the statement-making Gwathmey Siegel-designed penthouse as a pied-Ã -terre until buying the final sponsor unit at 995 Fifth Avenue, the former Stanhope, this summer fo $27,376,940.
The 5,000-square-foot modernist penthouse, No. 40A, at 15 West 63rd Street, designed by Beyer Blinder Belle and Costas Kondylis, has 12 rooms (5 of them bedrooms) and one-of-a-kind decorative accents, like a double-sided stone and steel fireplace. There are five full bathrooms and, according to some published descriptions, an improbable assortment of five powder rooms. The unit had been listed in September for $26.75 million.
The listing broker, Sabrina Saltiel of Douglas Elliman Real Estate, declined to elaborate on the sale; the buyer sought anonymity through Shadyhouse Holdings, a limited liability company.
Big Ticket includes closed sales from the previous week, ending Wednesday.
