AVENUE the going places issue
FEBRUARY 2017
SUZANNE O’MALLEY’s
Advice for New Immigrants
DAPHNE MERKIN’s
Unorthodox East Side Family
I’LL TAKE
MANHATTAN AMAL CLOONEY COMES TO MIDTOWN
FOUNDING TEAM We extend a special thanks to the members of our founding team who exemplify Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices’s core values of integrity, service and excellence.
Adam Lichtin Licensed Real Estate Salesperson
Ellie Johnson President elliejohnson@bhhsnyproperties.com 212.710.1903
adamlichtin@bhhsnyproperties.com 646.677.1027
Christine Driscoll Senior Sales Executive, Associate Real Estate Broker
Dominic Longcroft Sales Executive, Associate Real Estate Broker
christinedriscoll@bhhsnyproperties.com 646.677.1020
dominiclongcroft@bhhsnyproperties.com 646.677.1022
Anne Flanagan Licensed Real Estate Salesperson
Jolain Muller Licensed Real Estate Salesperson
anneflanagan@bhhsnyproperties.com 646.677.1026
jolainmuller@bhhsnyproperties.com 646.677.1025
Janet Hoover Licensed Real Estate Salesperson
Sheila Starr Licensed Real Estate Salesperson
janethoover@bhhsnyproperties.com 646.677.1021
sheilastarr@bhhsnyproperties.com 646.677.1023
www.bhhsnyproperties.com
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A NAME RESPECTED WORLDWIDE. NOW AT HOME IN NEW YORK CITY. One of the most admired names in business is now in the real estate business—right here on Madison Avenue. Learn more at bhhsnyproperties.com.
New York Properties
590 Madison Avenue • New York, New York 10022 212.710.1900 • contact@bhhsnyproperties.com © 2017 BHH Affiliates, LLC. An independently operated subsidiary of HomeServices of America, Inc., a Berkshire Hathaway affiliate, and a franchisee of BHH Affiliates, LLC. Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices and the Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices symbol are registered service marks of HomeServices of America, Inc.® Equal Housing Opportunity. Information not verified or guaranteed. If your home is currently listed with a Broker, this is not intended as a solicitation.
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L E TTE R F RO M T H E EDITOR
DEAR READERS,
NEW YORK HAS BEEN a city of immigrants since the days of its first Dutch settlers, the British who usurped them, and on through waves of varied ethnicities, minorities and emigrés—Germans, Irish, Jews, Italians, Puerto Ricans, Dominicans, and more recently, Ecuadorians, Russians and Asians. The list is long and ever-evolving. Names, labels and slurs have attached to each group as its members climbed the socioeconomic ladder from foreigners to arrivistes to nouveaux to, finally, just New Yorkers.
FRED CONRAD
In thinking about this year’s travel issue, I realized that all of us, except the handful of Native Americans who remain here, are also travelers, or their progeny are. I dubbed this our Going Places Issue, because aren’t so many of us here because we wanted to be somewhere better? That notion hit me when I read that two of the latest newcomers would be the international human rights lawyer Amal Alamuddin Clooney and her husband, George. When that news was confirmed in a press release from 100 East 53rd Street developer Aby Rosen’s flacks, I decided she should be the subject of the first AVENUE cover story I assigned. After running into dead ends to get an interview, I asked the Turkish-born television journalist and Voice of America correspondent Asli Pelit to do the story anyway because it has news value. Both Clooneys are poster-sized public figures— I love our cover by illustrator Maren Esdar—and most of all because Amal Clooney represents everything great about New Yorkers. She’s smart, accomplished, outspoken, progressive and fashion-savvy—and really great-looking, too. Oh, yeah, she’s also a the daughter of a Muslim. You got a problem with that?
One reason why New York is so exciting is that Muslims and Jews rub shoulders here.
As it happens, New Yorkers do have problems with wealthy multinational condo buyers who comprise our latest class of immigrants. i.e., folks like the Clooneys. They’re not as bad as tourists who walk four abreast on crowded sidewalks, but they, too, can use some help fitting in. So investigative journalist and television dramatist Suzanne O’Malley offers them words of advice in her AVENUE debut. Next month, O’Malley, one of the funniest people I know, will launch a new back page column, N.O.C.D., which means “Not our class, dear,” which signals its subject matter.
E: YOUTUBE
SCREEN CAPTUR
Our final feature this month, by Daphne Merkin, the esteemed essayist, is an excerpt from her just released book, This Close to Happy: A Reckoning with Depression (Farrar, Straus and Giroux), which features a subplot focused on her family, one of the most prominent in New York’s Orthodox Jewish community. Daphne’s father Hermann Merkin was a founder of the Fifth Avenue Synagogue. More notoriously, her older brother Ezra Merkin fed funds to the Ponzi scamster Bernard Madoff, and recently made more news when a devastating fire at the grand co-op building 740 Park began in his apartment. Merkin will discuss her book with Dick Cavett at the 92nd Street Y on February 15 at 8 p.m. One reason why New York is so exciting is that Muslims and Jews rub shoulders here. They also do that in what I hope you’ll find to be an incendiary issue of AVENUE. I hope you’ll agree that I’m keeping my promise to make it a more provocative magazine. Michael Gross Editor in Chief
4 | AVENUE MAGAZINE • AVENUE ON THE BEACH • FEBRUARY 2017
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VOL. 41 NO. 2
FEATURES 46
THE AWE OF GRAVITY
Amal Alamuddin Clooney is a force to be reckoned with
by asli pelit
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HOUSE RULES
Dos and don’ts for New York’s “New Immigrants”
by suzanne o’malley
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THE MERKIN BUNCH
In an excerpt from her new memoir, Daphne Merkin reveals family fissures hidden behind a Park Avenue facade.
by daphne merkin
COLUMNS 28
CHRONICLES
Who was Naughty and Nice this year?
by debbie bancroft
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OBJECTS OF DESIRE
Ocean hues with a glimmer of gold
by wendy sy
on the cover Amal Clooney, illustration by Maren Esdar
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this page Amal and George Clooney. Photographed by Billy Farrell. (far right) Daphne Merkin and siblings. Photo courtesy Daphne Merkin
6 | AVENUE MAGAZINE • AVENUE ON THE BEACH • FEBRUARY 2017
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VOL. 41 NO. 2
TRENDSCAPE
Resort Ready: What’s “in” this resort season
by kristopher fraser
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JEWELRY BOX
The Walters Faith x Olivia Chantecaille collection proves what’s old is new again
by wendy sy
40
EDIFICE COMPLEX
As a new mansion in the former “Bankers Colony” comes on the market, a reflection on its history
by john freeman gill
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POSTCARD FROM . . . A dreamy escape in Puerto Rico
by kelly laffey
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SOCIAL SAFARI
The party of the year: Madonna’s Raising Malawi
by r. couri hay
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WORLD ACCORDING TO . . . Restaurateur Jean-Georges Vongerichten
introduction by kelly laffey
DEPARTMENTS 15
ON THE AVENUE
Fashion, debutantes and diamonds on parade
by kristopher fraser
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ARTS CALENDAR
This month’s selection of arts and culture
by paul oliver
letters to the editor
Dr. Peredo has been
AVENUE welcomes “Letters to the Editor” Please address to: Michael Gross 72 Madison Avenue, 11th Floor New York, NY 10016 mgross@manhattanmedia.com
labeled "Super Doctor" by The New York Times and peer nominated "Top Doc" in the New York Metro area by Castle Connolly® 8 | AVENUE MAGAZINE • AVENUE ON THE BEACH • FEBRUARY 2017
AVENUE online
For the latest on people, parties and life in New York, visit avenuemagazine.com Like and follow us on @AVENUEinsider
ESTATE ON OX PASTURE
Web: 0057156 | Offered at $12,995,000
HARALD GRANT ASSOCIATE BROKER | 516.527.7712
SOUTHAMPTON BROKERAGE | 50 NUGENT ST., SOUTHAMPTON, NY 11968 | 631.283.0600 | SOTHEBYSHOMES.COM/HAMPTONS Sotheby’s International Realty and the Sotheby’s International Realty logo are registered (or unregistered) service marks used with permission. Operated by Sotheby’s International Realty, Inc. Real estate agents affiliated with Sotheby’s International Realty, Inc. are independent contractor sales associates and are not employees of Sotheby’s International Realty, Inc.
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PA L M B E AC H FINE PROPERTIES
EDITOR IN CHIEF Michael Gross mgross@manhattanmedia.com CREATIVE DIRECTOR/MANAGING EDITOR Jessica Ju-Hyun Lee Ho jlee@manhattanmedia.com DEPUTY EDITOR Kelly Laffey klaffey@manhattanmedia.com SENIOR EDITOR Wendy Sy wsy@manhattanmedia.com ASSOCIATE EDITOR Kristopher Fraser kfraser@manhattanmedia.com EDITORS AT LARGE Helena Gautier ■ Suzanne O’Malley ARCHITECTURE AND REAL ESTATE EDITOR John Freeman Gill FASHION DIRECTOR AT LARGE Emily Barnes
Everglades Club Golf Course Perfectly restored residence with wonderful casual and formal rooms. Estate size property located on very exclusive and private Golfview Road. Stylish 39’ x 15’ swimming pool. Romantic balconies and bay windows with glorious pastoral golf course views. Society architect Maurice Fatio landmark. An absolutely stunning jewel. Exclusive $6,900,000 | 19golfviewroad.com
CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Roger de Cabrol CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Debbie Bancroft ■ R. Couri Hay ■ Paul Oliver CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS Billy Farrell ■ Ben Fink Shapiro Patrick McMullan ■ Georgia Nerheim ADVERTISING GRAPHIC DESIGNER Jen Ng jng@manhattanmedia.com COPY EDITOR James Walsh
WALLY TURNER
SENIOR GLOBAL REAL ESTATE ADVISOR
561.301.2060
wally.turner@sothebyshomes.com PALM BEACH BROKERAGE 340 Royal Poinciana Way, Palm Beach, FL 33480 Operated by Sotheby’s International Realty, Inc.
10 | AVENUE MAGAZINE • AVENUE ON THE BEACH • FEBRUARY 2017
FACT CHECKER Pearl Ashcraft Avenue Media, LLC 72 Madison Avenue, 11th Floor, New York, NY 10016 Subscriptions are $100 in U.S., $150 overseas Tel: 212.268.8600 Fax: 212.268.0577 E-mail: avenue@manhattanmedia.com www.avenuemagazine.com
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PROUDLY PRESEN TI N G P O N D L AN E ESTAT E
PRESIDENT Randi Schatz rschatz@manhattanmedia.com ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER Susan Feinman sfeinman@manhattanmedia.com SALES MANAGER, HAMPTONS Maria Cable mcable@manhattanmedia.com HAMPTONS SALES DIRECTOR Ken Kroncke ken@manhattanmedia.com HAMPTONS ADVERTISING SALES REPRESENTATIVES Catherine Ellams ■ Jean Lynch Kathy Rae ■ Tom W. Ratcliffe III ACCOUNT DIRECTORS, SOUTH FLORIDA & CARIBBEAN Maria Coyne mecoyne@mecoyneinc.com Susan Harrington susan@mecoyneinc.com MARKETING MANAGER Amourelle Delmonte adelmonte@manhattanmedia.com DIRECTOR OF FINANCE AND OPERATIONS Shawn Scott sscott@manhattanmedia.com
Subdivided 15+/- acre estate, 7 bedrooms, 7.5 baths, pool, tennis $58,000,000 | Web: 0056887 PondLaneEstate.com
D E B O RA H S RB A S S O C I AT E B R O K E R 516.445.6828 DEBORAH.SRB@SOTHEBYSHOMES.COM
ACCOUNTS MANAGER Kathy Pollyea kpollyea@manhattanmedia.com CIRCULATION MANAGER Aaron Pollard apollard@manhattanmedia.com CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER Dennis Rodriguez drodriguez@manhattanmedia.com WEB DEVELOPER Stephanie Schroeck sschroeck@manhattanmedia.com SALES AND MARKETING INTERNS Nadia Semmar ■ Jasmine Breeland
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SOUTHAMPTON BROKERAGE | 631.283.0600 50 NUGENT STREET, SOUTHAMPTON, NY 11968 SOTHEBYSHOMES.COM/HAMPTONS Sotheby’s International Realty and the Sotheby’s International Realty logo are registered (or unregistered) service marks used with permission. Operated by Sotheby’s International Realty, Inc. Real estate agents affiliated with Sotheby’s International Realty, Inc. are independent contractor sales associates and are not employees of Sotheby’s International Realty, Inc.
12 | AVENUE MAGAZINE • AVENUE ON THE BEACH • FEBRUARY 2017
manhattan media |
CHAIRMAN Richard Burns rburns@manhattanmedia.com EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT TO THE CHAIRMAN Clara Quiroga cquiroga@isisventures.com DIRECTOR OF HUMAN RESOURCES Lauren Kaplan lkaplan@manhattanmedia.com
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AVENUE
Stella McCartney and Ryan McGinley at the Stella McCartney Autumn 2017 Presentation
photographed by Joe Schildhorn
ON TH E AV E N U E |
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SINGING THE PRAISES OF CAROLINA HERRERA Lincoln Center honored fashion icon Carolina Herrera with the Women’s Leadership Award. The event featured a performance by music star Diana Ross, who sang hits like “I’m Coming Out.” Harper’s Bazaar editor-in-chief Glenda Bailey presented Herrera with the award. 1. Pepe and Emilia Fanjul and Prince Dimitri of Yugoslavia 2. Lela Rose 3. Nicky Hilton Rothschild and Patricia Herrera Lansing 4. Reinaldo Herrera Guevara and Carolina Herrera 5. Roopal Patel and Emilie Rubinfeld 6. Carolina Herrera de Bàez 7. Jamee and Peter Gregory 8. Michael Clinton, Julianna Margulies and Keith Lieberthal
16 | AVENUE MAGAZINE • AVENUE ON THE BEACH • FEBRUARY 2017
JOE SCHILDHORN/BFA.COM
A designer night at Lincoln Center
RESORT & VILLAS FAMILIES WEDDINGS GROUPS GOLF EQUESTRIAN TENNIS SHOOTING SPA MARINA GASTRONOMY
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ON TH E AVENUE C H R I S T I A N A NG L E
SCENES FROM A COTILLION
R E A L E S TAT E
The Pierre Played Host to the Debutante Ball.
TRUST | DEDICATION | PERSONAL COMMITMENT
Forty-six young women made their bows to society at the 62nd International Debutante Ball and Dinner Dance at the Pierre hotel. This year’s debutantes represented England, France, Scotland, China, Canada and 13 American states. An escort in white tie and tails accompanied each lady. 1. Caroline Jahr, Aidan O’Rourke, Isabelle Terry and Parker Goldstein 2. Camila Mendoza Echavarria and Anne Eisenhower 3. Elizabeth Anne Carl 4. Natalie Counce and Carl Brown 5. Diana Ashley Castellano and Conner Alexandra Castellano
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242 Dunbar Road, Palm Beach 2
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Exclusive - $12,750,000 C 561.629.3015
www.AngleRealEstate.com
T 561.659.6551
E cjangle@anglerealestate.com
Though information is assumed to be correct, offerings are subject to verification, errors, omissions, prior sale, and withdrawal without notice. All material herein is intended for informational purposes only and has been compiled from sources deemed reliable. Equal Housing Opportunity.
18 | AVENUE MAGAZINE • AVENUE ON THE BEACH • FEBRUARY 2017
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AURORA ROSE/PMC; #3 MICHAEL GROSS
Elegant 5BR/5.5BA Mediterranean on oversized In-Town lot. Estate features guest apartment, soaring pecky cypress ceilings, library, and 2 car garage. Beautifully manicured grounds with zen garden, fountains, loggia, and pool. Designer ready. Lot 29,000 +/- square feet with lots of possibilities.
NOW UNDER CONSTRUCTION
ADD THIS VIEW TO YOUR COLLECTION
OVER 50% SOLD
BEYOND PRICELESS VIEWS, THE BRISTOL OFFERS A SUITE OF UNRIVALED AMENITIES EXCLUSIVE TO RESIDENTS. FROM THE VALET AND CAR SERVICE TO THE TWO-STORY SPA AND FITNESS CENTER OVERLOOKING THE INTRACOASTAL, EVERY ASPECT OF LIFE IS ELEVATED TO AN ART WHEN YOU LIVE IN THE PALM BEACHES’ MOST OPULENT WATERFRONT CONDOMINIUM TOWER. 561-222-4444 | BY APPOINTMENT ONLY | THEBRISTOLPALMBEACH.COM | SALES@THEBRISTOLPALMBEACH.COM PALM BEACH ISLAND SALES GALLERY: 440 ROYAL PALM WAY, SUITE 100, PALM BEACH, FL 33480 DEVELOPED BY FLAGLER INVESTORS LLC ORAL REPRESENTATIONS CANNOT BE RELIED UPON AS CORRECTLY STATING THE REPRESENTATIONS OF THE DEVELOPER. FOR CORRECT REPRESENTATIONS, MAKE REFERENCE TO THE DOCUMENTS REQUIRED BY SECTION 718.503, FLORIDA STATUTES, TO BE FURNISHED BY A DEVELOPER TO A BUYER OR LESSEE. THIS IS NOT INTENDED TO BE AN OFFER TO SELL, OR SOLICITATION TO BUY, CONDOMINIUM UNITS TO RESIDENTS OF ANY JURISDICTION WHERE SUCH OFFER OR SOLICITATION CANNOT BE MADE OR ARE OTHERWISE PROHIBITED BY LAW, AND YOUR ELIGIBILITY FOR PURCHASE WILL DEPEND UPON YOUR STATE OF RESIDENCY. THIS OFFERING IS MADE ONLY BY THE PROSPECTUS FOR THE CONDOMINIUM AND NO STATEMENT SHOULD BE RELIED UPON IF NOT MADE IN THE PROSPECTUS. THE PRICING AND AVAILABILITY ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE WITHOUT NOTICE. FOR NEW YORK RESIDENTS THE COMPLETE OFFERING TERMS ARE IN AN OFFERING PLAN AVAILABLE FROM THE SPONSOR, FILE NO. CD15-0055 (*Note that Sponsor and Seller are the same.)
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A FEAST FOR BEASTS The Animal Medical Center’s Top Dog Gala honored Donna Acquavella and celebrated two extraordinary canines, U.S. Secret Service K-9 Hurricane and U.S. Customs and Border Protection K-9 Jasper. The event, cochaired by Robert Couturier, Nancy Kissinger, Elaine Langone, Elizabeth Monaco McCarthy and Annette de la Renta, raised nearly $1.6 million for the world-class veterinary hospital on the Upper East Side. . 1. Annette de la Renta, Donna Acquavella and Elaine Langone 2. Kim White, Kenneth Langone and Marianne Cheek Mebane 3. Dr. Henry Kissinger and Jamie Niven 4. Kathy and Billy Rayner 5. Tina Flaherty 6. Kristy Clark, Dixon Boardman and Christina Floyd Di Donna 7. Ande Phipps, Karen LeFrak and Gail Gilbert
20 | AVENUE MAGAZINE • AVENUE ON THE BEACH • FEBRUARY 2017
MATTEO PRANDONI/BFA.COM
Top Dog Gala Raked in Top Dollars
Putting clients first has its rewards.
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Greater New York • John Hoffman Palm Beach/Treasure Coast • Michael Bracci South Florida • John Fumagalli INVESTING \ BANKING \ TRUST & ESTATE SERVICES \ WEALTH PLANNING \ FAMILY OFFICE Member FDIC. © 2017 Northern Trust Corporation. 2016 Global Private Banking Awards presented by Professional Wealth Management and The Banker.
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2017 CONCERT SEASON Arsht Center-Knight Concert Hall MIAMI
Broward Center-Amaturo Theater FORT LAUDERDALE
FAU-Kaye Auditorium BOCA RATON
FKCC-Tennessee Williams Theatre KEY WEST
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SHINE BRIGHT LIKE A DIAMOND New York society came together for the opening of De Beers’ new Madison Avenue boutique. Created in partnership with renowned artisans, the contemporary two-story boutique houses the full range of De Beers’ timeless pieces.
For More Info & Tickets: SouthFloridaSymphony.org or 954-522-8445 22 | AVENUE MAGAZINE • AVENUE ON THE BEACH • FEBRUARY 2017
1. Fan Bingbing 2. Kate Mara 3. Dylana Suarez, Harley Viera-Newton and Natalie Suarez 4. François Delage 5. Marina Rutherfurd
HAGOP KALAIDJIAN/BFA.COM
De Beers Debuts on Madison Avenue
TOW NHOME RESIDENCES FEATURING LUXURY LIFESTYLE A MENITIES & A N EXCEPTIONA L LOCATION ON LONG ISLA ND’S GOLD COAST
LUXURY FITNESS & LIFESTYLE AMENITIES STATE-OF-THE-ART FITNESS CENTER WITH PELOTON ® BIKES, GOLF ON-SITE SPA TREATMENTS BY THE RED DOOR BY ELIZABETH ARDEN SIMULATOR & ON-SITE PERSONAL TRAINING TWELVE ACRES OF LANDSCAPED GROUNDS WITH WATERFRONT PROMENADE & KAYAK LAUNCH, VILLAGE GREEN SPACE, BBQ GRILLS, CHILDRENʼS PLAYGROUND & ACCESS TO DOG RUN HOUSE KAYAKS, PADDLE BOARDS & BICYCLES FOR BORROW CLUB HOUSE WITH BILLIARDS, BAR, CATERING KITCHEN & MORE.
SPACIOUS THREE & FOUR BEDROOM CONDOMINIUM RESIDENCES PRICED FROM $1,400,000 OPEN HOUSE SATURDAY & SUNDAY FROM 11AM TO 1PM RoslynLanding.com | 516.621.3110 | 1407 Old Northern Boulevard, Roslyn, NY 11576 Exclusive Marketing & Sales Agent: Douglas Elliman Development Marketing. The complete terms are in an offering plan available from the Sponsor. File No. CD15-0170. Sponsor: BITI, LLC, 111 South Street, Suite 227, Oyster Bay, NY 11771.
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WHAT’S GOOD FOR THE GOOSE? The stars came out for Julia Restoin Roitfeld’s preview of the Le Marché Bleu pop-up shop in SoHo. Guests enjoyed craft cocktails and a surprise performance from the Harlem Gospel Choir. 1. Andy Torres and Rebecca Laurey 2. Julia Restoin Roitfeld 3. Kelly Rutherford 4. St. Vincent 5. Seth Tringale, Samantha Angelo, Ann Caruso, Katrina Pavlos and Julia Loomis 6. Garrett Neff 7. Tessa Thompson 8. Timo Weiland 9. Rita Ora
24 | AVENUE MAGAZINE • AVENUE ON THE BEACH • FEBRUARY 2017
MADISON MCGAW/BFA.COM
Grey Goose Partied for Le Marché Bleu
VIP ACCESS
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INTERIOR DESIGN BY DEBORA AGUIAR
POOL TERRACE & TENNIS CLUB
HYDEBEACHHOUSE.COM ®
Related Realty & Key International Sales in collaboration with Fortune Development Sales
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HYDE STYLE SERVICES
ORIGINAL WORKS OF CONTEMPORARY ART
T 954.744.1051 Visit one of our sales offices:
75 SE 6th St, Ste. #101 Miami, FL 33131 2801 E Hallandale Beach Blvd, Hallandale Beach, FL 33009
Oral representations cannot be relied upon as correctly stating representations of the developer. For correct representations, make reference to this brochure and the documents required by Section 718.503, Florida Statutes, to be furnished by a developer to a buyer or lessee. This offering is void where prohibited by law. Your eligibility for purchase will depend upon your state or territory of residency. This Condominium is developed by PRH 4000 SOUTH OCEAN, LLC (“Developer”). This offering is made only by the Prospectus for the Condominium; no statement should be relied upon if not made in the Prospectus provided to you by the Developer. Developer expressly reserves the right to make modifications, revisions, and changes to the Condominium design and to amenities as the Developer deems desirable or necessary as a matter of code compliance, or otherwise. Developer, pursuant to license or marketing agreements with each, has a right to use the trade names, marks, and logos of: The Related Group, SBE Licensing, LLC and SBE Hotel Group, LLC, which licensors are not the Developer. HYDE® is the registered trademark of SBE Licensing, LLC. In the event the license to use HYDE® terminates, or is not renewed, HYDE can no longer be associated with the Condominium. Any art depicted or described may be exchanged for comparable art at the Developer’s discretion. Consult the Prospectus for all terms, conditions, specifications, and Unit dimensions. This condominium is not beachfront.Reproduction for private or commercial use is not authorized. 2015® PRH 4000 SOUTH OCEAN, LLC, unless otherwise noted, with all rights reserved.
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BE MY VALENTINO? Pierpaolo Piccioli hosted a dinner to celebrate his pre-fall 2017 collection. There was no shortage of stylish and chic women here. What a fashionable time. 1. Brooke Shields, Pierpaolo Piccioli, Christy Turlington Burns 2. Alexi Ashe Meyers, Seth Meyers 3. Carlos Mota 4. Lauren Remington Platt, Kate Foley, Zani Gugelmann and Nicky Hilton Rothschild 26 | AVENUE MAGAZINE • AVENUE ON THE BEACH • FEBRUARY 2017
JOE SCHILDHORN/BFA.COM
One if by Land, Two if by Sea played host to Valentino
THE BAKER HOUSE | 1650 “ M o s t E x c ellent Inn in the Americas” –Condé Nast Johansens
EASy TO LOvE. HARD TO LEAvE.
THE BAKER HOUSE 1650 AND THE BAKER CARRIAGE HOUSE stand as the most exclusive Bed & Breakfast accommodations in the Hamptons — unsurpassed in sumptuous, yet casual luxury.
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BAKERHOUSE1650.COM 181 Main Street, East Hampton, NY 11937, United States | 631.324.4081
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SEASON OF (SURPRISING) SOIREES What goes on inside private parties themed Naughty or Nice?
Rachel and Ara Hovnanian
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VANESSA NOEL
N
aughty or Nice? A profound question since time immemorial. While it may have initially been asked by old Kris Kringle, I find it is an evergreen, eternally interesting query. And how serendipitous that the two parties I’ll be sharing with you were both themed, yes…Naughty or Nice! A sign of the times? A reflection of a new administration laced with lovelies (wives and daughters, anyway), who’d give the Victoria’s Secret catalogue a run for its money? Perhaps, but trust me, it’s more fun to read about than rehashing the political dramas of 2016. Vanessa Noel (shoe designer for the chic) launched the first of three celebrations, with a cocktail for her darling Dims, Prince Dimitri of Yugoslavia, who was swarmed in her townhouse cum atelier, by well-wishers and fans of his jewelry, including Bettina Zilkha, Christopher Mason, Lisa Fine and Barbara de Portago. Only days later, Vanessa, ’ol Dims and Peter Lyden invited a small group of pals to their favorite Italian wine bar, Il Posto Accanto, expertly run by Beatrice Tosti di Valminuta, the Roman royal. The group included Carolina and Reinaldo Herrera, off to Punta Cana with…,you guessed it—Dimitri! John and Joyce Varvatos tucked in with Susan Fales-Hill, who was warmly welcomed after a hiatus of several years, spent finishing her new novel. Max Tucci also filled us in on his new book about Delmonico’s—his grandparents’ place. And Vanessa’s final (gasp!) party celebrated Joe Pacetti, “Diamond Joe” from Dallas, with Cassandra Cass a Mostly Naughty dinner. Chef Lucy, from Round Hill, Jamaica (where Vanessa will chair the 60th annual Sugar Cane Ball this month), served chicken curry under glittering silver candelabras. Susan Gutfreund introduced us to her new pup, Lucky, who will be charmingly accompanying her on her holiday party path. But the highlight of the dinner was the tale of Cassandra Cass, L.A.’s most famous transgender burlesque entertainer, and her earlier visit to Donahue’s around the corner. She asked Tom, the soft-spoken Ros and Hannah Carpentier, Matthew Alexander, Cassandra Cass, barkeep there, whether he had been naughty or nice. Fran L’Esperance Nicky Cecala and Joe Pacetti He chose naughty, and with that, Cassandra dropped her Claus suit to reveal her holiday lingerie. Suffice to say, the thrilled patrons and Tom haven’t been the same since. Kathy and Othon Prounis are the original Naughty or Nicers. For the ninth year, they hosted 100 or so parties at the Harold Pratt House. “We wanted to give people something to talk about, other than what they were doing for the holidays,” Kathy told me. The evening is precisely organized—7 to 9 is Nice, 9 to 12, Naughty. A harpist and “champagne snowflake girl” directed guests to ascend the winding staircase clustered with white hydrangeas. A Joan Rivers Kathy and Othon Prounis impersonator made welcoming comments as we descended through Joan Rivers impersonator with Trump impersonator and Gerald Lefcourt a red hall, past Darth Vader and Bad Santa. Next, we entered the Peterson Hall and saw reasonable facsimiles of Clinton, Castro and Weiner, who danced to Justin Bieber’s “Sorry,” and a Trump look-alike, who sang to Bruno Mars’ “Uptown Funk.” “Weiner” dogs were offered along with Hamilton shots, and guests were encouraged to lift their shirts and skirts in the Tattoo Bar. I prayed only the Manger Boys would do so. More thought went into this party than most weddings, and if you didn’t want to utter a word, you didn’t have to. Among those who chose to mingle and talk were Ros and Fran L’Esperance, Laura and Jim Freeman, Rachel and Ara Hovnanian, Evelyn Tompkins, Bill and Sharon Jacob, Marcia Dunn Sobel and John Sobel, Robin and Gerald Lefcourt, Elizabeth Belfer, Julie and Billy Macklowe, and Heather and Andrew Georges. ✦
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OB JEC TS O F DESIR E |
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WEN D Y SY
BLUE CRUSH
Honey Pot Basket in Royal, $195, by FRANCES VALENTINE, francesvalentine.com.
Ocean hues with a glimmer of gold Spider Bead Burst Napkin Ring in Delft Blue, $14, by KIM SEYBERT, kimseybert.com.
Japanese style shirt, $670, and culotte pants in heron printed silk, $568, by F.R.S. FOR RESTLESS SLEEPERS, Bergdorf Goodman, 754 5th Avenue, 212.753.7300.
PurePressed Eye Shadow Single in Magic, $22, by JANE IREDALE, janeiredale.com.
Cirrius Suede Sandals, $795, by TABITHA SIMMONS, modaoperandi.com.
Majorelle Round Beach Towel, $110, by THE BEACH PEOPLE, neimanmarcus.com.
30 | AVENUE MAGAZINE • AVENUE ON THE BEACH • FEBRUARY 2017
Sublimage La Crème Ultimate Skin Regeneration, $400, by CHANEL, chanel.com. CHANEL
F.R.S. FOR RESTLESS SLEEPERS : DYLAN DON
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A RTS C A L E N DA R |
by
P A U L O LIVER
ALL EYES ON ART This month's selection of art and culture
Museums:
GUGGENHEIM Feb. 10 – Sept. 6: Visionaries: Creating a Modern Guggenheim 1071 Fifth Avenue New York, NY 212.423.3500 guggenheim.org
THE MET BREUER
Through May 7, 2017: Marisa Merz: The Sky Is a Great Space
MITRO HOOD
Vasily Kandinsky. Composition 8 (Komposition 8), July 1923. Oil on canvas. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, Solomon R. Guggenheim Founding Collection, By gift, 1937 © 2016 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/ADAGP, Paris
945 Madison Avenue New York, NY 212.731.1675 metmuseum.org
NEW MUSEUM Feb. 8 – April 9: Raymond Pettibon: A Pen of All Work 235 Bowery New York, NY 212.219.1222 newmuseum.org
Raymond Pettibon, STATUES 6, 2001. Pen and ink on paper. Courtesy David Zwirner, New York/ London
32 | AVENUE MAGAZINE • AVENUE ON THE BEACH • FEBRUARY 2017
J.M.W. Turner. Grenoble Bridge, ca. 1824. Transparent and opaque watercolor with scraping over traces of graphite. The Baltimore Museum of Art; Purchase with exchange funds from Nelson and Juanita Greif Gutman Collection (BMA 1968.28)
THE FRICK
COLLECTION Feb. 23 – May 14: Turner’s Modern and Ancient Ports: Passages through Time 1 East 70th Street New York, NY 212.288.0700 frick.org
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A RTS C A L E N DA R
Galleries:
Broadway:
NEUE GALERIE
PALACE THEATER
NEW YORK
Feb. 2 – May 28: Sunset Boulevard 1564 Broadway New York, NY 212.730.8200 sunsetboulevardthemusical.com
Feb. 16 – May 29: Alexei Jawlensky 1048 Fifth Avenue New York, NY 212.994.9493 neuegalerie.org
Photo courtesy of OMDKC. © 2017
FINDLAY
TANYA BONAKDAR
BOOTH THEATER
Feb. 9 – March 11: Uta Barth
222 West 45th Street New York, NY 212.239.6210 significantotherbroadway.com ✦
Through February: Gary Komarin
GALLERY
165 Worth Avenue Palm Beach, FL 561.655.2090 wallyfindlay.com
521 West 21st Street New York, NY 212.414.4144 tanyabonakdargallery.com
GALLERIES
Feb. 14 – July 2: Significant Other
Seventh Avenue at 27 Street New York City
FEBRUARY 10 THROUGH
APRIL 15, 2017
Admission is free fitnyc.edu/museum #ParisRefashioned #MuseumatFIT This exhibition has been made possible thanks to:
34 | AVENUE MAGAZINE • AVENUE ON THE BEACH • FEBRUARY 2017
André Courrèges, glasses, 1965, gift of Abel Rapp. Photography: MFIT
“A magical Broadway musical with
BRAINS, HEART, and COURAGE” Time Magazine
GERSHWIN THEATRE ♦ WickedtheMusical.com
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TR E N DSC A P E |
by
KRISTOPHER FR A SER
RESORT READY What’s sexy and in this resort season
PANAMA HATS
Panama hats are a perennial resort accessory. They go perfectly with a lightweight summer suit, and they’re also breathable. Above all else, they are very functional for helping to protect your handsome face from the sun. These brimmed hats are staple items for well-dressed travel. Available in classic beige, white or off-white, panama hats are top toppers. rag-bone.com
BURGESS YACHTS
It’s the most frigid month of the year, so chartering a yacht to enjoy tropical waters seems like a hot idea. The newest trend in luxury yachting is to charter instead of buy, with the number of ultrahigh-net-worth individuals chartering increasing by 21% last year, according to Bloomberg. Burgess Yachts, one of the premier names in luxury yachting, offers one of the best collections of water toys in the business. Top-of-the-line yachts include Joy, a 229-foot masterpiece with five decks and expansive outdoor space, along with wellness facilities and accommodations for up to 12 guests. burgessyachts.com
ZONER
Forget aging. Michelle Salzman is here to help you forget that whole process. Salzman has brought the first Zoner anti-aging machines into the United States. “We were looking for a more natural alternative to aging that didn’t involve needles or cutting of the skin,” she says. Zoner comes from Italy, and uses three different technologies (including radiofrequency, which is the all the rage right now; cold laser; and electroporation) to reduce reduce fine lines, wrinkles and signs of scarring. Her services are $300 per session. After five sessions, follow up with maintenance every 4 to 8 weeks. Keep that face fresh and young for resort season. michellesalzman@yahoo.com, 917.208.8720
36 | AVENUE MAGAZINE • AVENUE ON THE BEACH • FEBRUARY 2017
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JE WE L RY BO X |
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WEN D Y SY
BEAUTY AND BIJOUX
The Walters Faith x Olivia Chantecaille collection proves what’s old is new again
Small pink sapphire and large brown diamond charms (left). Small white diamond and large pink sapphire charms on a 18k rose gold chain (below).
HIDD E N G E M
The Marie Louise Diadem and the landmark Palm Beach estate Mar-a-Lago share something in common: both were gifts to the American public from cereal heiress and socialite Marjorie Merriweather Post. The diadem, made by French jeweler Étienne Nitot et Fils, was one piece of a parure that included a necklace, earrings and comb. It was a gift from Napoleon to his second wife, the Empress Marie Louise, who reigned as Duchess of Parma from 1814 until her death. In the mid-1950s, Van Cleef & Arpels purchased the diadem, removed the emeralds (selling them off individually in pieces of jewelry) and mounted Persian turquoise gemstones. In 1971, Post purchased the diadem and donated it to the Smithsonian, where it remains on permanent display. It contains 79 Persian turquoise stones totaling 540 carats, and 1,006 old mine-cut diamonds totaling 700 carats, set in silver and gold. Post bequeathed Mar-a-Lago to the U.S. government in 1973, but due to high maintenance costs, the property was turned over to the private Post Foundation. In 1985, Donald J. Trump purchased the landmark and later turned it into a private club. Ironically, Post had intended for Mar-a-Lago to be used by American presidents as a winter White House. Now, that’s what it is. —Carol Brodie er compacts.
tecaille powd ired by Chan
Charms insp
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Carol Brodie is a jewelry expert and the host of Rarities Fine Jewelry on HSN. Marie Louise Diadem (Catalog Number G5021) National Gem Collection, Smithsonian Institution Gift of Mrs. Marjorie M. Post, 1971
PHOTO BY CHIP CLARK
Gifts of Gild
The Division of Pediatric Cardiology at
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER requests the pleasure of your company at the
30 TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE
Babies Heart Fund Celebrating the many accomplishments that brought us here, and looking forward to what we will achieve together in the future
THURSDAY, MARCH 2, 2017 6:30 p.m. Reception | 7:30 p.m. Dinner, Balloon Raise, and Prize Drawing Master of Ceremonies Bill Evans, Senior Meteorologist, WABC-TV
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E D I F IC E C O M P L EX |
by
J O H N FREEMA N G ILL
TROPHY MANSION
I
40 | AVENUE MAGAZINE • AVENUE ON THE BEACH • FEBRUARY 2017
The mansion’s original spiral staircase. Below: The neo-French Classic limestone entryway.
In 1910, the Union Theological Seminary, which had occupied the full block on the west side of Park Avenue from 69th to 70th Streets, pulled up stakes and moved to its current location in Morningside Heights. The northern half of the blockfront was soon occupied by the Italian Renaissance–style mansion of George Blumenthal, an investment banking partner at Lazard Frères. On the southern half, railroad magnate Arthur Curtiss James, former commodore of the New York Yacht Club, laid out an estimated $1 million to build and furnish an elaborate English Renaissance–style mansion of Knoxville gray marble. A perspicacious investor, he ultimately emerged as the nation’s largest individual owner of railroad shares. To protect his real estate investment, he quietly assembled a large parcel on the southwest corner of 69th Street and Park Avenue, opposite his mansion. In this way, he was able to choose neighbors with the inclination and means to build elegant private houses rather than more of the bulky apartment houses that had been rising along Park. James sold the prime corner lot to Henry P. Davison, a partner of J.P. Morgan. Davison spent about $200,000 to build a six-story neo-Federal mansion of red Flemish bond brick above a rusticated limestone base. Next door at 52 East 69th Street, also on one of the James lots, Davison had a matching neo-Georgian façade put on an 1881 row house. Davison then sold the home to Harvey D. Gibson, president of the Liberty National Bank. Directly to the west, Dommerich built his limestone edifice on the site of a pair of brownstones, Nos. 48 and 50, that he had purchased from James. No. 48 had previously been occupied by John H. V. Arnold, a New York surrogate who resigned abruptly and holed up inside the house rather than face a hearing over corruption charges. Dommerich, a director of 12 insurance companies who would amass a CARY HOROWITZ
n a time of proliferating new trophy apartments in supertall, superswanky towers, period trophy mansions—designed a century ago with unapologetic lavishness—are a comparative rarity. The stately limestone residence at 50 East 69th Street, an early member of an exclusive enclave in World War I–era Lenox Hill, is one such private home. Built for Otto L. Dommerich, senior partner of a thriving cotton factoring firm, the 44-foot-wide house has been occupied by institutions since 1944. Now, as it celebrates its centennial, the Dommerich house is on the market for $72 million, a sale price that would shatter the record $53 million paid for the Harkness mansion in 2006. “It’s highly likely it will revert to private use,” said Paula Del Nunzio of Brown Harris Stevens, the building’s listing agent. “It has the extraordinary aspect of being very remarkable architecturally, yet it still feels comfortable and hospitable.” Designed by Henry C. Pelton—the architect, with Charles Collens, of Riverside Church—the Dommerich house, between Park and Madison Avenues, is right at home on a street flush with the works of major early 20th-century architects: C.P.H. Gilbert, Carrère and Hastings, and Walker & Gillette. Behind the Dommerich mansion’s front, done in a neo–French Classic style, a grand spiral staircase corkscrews up seven levels to a vivid stained-glass dome. Seen from above, the curving marble stairs resemble a nautilus shell. With 21,000 square feet above grade, the house is uncommonly spacious and bright. It has 3 elevators and 14 intricate marble fireplaces, no two alike, as well as space to accommodate 7 bedrooms. There are two terraces. One of them, accessed from a solarium on the top floor, could be connected by a future owner to a sixth-floor roof space below, which offers views of Fifth Avenue and Central Park. From its inception, the Dommerich mansion was part of an elite enclave of private residences in Lenox Hill that stubbornly resisted the trend toward apartment buildings. Indeed, so many fine houses were built by financiers and their wealthy associates around 69th Street and Park Avenue in the 1910s that the New York Herald dubbed the area a Bankers Colony. “Were East Sixty-ninth Street in Paris, it might be named the Place of the Bankers,” the paper suggested.
CARY HOROWITZ
A century ago, so many financiers built grand private homes around Park Avenue and East 69th Street that the area became known as “Bankers Colony.” Now the Dommerich mansion, an early member of this elegant enclave, has come to market for a cool $72 million.
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fortune of more than $3.8 million, decorated his home with tapestries, oil paintings and no fewer than three floor rugs made of skinned big-game cats, fangs bared. In 1928, rumors swirled that a house at 34 East 69th, which had been built in 1880 for a city controller and Tammany Hall politician named John Kelly, was about to be sold. The buyers, the scuttlebutt went, planned to put up a tall apartment house. To forestall such an incursion, several owners of adjoining houses swooped in and bought the Kelly residence on the sly, flipping it to a new buyer with the restriction that a private home would be maintained on the site. The James mansion was torn down in 1959 to make way for a 19-story apartment building. But the Gibson house and the Davison mansion, which was sold in 1955 to the government of Italy for its use as a consulate, survive. Much of the rest of the block is also still lined with fine, low-rise structures that recall the Bankers Colony era. No. 42, a medieval-style limestone house built in 1921 for Arthur Sachs, grandson of a Goldman, Sachs founder, houses the Jewish National Fund. No. 29, a townhouse with a 1919 limestone façade, was sold in 2015 for $22.5 million by Architectural Digest A.D. 100 designer Juan Pablo Molyneux to an anonymous LLC. No. 33, a 1912 limestone residence, was previously the home of Dr. Mathilde Krim, the founding chairman of amfAR, and Arthur Krim, the former chairman of United
CARY HOROWITZ
Then and now: The Dommerich mansion (shown today and, below, in the early 20th century) boasts grand coffered ceilings and 14 marble fireplaces.
E D I F IC E C O M P L EX
Artists and Orion Pictures. The couple hosted President John F. Kennedy’s private birthday party there in 1962 after Marilyn Monroe serenaded him with “Happy Birthday” at the old Madison Square Garden on Eighth Avenue. The Dommerich mansion was sold in 1944 to the Henry George School of Social Science. From the 1980s until last year, it was home to the Center for Specialty Care, an outpatient surgical facility. If the next owner returns the mansion to use as a private home, the change will recall the local trend of a hundred years ago, when an institution at 69th and Park gave way to private residences and James, the railroad titan, sold off the Dommerich site and adjacent ones for “abodes,” as the Herald put it, “of persons congenial to him as neighbors.” ✦ John Freeman Gill’s first novel, The Gargoyle Hunters, will be published by Alfred A. Knopf in March 2017. The book is a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Selection.
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Wanderlust
“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.” —Marcel Proust MARCH 2015 • AVENUE MAGAZINE | 45
The Awe of Gravity AMAL ALAMUDDIN CLOONEY IS A FORCE TO BE RECKONED WITH by Asli Pelit 46 | AVENUE MAGAZINE • AVENUE ON THE BEACH • FEBRUARY 2017
GEORGE AND AMAL CLOONEY: DAVID X PRUTTING/BFA.COM AMAL CLOONEY PHOTOS: 1. JOSIAH KAMAU/BUZZFOTO VIA GETTY IMAGES; 2. JOSIAH KAMAU/BUZZFOTO VIA GETTY IMAGES; 3. GREGG DEGUIRE/WIREIMAGE; 4. JAMES DEVANEY/GC IMAGES; 5. NEIL MOCKFORD/ALEX HUCKLE/GC IMAGES; 6. NEIL MOCKFORD/ALEX HUCKLE/GC IMAGES; 7. JOSIAH KAMAU/BUZZFOTO VIA GETTY IMAGES; 8. JUN SATO/GC IMAGES; 9. XPX/STAR MAX/GC IMAGES; 10. RAYMOND HALL/GC IMAGES
FEBRUARY 2017 • AVENUE MAGAZINE • AVENUE ON THE BEACH | 47
The name Amal in Arabic means “hope.” Late last year, Amal Alamuddin Clooney ventured to the 17th annual Texas Conference for Women in Austin. It was a rare public appearance for a woman best known as being a celebrity fashion plate and for being seen most (and not heard) on the arm of her debonair actor husband, George. With her incandescent presence alone, Amal Clooney embodies the hope that there are Prince Charmings—and that sometimes, at least, even confirmed bachelors will succumb to marriage. But she is by no means a trophy wife. Those who know Clooney speak of her brilliant mind, elegance and intellect. Indeed, she wasn’t invited to Austin as either a princess bride or potent clickbait—though she is surely both. At a sold-out luncheon for 7,250 people, she told of 23-year-old Nadia Murad, Iraq’s 2015 Nobel Peace Prize nominee and a survivor of Islamic State terror, and it was Amal’s brainy passion that filled the stage. Elegant in a half-sleeved pinstriped dress by Giorgio Armani, she spoke persuasively for some 20 minutes. She’d come as a feminist, a human-rights advocate and lawyer, to speak about
48 | AVENUE MAGAZINE • AVENUE ON THE BEACH • FEBRUARY 2017
MIKE MARSLAND/MIKE MARSLAND/WIREIMAGE
These and preceding pages: Amal Clooney has used the world as her oyster since she was first linked romantically to George Clooney.
Murad, a client who’d been kidnapped by ISIS fighters along with thousands of other girls and women when the predominantly Yazidi city of Sinjar fell in August 2014— just a month before the Clooneys’ glamorous September 2014 wedding in Venice. The contrast between the two women couldn’t be sharper, yet both are icons. Murad became one after escaping the ISIS camp in which she had been held for three months and finding her way to Clooney. Together, they are trying to bring ISIS fighters to trial before an international court. “The worst thing we can do, as women, is not stand up for each other,” Clooney said in Austin, “and this is something we can practice every day, no matter where we are and what we do.” Clooney has been around. A long-time resident of London who was born in Lebanon, she is now about to become a New Yorker. Shortly before her trip to Austin, the New York Post revealed that the Clooneys had contracted to buy a condominium at 100 East 53rd Street, a Sir Norman Foster–designed tower codeveloped by art collector Aby Rosen’s RFR Holdings. The couple’s close friends Rande Gerber and Cindy Crawford reportedly signed to buy another, reinforcing Rosen’s marketing message, which calls the nearby blocks (also home to RFR’s Seagram Building, the site of the former Four Seasons restaurant, and Lever House) as the Midtown Cultural District. Amal Clooney’s gravity may keep it from becoming a mere celebrity district. And her message of hope wrapped in glamour likely ensures she’ll be embraced by her New York City neighbors, who voted nearly ten to one for Hillary Clinton in last year’s presidential election. Moving from metropolis to metropolis is no novelty for Amal Clooney. The Alamuddin family moved to Britain’s capital during the 1980s Lebanese civil war, when Amal was 2 years old. Her parents—one Muslim, one Druze— sent her to notable schools, and following her graduation from Oxford’s St. Hughes she entered the New York University School of Law. Her path to human rights advocacy started there, near Washington Square Park, when she was selected for a clerkship at the International Court of Justice, and for one semester she worked at the offices of now Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who then sat on the United States Court of Appeals—Clooney later named Sotomayor as one of the most influential women in her life. Clooney finished school in 2002 and after passing the New York State Bar, went to work for Sullivan & Cromwell, representing Enron and Arthur Andersen, which were under investigation for criminal activities. In
2005, she became part of the United Nations tribunal set up to prosecute those responsible for the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafic Hariri. After five years in New York, Alamuddin returned to London to work as a barrister for Doughty Street Chambers, a firm known for defending civil liberties. Throughout her career, dressed mostly in bright colors (she has favored red outfits since her days at
ALO CEBALLOS/GC IMAGES; GARY MILLER/GETTY IMAGES
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lie.” Perinçek was convicted and fined in 2007. After a long trial, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled that a Turkish politician should not have been prosecuted for denying that the slaughter of Armenians was genocide. Clooney moved on to representing the Greek government when it sought to recover the Elgin Marbles, the famous sculptural panels from the Parthenon in Athens, from London’s British Museum, but that effort ended when Greece decided to stop legal proceedings. Around that time, rumors first circulated that she was dating George Clooney; she initially denied it.
“Clooney arguably first gained fame when she joined the legal team defending the former president of the Maldives over what it called his ongoing practice of arbitrary detention.”
Below: Late last year, Clooney addressed the 17th annual Texas Conference for Women in Austin, Texas
A
lthough becoming the official girlfriend of a Hollywood A-lister gave her international visibility, Clooney arguably first gained fame when she joined the legal team defending the former president of the Maldives over what it called his ongoing practice of arbitrary detention. Mohamed Nasheed, the first democratically elected president of the Maldives and an international
Dr. Challonner’s High School in England), Clooney has chosen high-profile clients and taken controversial cases. “I didn’t really know I was going to become a human rights lawyer,” she said in Austin. “I knew I was interested in studying law…and in people.” Among her roster of clients, she defended Al Jazeera reporter Mohamed Fahmy, who was jailed in Egypt by the government, accused of spying. He was later pardoned by Egyptian president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, and upon his return to Canada he sued Al Jazeera for negligence. Following the release of Fahmy, who became a close friend, Clooney began seeking the recognition of the Armenian genocide. Turkey has always denied that these mass murders, which started in 1915, violated that convention of international law. When Clooney represented Armenia in its case against Kurdish leader Doğu Perinçek, the difficulty of her job was made clear. Perinçek, chairman of Turkey’s Patriotic Party, was convicted of racial discrimination by a Swiss court for saying that the “Armenian genocide is a great international FEBRUARY 2017 • AVENUE MAGAZINE • AVENUE ON THE BEACH | 49
ROBINO SALVATORE/GC IMAGES
“Clooney wasn’t invited to speak in Austin as either a princess bride or potent clickbait—though she is surely both.”
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champion of climate change action—he “snorkeled” to international attention by holding an underwater cabinet meeting in 2009 to underline his nation’s vulnerability to rising sea levels—had been found guilty of terrorism and sentenced to 13 years in prison. He was accused of ordering the arrest of a Maldivian judge. Clooney took his case when his defense team was forced to quit, and she visited the Maldives after the local cocounsel on the case was stabbed in the head. Her bravery and work, according to The Economist, “helped strengthen the backing of Britain’s now former PM David Cameron for the cause of Maldivian democracy.”
JOSIAH KAMAU/BUZZFOTO VIA GETTY IMAGES
“Clooney’s life was threatened after taking the case against ISIS, but she does not fear their threats or seek to hide.”
close to the UN, where she often attends meetings, and to the Columbia University Law School, where she will lecture on human rights in the spring. The Clooneys’ new midtown neighborhood is full of big-name residents, among them Mr. and Mrs. Donald J. Trump, whose triplex is just a few blocks away. She’s not afraid of them either. At the women’s conference in Austin, Clooney was poised and calm as she said she is worried about America under Trump. Even though she is married to one of America’s sweethearts, her parents could conceivably have a hard time getting visas to visit their daughter here.
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But her latest client seems to be the one Clooney relates to the most. She and Nadia Murad were born relatively close to one another and could have had similarly devastating experiences if Clooney’s family had not fled Lebanon when they did. Together with Murad, Clooney is trying to persuade the International Criminal Court to prosecute ISIS commanders. “If we can’t take action on ISIS, [which] doesn’t have any powerful friends on the [Security] Council, in a case of genocide, then what is it that’s going to make you do something?” Clooney said of the case at the UN’s General Assembly meeting late last year. This is not the posturing of a dilettante: Clooney’s life was threatened after taking the case against ISIS, but she does not fear their threats or seek to hide. Her new 6,760-square-foot duplex is not only attention-getting, it’s
Opposite page: In September 2014, Amal Alamuddin and George Clooney were married in Venice, Italy. Images of their arrival at Venice’s City Hall aboard a water taxi named Amore flew around the world.
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side from her speech, Clooney sat for a Q&A in Austin, and some of her comments about Trump’s campaign promises were misquoted and went viral. What she actually said was that she thinks “at this juncture with a new government coming in, people who work at the international level are concerned about some things that have been said on the campaign trail by the president-elect that relate to international law—for instance, that there should be a religious test imposed on entry into the U.S.; or the fact that there should be statesponsored torture; that the families of suspected terrorists should all be killed. Those things are all violations of international human rights law and the values that underlie that. So I think there’s concern from abroad as to: Are these things really going to happen? Is the U.S. going to lose some of the moral standing that it has internationally.” Strong stuff. Shortly, this champion of noble causes, along with her husband, whose politics are similar to hers, will be within cup-of-sugar-borrowing distance from Trump Tower. It might be too much to dream that Amal Clooney will be able to use her charm, smarts, diplomacy and, yes, beauty to temper some of its namesake’s more extreme positions. But after all, Amal does mean “hope.” ✦ Additional reporting by Suzanne O’Malley FEBRUARY 2017 • AVENUE MAGAZINE • AVENUE ON THE BEACH | 51
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WELCOME, High-Net-Worth People of the World. Not since Dutch patroons bought the first Manhattan time-share from the Canarsee Indians has New York seen such wealthy immigrants. You are not the émigrés for whom the Statue of Liberty typically lifts her lamp, nor are you “homeless” or “tempest-tost” (unless your G-650 encountered wind shear on the flight over). Whether you’re a Type A (Ni Hao) immigrant to whom the U.S. Congress has given a permanent green card in exchange for your $500,000 investment in a qualifying U.S. commercial real estate development, or a Type B who merely visits your direct investments and personal banker, you’re no refugee. You’ve got the “pomp” that the sonnet etched in the base
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House Rules Do’s and Don’ts for New York’s New “New Immigrants” by Suzanne O’Malley of the Mother of Exiles expressly commands you to leave behind in “ancient lands.” Maybe New York appeals to you because your home country discriminates against you suddenly for being too obviously a money launderer. Maybe you’re wanted by your ex or by Interpol. Or you’re simply seeking proximity to your children who were educated in the United States and refused to come back home.
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Regardless, your generous contributions to the city’s tax base, restaurant revenues and consumer sales taxes generate some good will—especially if you also buy a condo in a sold-out luxury high-rise with 25 percent occupancy near Penn Station or over on Eleventh Avenue. You may have parked some cash in our “New Switzerland” because, hey, everybody needs a little international banking privacy. Even though using your
New York place as a hard-asset savings account drives up their cost of living, Millennials in the city are happy to have you show up here a few weeks a year and subsidize their subway rides. Just be sure your building doesn’t cast a shadow across Central Park—it’s been their backyard since the day they were born. We know that if the true extent of your wealth were known back home, you might be subject to extortion, kidnapping or some other threat to your health and well-being. Like prison. Or paying taxes. Whatever your circumstances, deep down you probably also want the kind of affirmation only New York City can offer. But can you ever truly fit into New York society? Just follow these dos and don’ts and you’ll be on your way.
MATTERS OF SIZE
ATTIRE
You do want size—“some wild and permanent kind of size,” as F. Scott Fitzgerald once put it. While real estate doesn’t automatically achieve that, when purchased with care it can’t hurt. You want something impressive without seeming to try too hard. Don’t have too many bedrooms, for example. You have too many bedrooms if you’ve made one into a second kitchen that you never set foot in (much like the first), another a theater, another a wine cellar, a fourth a squash court, a fifth a family chapel, and you still have plenty space for an indoor swimming pool.
Compressed version: Both men and women can look appropriately well-dressed on most occasions with only six articles of clothing: a blue blazer, gray wool slacks or chinos, a long-sleeved shirt, a high-quality neck tie (Hermès for men is a safe choice) or signature piece of jewelry (for women, say, a Chanel chain, a Van Cleef & Arpels Alhambra pendant, or some Mikimoto pearls); a proper pair of shoes; and a watch. Consider a tasteful watch particulaire: Cartier, Audemars Piguet or Patek Philippe—a watch you never actually own but “merely take care of ” for the next generation. A Rolex is always a Rolex, but do keep it simple. Men, don’t ever wear an undershirt of any kind under a dress shirt. It creates an “oh no” moment, distinguishing “you” from “them” permanently.
Madame Paulette
RESIST THE URGE TO STROLL DOWN THE STREET EATING $5 CINNABONS AND TAKING SELFIES IN FRONT OF THE TRUMP TOWER.
Rolex watch
WALKING VS. DRIVING Don’t be caught dead in a stretch limousine. It’s comparable to dying in flagrante. Walking is the chicest means of transportation. In New York City, as opposed to your home country, you don’t need an armored car and a retired Mossad driver cum bodyguard. Every Sunday afternoon there is an informal Midtown promenade on Madison Avenue. Look your best: there’s no telling whom you’ll meet.
Mikimoto pearl ring Van Cleef & Arpels Alhambra pendant
MADAME PAULETTE It’s good to know there’s a cleaner to the elite—if only to avoid condescension from the person who informs you the first time you must send all the pieces of a suit to the cleaners at once, even though you only dripped soy sauce on your vest. Sending pieces separately can result in subtle color changes. Madame Paulette has launched a “Destination Valet” service whose professional staff understands “emergencies” can occur at any time to any client anywhere in the world. A 24-hour number exists for this purpose. They will come to you. Indeed, as this issue went to press, Madame Paulette’s website features a team on the runway in front of a Trump-branded jet. Which reminds me: do resist the urge to stroll down the street eating $5 Cinnabons and taking selfies in front of Trump Tower. And don’t ever cross a room to meet a Real Housewife of any city. Madame Paulette is now on its third generation of family owners. Tragically, this owner, John Mahdessian, is a character on The Real Housewives of New York. Paulette can also fix the red bottoms of your Louboutins.
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MEN’S SHOES Shorthand? Do go to John Lobb, cobbler to the queen of England, and have one of everything made for yourself. You need a dress work shoe, a casual work shoe, a leisure shoe, a tuxedo shoe and a tuxedo slipper. Oh, and a golf shoe. Though Lobb has sports shoe designs, unless you’re a professional athlete, hip-hop artist or hipster wannabe, it’s a mistake to invest heavily in your sports shoes. There are women’s John Lobb
shoes as well, but they’re a little more Queen Elizabeth than Duchess Kate. Ladies, do grab a pair of Everlane’s women’s loafers. Belgians are lovely. But ask yourself, does your Belgian dealer hand-sculpt the shape of your foot in hornbeam wood— the shoe forms are called lasts— and store it in a last safe? Shape it into a shoe exactly the proportions of your foot? Can you pick up the phone in London or Paris or New York when you suddenly need a comfy pair of bespoke tuxedo slippers for dinner at Balmoral? Thus, John Lobb. Nubby-soled Italian “driving shoes” are so-named for providing extra traction when driving high-performance cars. Diego Della Valle reinvented them for Tod’s, got Fiat impresario Gianni Agnelli (RIP) to wear them to soccer matches, and struck gold. As their name implies, driving shoes should be worn to the casual place to which you drove. But don’t use them in place of hard-soled dress shoes. This begs the question, how often do you actually drive
yourself? To the beach club, you say, behind the wheel of your 1964 Porsche 356C convertible. Wouldn’t it be more distinctive to wear an older pair of your Lobb slipons (sockless, of course)? You can recklessly kick them off in the sand before you swim all the way out to the buoy in the 60-degree Atlantic. It’s a story that will outlive you: “Remember Dickie swimming all the way out to the buoy every Sunday until the day he died—what was he, 93?” And in the end, do know how to pump your own gas, even if you rarely use your skill. I know a man so privileged he never learned. It’s un-American. Who can imagine President Trump pumping his own gas? Yet we know he knows how.
The Knickerbocker Club
CLUB QUIZ The Tuxedo Park Club is a private club just outside NYC where members always have to wear tuxedos. True or False?
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The Cosmopolitan Club of New York City is known for being hip and serving fine Sex and the City Cosmopolitans. True or False?
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The New York Yacht Club is known for its breathtaking view of New York Harbor. True or False?
The Brook is a sport fishing club for gentlemen. True or False?
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The Tuxedo Club is named for its location in Tuxedo Park, in Orange County, New York, but can legitimately claim to be the source of the “tuxedo.” In 1886, member Griswold Lorillard attended a ball in a short jacket styled on the English “smoking” jacket. The term is now used interchangeably with “black tie.” The Reading Room is a place to drink (reading optional). The Cosmopolitan Club (a women’s club), like the Knickerbocker Club (a men’s club),
The Tuxedo Club
The New York Yacht Club
The Reading Room in Newport, Rhode Island, is a place men go to read. True or False?
is a place where your kid takes ballroom dancing classes in grade school, but isn’t essential to you. For women of a certain age and class, the Cos Club is a nice social and luncheon place. Buy your mother or mother-inlaw a membership. The New York Yacht Club, at 37 West 44th Street
The Lotos Club offers the best Bikram yoga classes in the City. True or False? Answer key: FALSE. (73°58’53.6”W), has no view of the harbor whatsoever. Its Newport, Rhode Island, clubhouse, however, does have a majestic view of Newport Harbor. The Brook is where you go after you’ve had drinks and a steam at the Racquet Club and have either won big or lost too much at backgammon. It’s also a place where you can have a nightcap before heading home, and where a member might occasionally receive a mistress (at least, JFK did). The Lotos Club, known architecturally as the Schieffelin Mansion, is a stunning literary club whose best-known member was Mark Twain. Lovely for lunch, putting up guests and marrying for the first time. The Lotos Club
THE TONIER HOMES IN THE HAMPTONS LOOK LIKE THEY WERE BUILT IN 1897. THIS IS NOT DUE TO A LACK OF IMAGINATION. IT IS CODE. THE COUNTRY “Are you out here now?” is the proper form for inquiring whether you are in full summer or merely weekend residence in the Hamptons or the Vineyard or Newport. Because they have become so touristy, the word “Hamptons” is falling out of favor. Discriminating residents prefer to say they have a place on “eastern Long Island.” Among city friends, you’re just going “out east” or “to the beach.” The tonier homes in the Hamptons look like they were built in 1897. This is not due to a lack of imagination. It is code: we voluntarily build and keep our homes like this because we can. Any deviation from the norm (with the exception of great modern architectural experiments on land not previously occupied by a vintage home or barn, which of course you should renovate and never tear down) is frowned upon. Decades after its construction, one still hears, “Have you seen that monstrosity on Rennert Road?”
A newly constructed home on the Atlantic with a tiled roof is a don’t. Such a blot on the New England seaside gives rise to nicknames like the “Taco Bell” house. No matter how careful you are in other ways, you will forever be identified as the owner of the “Taco Bell” house. Not that there’s anything wrong with Taco Bell—we crave Taco Bell. But don’t look for any fast-food chain outlet east of Southampton. While villages and towns haven’t found a way to legally ban them, they have found discreet ways of discouraging them.
WEEKENDS AND SUMMERS Are you planning to join the National Golf Links of America (in Southampton, New York), a British Isles–style course on one of the single most breathtaking pieces of private property in the United States? No, you’re not joining the National. But if at a minimum you once attended Buckley, where you were best friends with Artie Jr., whose father practically adopted you and followed your career as captain of the Harvard golf team before asking you to join the family firm—one day you might be invited to join Shinnecock next door.
Shinnecock has hosted the U.S. Open four times in three different centuries and will host again in 2018. The National could host any tournament it wants, but it chooses not to. There are 350-ish members of the National, including at least one honorary man (Terry Allen Kramer: do correct me if I’m wrong). That’s all there will ever be. Atlantic (the golf club, not the ocean) opened in 1992 expressly in recognition of this fact. Members know their golf club was a solution to the “not belonging” problem, so you may have better luck there.
National Golf Links of America
IN CONCLUSION
THE NATIONAL COULD HOST ANY TOURNAMENT IT WANTS, BUT IT CHOOSES NOT TO.
They’re endless, really, the paths to belonging in New York City. We’ve covered some of them: suggested dos and don’ts for your attire, your real estate and your transportation; and measured your social IQ.
No doubt you’re curious about other things. I’ll be addressing them on the last page of this magazine every month. Stay tuned. Oh, and don't let the golden door slam you on your way in. ✦
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fully In a beauti ew rendered n phne memoir, Da into Merkin drills ne the limesto a facade of e Park Avenu veal fortress to re a privileged n de family ’s hid fissures. by
FAMILY PHOTOS COURTESY OF DAPHNE MERKIN
Opposite page: David, Sol, Daphne, Ezra, Deba and Dinny Merkin Right: Hermann and Ursula Merkin in the mid-1950s. Below: Hermann Merkin in 1959
rkin
Daphne Me
N I K R E THE M
SOMETIMES I feel doomed to tell the story of my family over and over again, like the injunction at the annual Passover seder to narrate the story of the Jews’ liberation from Pharaoh’s cruel dominion and their subsequent departure from Egypt. In the Hebrew text this retelling is described explicitly as a “mitzvah,” a good deed. We are called upon to impart the tale once more by reading the Haggadah aloud, for ourselves and for our guests, so we will not forget the fraught historical circumstances that brought us from there to here, from slavery to emancipation. I think of my childhood as a kind of slavery—certainly an imprisonment of sorts—but am not sure, even all these decades later, that I have ever escaped, ever reached anything but the most transitory sort of freedom. Excerpted from THIS CLOSE TO HAPPY: A Reckoning with Depression by Daphne Merkin, published this month by Farrar, Straus and Giroux, LLC. Copyright © 2017 by Daphne Merkin. All rights reserved.
BUNCH
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This story, like all stories, goes forward and backward in time. Unlike most stories, the past never stays safely in its recessed place. Instead, it haunts the present to such an extent that it threatens to overwhelm it, to render it inoperative.
MY PARENTS WERE tough, transplanted German Jews who had found
each other at a Manhattan dinner party that had been hatched by a cousin precisely with this intention in mind and who married relatively late, my mother at thirty, my father at a Jurassic forty-two. (For years my mother insisted that she had married at twenty-nine, as though that age implied a dancing youthfulness while thirty reeked of shameful elderliness.) Two people who didn’t give a thought to things like optimal spacing and the child’s need for his or her own primacy or period of adjustment. What my mother mainly cared about was keeping up in the race to procreate with her three siblings in Israel, who had gotten started well ahead of her, producing a classroom’s worth of children—seventeen in all—among them. She may have begun late, with a demanding husband who clearly wasn’t Daddy material, but she would show them. [They would soon have six children, three boys and three girls, whom they raised on Park Avenue.] I recognize that there is always the risk in a story like this one of alienating the reader, of coming off like a poor little rich girl, mewling piteously against a backdrop of plenitude. The very presence of money in someone’s background tends to evoke envy and irritation—“What does she have to complain about?” or “What does she know of real suffering?”—and inures the reader to too much sympathy, elicits a certain disbelief about the possibility of other kinds of privation. Somewhere, even though we supposedly know better, we persist in believing that money buys happiness— or, at least, provides an immunity of sorts, warding off true misery. And yet, there are deprivations that can be at least as injurious as material ones, difficult though it may be to understand them, strange withholdings—impoverishments, even—that can occur within a landscape of perceived privilege. You can, for instance, go to private schools and orthodontists and all the same suffer from a kind of insidious neglect, a lack of psychological investment in your well-being. My father was preoccupied with work—he had decided to abandon the fur business for Wall Street sometime in the fifties—and Jewish community affairs, where he was involved in establishing a new Orthodox shul on the Upper East Side. More to the point, he was a man without a paternal bone in his body—and without much interest in other people altogether, except for my mother. He participated in no collective activities other than those relating to Jewish life,
and I don’t believe he had any close male friends; it’s impossible to imagine him hanging out with his contemporaries, shooting the breeze over a couple of beers. In truth, I think he would have been perfectly happy to have had no children, much less a gang of them, and I realized fairly quickly that I and the homely details of my existence held no allure for him whatsoever. I knew little about him, beyond the basic facts that he was born and grew up in Leipzig and that he was the kvelled-over only son in a family of five sisters. That, and the fact that he had served in the U.S. Army during World War II, which I found hard to believe, although I have a faded black-and- white photo of him standing in uniform, holding a rifle like a man who knew how to use it. The workings of political influence interested him, as did his weekly Talmud class. He was constitutionally secretive about everything; when I was younger I imagined that he was a spy in disguise, someone out of the KGB or CIA, who only appeared to lead an ordinary existence but was really off stalking the inner corridors of power. I suppose today he might be diagnosed as something of a schizoid personality, given his obsessionality and emotional remove.
NO, FROM FIRST TO LAST, my father wasn’t the kind of father I would have wished for—an image cobbled together from the paternal figures I warmed to on television or in the movies, attentive and playful and full of wise counsel, like the fathers on Gidget and The Parent Trap. I didn’t like his face, his thick lips and thick accent, and feared his readily provoked rage. He would bellow at the top of his lungs when he was annoyed, even if the incitement was as small as a pencil that was missing from the neat lineup of finely sharpened Eberhard Faber #2 pencils he kept on his desk, next to a pile of small white notepads. There was something about him that seemed unappeasable when riled. I suspected him of being capable of great violence, although I only saw him erupt a few times (once, memorably, when he battled my naked older brother in the boys’ bathroom about some perceived misbehavior and they both eventually fell into the bathtub, to my and my siblings’ barely suppressed delight)... There were endless arguments with my siblings over who would get seconds at dinner, especially when it came to chicken or meat, which always ran out early. As for the lunches we took to school, they were singularly lacking in nutrition or forethought, slapped together by Jane, [the overworked Dutch woman who had been hired to look after us], and invariably featuring chocolate or multicolored sprinkles on white bread slathered with butter. I marveled at the care and time that went into my friends’ lunches, the Baggies of cut-up vegetables and fruit that accompanied their tuna fish or egg salad sandwiches, fitted out with lettuce and tomato and sometimes a pickle.
“THERE ARE DEPRIVATIONS THAT CAN BE AT LEAST AS INJURIOUS AS MATERIAL ONES.”
Above: Daphne and Ezra Merkin
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“FROM FIRST TO LAST, MY FATHER WASN’T THE KIND OF FATHER I WOULD HAVE WISHED FOR.” During the summer my mother regularly skimped on buying fresh fruit, ordering small amounts of plums and peaches and minuscule amounts of costlier items like raspberries and cherries. “Cherries are expensive,” she insisted, which might certainly be true for families that didn’t employ both a chauffeur and cook. I reacted to Brenda Patimkin’s parents’ fridge, overflowing with fruit, in Philip Roth’s Goodbye, Columbus with every bit as much awe and envy as the working-class narrator.
MY MOTHER’S TIGHT-FISTEDNESS didn’t apply to my father, who
owned multiples of everything he considered important, such as electric shavers, and whose clothes, including his underwear, came from Sulka’s, the hoity-toity men’s store. When it came to me and my siblings, her stinginess undoubtedly had something to do with her sense of guilt about marrying a rich man while the family she left behind in Israel—her mother, two brothers, and a sister—were striving to make ends meet. But I think she also resented her children being the natural beneficiaries of their father’s wealth in a way that she wasn’t—that she had to “work” for by virtue of looking after my father’s every whim. The fact that we were born to the silver spoon that she could only claim by right of marriage infuriated her. To this end, she applied herself to undermining any tendency we might have had to take our background for granted. This approach had a positive aspect, to be sure—it was certainly a far cry from the arrogance with which the scions of privilege nowadays assume their entitled place in the world—except for the fact that it was so overdone that it ended up creating great inner confusion as to who we really were. Were we, that is, the children of Hermann Merkin, Wall Street financier and Jewish philanthropist, or were we big-eyed orphans manqué, looking in through the bakery window while our empty stomachs rumbled? When you add to this my father’s innate habit of secretiveness, which was exaggerated tenfold when it came to anything to do with money, it is hardly any wonder that I walked around in a daze, unsure what my father did—whether he worked with “chairs” or “shares,” a confusion of terms that plagued me well past the age it could possibly be considered cute—and what my value as his daughter was. As time went on, I learned to disavow my own desires—for some trin-
ket or other that seemed important to me, as well as for larger things— so as not to end up the object of my mother’s derision. Better not to be caught out wanting than to wind up in a position of useless longing. Nowadays I am surrounded by a deliberate pileup of possessions that I have chosen as an adult to make part of my life, all in an attempt to fill the drafty spaces within: books, magazines, hotel mementos, framed photos, objects of some and no worth, a pretty glazed bowl, a miniature teddy bear, and three tiny clay pots bought at a store in Sedona that sold wares made by local Native American tribes. As though mere things could address so primary a deprivation, offer a more than passing consolation. And yet these things, in their very thingness, help me stake my claim, firm up an identity that seems too tentatively hatched even now. I think of the line from a Philip Larkin poem “Absences”: “Such attics cleared of me! Such absences!” Meanwhile, behind the fancy address and the white-gloved doormen, things were falling apart. For one thing, none of us could get away, leave home, get on with it. Time would tell that it wasn’t just me who had been left with a hole; we were all too full of holes, some more Swiss-cheesed than others, to make the transition into the outside world. We were all stuck to my mother, as if by glue, unable to stand tall without her; it was as though being away from her placed us in positions of unforeseeable peril. I was merely the canary in the coal mine, warning of things to come.... ✦
Above: The Merkin family. Daphne is in the sleeveless romper Left: Daphne rides her hobby horse
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MI A MI RO U N DTA BLE
The Miami Market Our panel of experts reflects on the past and discusses the future of South Florida real estate moderated by Len
Dugow
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portraits by Tom Tracy
AVENUE: Good morning all. I would like to explore what we have experienced over the last decade, regarding the influence of South America on South Florida real estate. Ten years ago, when credit was easily available, it fueled a development boom, in which individuals could own multiple condos with a 5 or 10 percent down payment. Today there’s an oversupply of product in the market. Easy credit is no longer available and buyers have multiple options, what do you see as the next incentive or way of presenting your projects that will help continued expansion in South Florida?
allocation of capital, we do so, but have in place as best as we can, a scenario for a worst-case contingency. In the case of our recent entry into the Miami market, it was a partial combination of luck and discipline and bullishness in committing to building up a land bank at a time when others weren’t buying. So our land prices, first and foremost, are at a very good basis with no debt, affording us the luxury of riding out varying market conditions.
MICHAEL TILLMAN: I believe this is more of a correction toward stabilization than it is necessarily a correction and a run toward the bottom. Ultimately, at the end of the day it comes down to the price. So prices will have to resort to the norm, and then the inventory will clear. I think it will take two to three years for this correction of the general Miami market. On the other hand, highly amenitized oceanfront properties on Miami Beach have and will continue to extract a premium.
EDGARDO DEFORTUNA: I think discipline is a very big virtue to continue being successful in this market. Miami continues to be strong because there is a low level of leverage on most projects, and even though conventional financing at 4 or 5 percent rates is harder for foreign buyers to obtain, there is alternative financing for them at 8 to 9 percent. The world continues to be in love with what Miami has to offer, and people recognize the great value compared to other major cities in the world.
AVENUE: Arden, what are your thoughts on this? ARDEN KARSON: I guess we are talking about oversupply; a lot of the inventory that’s being delivered right now will be absorbed by the population growth that’s actually supposed to take place in those markets. When we started the beginning of the cycle at Brickell, buyers had to put up to 80 percent of the deposit money, and now we’re at 50 percent deposits with progress payments. So far, we haven’t seen any issues with buyers really defaulting on those progress payments; that says to me that things are still healthy. AVENUE: Shahab, how relieved are you that you started your project eight months ago, in terms of this cycle? SHAHAB KARMELY: If you look at any investment matrix it is clear that cycles are always an inevitable component in market economies. So fundamentally when considering
AVENUE: Edgardo, you’ve seen it all over the last thirty years. Your thoughts?
Participants DEVELOPERS: EDGARDO DEFORTUNA, President and CEO, Fortune International Group SHAHAB KARMELY, Owner and CEO, KAR Properties
ARDEN KARSON, Senior Managing Director, South Florida, CBRE MICHAEL TILLMAN, Managing Director, LeFrak
BROKERS: AVENUE: Mark, given what you just heard, what is your sense of where the market is now? MARK ZILBERT: During the past 18 months, we’ve seen fewer buyers in the market. However, it doesn’t mean transactions have stopped. I think some prices are higher than they should be, however, properties are still selling at high prices. The greatest thing about Miami is its lifestyle, and the fact that we’re selling primary luxury waterfront condos to many looking for a second home. As brokers we have a role to help buyers understand there’s no safer place in the world, no matter how you slice it. That’s why I think we’re going to see an earlier resurgence back to higher volume than we expect. AVENUE: Ross, you sell high-end condos on the beach—are you experiencing greater resistance now? Do you spend a longer time considering the many options that are available now for your clients?
60 | AVENUE MAGAZINE • AVENUE ON THE BEACH • FEBRUARY 2017
HOPE GAINER, Broker, Venegas International Group JULIAN JOHNSTON, Broker, Calibre International Realty
ROSS MILROY, Owner and Broker, Ross Miami Realty
DORA PUIG, Owner and Broker, Luxe Living Realty
MARK ZILBERT, President at Brown Harris Stevens Zilbert
FEBRUARY 2016 • AVENUE MAGAZINE • AVENUE ON THE BEACH | 61
MI A MI RO U N DTA B LE ROSS MILROY: Yes. I would say our typical sales cycle has increased significantly. Where somebody would come in and consult with us for a period of six months, from the time of the initial consultation to actually closing on something, it could now be a year or two. And I think that is a part of what’s going on in the general market. Part of our job as brokers is to keep people focused on the fundamentals and on the facts, and to show them what an amazing city we have, and how much we have grown in just fifteen years. AVENUE: Julian, in terms of your current experiences with the length of time needed to get your clients to pull the trigger, is it more extended as Ross is experiencing, or less?
Miami is very much different than Miami Beach. I think they have to think a little harder because the oversupply is on the Miami side and the overheated pricing is on the beach side. AVENUE: I want to pivot to the topic of New Yorkers. The love affair that New Yorkers have with South Florida has been going on for many decades. We’re now seeing them come with great sums of money. Why is this happening now?
Shahab Karmely
Michael Tillman
JULIAN JOHNSTON: I think it’s an education process. There are different types of buyers. We had people looking at preconstruction, although there wasn’t a lot of that in Miami Beach, just because there’s limited land for development. And buyers who were investing in Brickell have sort of dropped out of the market. They don’t think we’re going to get the price appreciation seen in the last few years for preconstruction. Real estate has always been a threeto-five-year play. The cycle is sort of leveling out. I believe we’re stabilizing. We’ve had a price correction, I’d say, in the waterfront home market, of 10 to 15 percent. So there’s been a natural tendency to buy now as prices stabilize. Anything that’s priced correctly on the beach is actually selling quite quickly. Sellers are not desperate. I think we’re going to see some other parts of the world buying, like China.
HOPE GAINER: My New York buyers are very savvy, and they’re my most difficult buyers. And I have buyers who have wanted to buy for ten years. They still haven’t bought. Now they want to be here for the lifestyle, the weather and, most important, for tax reasons and for the passing of their wealth to their children. So they’re now ready to buy. What I tell them is, make an offer now—don’t wait for high season. They’re just waiting for the right price at the right time. Hope Gainer
AVENUE: Mark, your comment on the increase of New Yorker buyers now? ZILBERT: One of the great advantages for me is folding my company into Brown Harris Stevens—I’m amazed how much back-and-forth traffic we have between New York and Miami, specifically New York coming down here. I think a lot of what’s driving it is the fact that it took us all this time to create the type of place where people want to spend their time. AVENUE: Ross?
AVENUE: Dora, I know that you’re on Fisher Island now, and a handful of other exclusive neighborhoods. What are you experiencing of late?
MILROY: I’m going to go a little bit beyond that. And I’m going to tack on to what Dora said. Because I think it comes down to something very specific in the tax code, and I’ve heard this from New Yorkers. A lot of people are saying, if I have to bring back all these millions of dollars into the United States and I’m a New York resident, I’m going to put my residence down in Miami and become a State of Florida resident to save 18 percent or whatever it might be. Because when you’re talking millions and millions of dollars, it can practically pay for the condo itself.
DORA PUIG: My macro outlook on Miami is very bullish. I think it’s “the city of the future in the U.S.A.” and I think the condo market just going through a price adjustment. I think it’s kind of a lull especially in the condo market, which was 33 percent higher than your top-tier luxury single-family homes. Clients are adapting too and looking for their sense of value. And it does vary from country to country and from city to city; I’m getting a lot of buyers coming for tax purposes from San Diego, Long Beach, Chicago and New York. So I think that’s a big factor for the U.S. market. I also think
AVENUE: Let me ask a question to the group; through the last cycle we’ve seen folks coming to us from different destinations, whether it was Brazil or Canada. We have seen devaluation of currencies, and for a while before oil collapsed, lots of Russians. Maybe each of you can begin to comment in terms of what
62 | AVENUE MAGAZINE • AVENUE ON THE BEACH • FEBRUARY 2017
Len Dugow
Ross Milroy
New York City Offerings
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©2017 Engel & Völkers. All rights reserved. Each brokerage independently owned and operated. Engel & Völkers and its independent License Partners are Equal Opportunity Employers and fully support the principles of the Fair Housing Act.
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MI A M I RO U N DTA B LE we’re beginning to see for this coming season and into the next twelve months or so. GAINER: There’s another point that we didn’t address: the whole Brexit issue. A lot of Chinese and Russians were all going to London. Right now may be a value to buy London, Julian but it’s an unknown. They’re Johnston trying to figure out if they’re really going to break away, and there are political issues. Those buyers will be looking to buy in New York or Miami as a safer alternative investment. Dora Puig
DEFORTUNA: We teamed up about two years ago, with Savills, which is the largest real estate organization in England. They have an eightstory tower in Central London where their corporate office is, and now those clients are looking for other opportunities. They identify Miami as a great value opportunity for them. And New York is our new Latin America now. The New York market went from 10 percent to 30 percent of the inventory. But Latin America, in the report that I run, is still 56 percent of all of the preconstruction sales over the last six months.
Mark Zilbert
MILROY: I too would like to add something. I think an experience I’ve had consistently over the last three years has been people looking to move their life and businesses here. I’ve been dealing with people from Austria and Germany: that’s unusual, since it’s typically French and Italians. The Turkish factor’s a big one too. And recently for me, I’ve been dealing with people from Kuwait, which I never dealt with before. AVENUE: Shahab, your thoughts? KARMELY: People have led such comfortable lives in the United States. On a comparative basis to other countries, this place is such heaven. It is a tradition for wealthy families to go abroad to attend college here. This is so transformative, because you’ve got this new generation that is going to come here. And if you look demographically and socioeconomically in the long term, what’s happened, I think, is that 7 to 8 out of 10 are going to want to own something in the States.
PUIG: The Latin American and European markets are dependent on the function of the dollar—The dollar being too strong. Once it relaxes a little…that eats up the international market again. TILLMAN: On a broader scale, what’s happened over the past four or five years is a maturing in this market. It’s not just the condos, but also the quality of the hotel accommodations that are here now. So the market that we’re marketing to, that the Arden brokers have as an audience Karson now, is much broader than it was before. The Russians are real; the Chinese are showing up. ZILBERT: Let’s not forget what has also been changing and improving: accessibility. We have seen an increase in buyers from Turkey, and India may soon be very big for us. AVENUE: Julian, I wanted you to chime in on this topic? JOHNSTON: In the single-family home market, we’re seeing a lot of wealthier people. And we’re seeing people coming here for tax reasons. The United States economy is doing well, and I think you’re going to see growth in the economy bringing people to Miami; you’re going to see a higher socioeconomic level of folks moving to the beach; a very wealthy demographic is here already here, and bringing their friends. I think Miami is really becoming an international city.
64 | AVENUE MAGAZINE • AVENUE ON THE BEACH • FEBRUARY 2017
KARSON: We actually studied a lot of statistics. And so we pulled our buyer profiles. And we actually have buyers from 79 different countries: clearly Argentina, Brazil and Venezuela have dominated. Turkey over the past year really has jumped up big-time. In fact, over the last six months, they’re representing 5 to 6 percent of all of our buyouts. So I think that’s an interesting country; clearly there’s a lot of instability, which creates capital flight.
AVENUE: Well said, Shahab. I think that rounds it up for us today. Again, I want to thank you all for participating in AVENUE’s real estate roundtable. ✦ Editor’s Note: During the time of the panel discussion, Arden Karson was the senior vice president at Related Group. She has recently been appointed senior managing director at CBRE in South Florida.
Edgardo Defortuna
Len Dugow is President and Chief Creative Officer of LGD Communications, a full-service branding, marketing and advertising agency based in Miami with satellite offices in New York and Dubai. Over the past 30 years, LGD has successfully marketed some of the world’s preeminent luxury brands in real estate and hospitality, resulting in more than $40 billion in sales. To learn more about LGD and see the firm’s award-winning work, visit lgdcom.com.
New York CitY
HamptoNs
CoNNeCtiCut
New JerseY
HudsoN ValleY
rendering
SUN-DRENCHED PENTHOUSE West Village, NYC Excl. | 4 BR, 4 BATH $30M | Web#15919235 Anne Prosser 212.381.3348
ELEGANT 6-STORY TOWNHOUSE Upper East Side, NYC Co-Excl. | 7 BR, 6.5 BATH $23.75M | Web#15426447 Louise Phillips Forbes 212.381.3329
PARK BLOCK MANSION Upper East Side, NYC Excl. | 6 FLOORS $19.995M | Web#15142729 The Harkov Lewis Team 212.381.4246
LIMESTONE MANSION Park Slope, Bklyn, NY Excl. | 7 BR, 7 BATH $8.789M | Web#14726374 Anna Milat-Meyer/Peter Grazioli 718.613.2095/2015
SPECTACULAR RENOVATED DUPLEX Upper East Side, NYC Excl. | 6 BR, 8.5 BATH $7.195M | Web#15953743 S. C. Halstead 212.381.3220 | L. Mathias 212.381.3213
TRIBECA PENTHOUSE OASIS TriBeCa, NYC Excl. | 2 BR, 2 BATH $5.395M | Web#12974835 I. Tagliamonte 212.381.6575 | K. Haas 212.521.5728
HAMILTON TERRACE Upper West Side, NYC Excl. | 4 BR, 3.5 BATH $3.5M | Web#15395645 Tecumta Tiwoni 212.381.2578
MINT SPECTACULAR 3 BR CONDO Upper East Side, NYC Excl. | 2-3 BR, 2 BATH $2.475M | Web#15632361 Monica Podell 212.381.3231
FIVE STAR SHOWSTOPPER Upper West Side, NYC Excl. | 1 BR, 2 BATH $2.095M | Web#14942650 Brian Lewis 212.381.2252
WRAP TERRACE+AMAZING VIEWS Upper East Side, NYC Excl. | 2 BR, 2 BATH $1.65M | Web#14504103 Marilyn Fleming 212.381.3399
SPACIOUS & SUNNY CONDO WITH VIEWS Upper West Side, NYC Excl. | 1 BR, 1 BATH $1.25M | Web#15560779 Joseph L. Irving 212.381.3238
virtually staged
RENOVATED HOME WITH OFFICE Upper East Side, NYC Excl. | 2 BR, 2 BATH $1.695M | Web#15373686 Elaine Tross 212.381.3322
Halstead Property, LLC; Halstead Property Riverdale, LLC; Halstead Property New Jersey, LLC; All information is from sources deemed reliable but is subject to errors, omissions, change or price, prior sale or withdrawal without notice. No representation or guaranty is made as to accuracy of any description. All measurements and other information should be re-confirmed by customer.
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Avideh B. Ghaffari
Bill Sheppard
33’ WIDE MANSION OFF FIFTH AVE
525 PARK AVENUE
MINT TOWNHOUSE OFF PARK AVE
9R
E. 69/Fifth-Madison. Co-Excl. 7BR. 11 BATH. $55M. WEB# 14726886. Lauren Elizabeth Bankart 212-588-5698
Park Avenue. 4BR. 5.5 BATH. $32M. WEB# 14468277. Bari Lynn Rosen 212-396-5842
E. 60s/Park-Lex. 7BR. 6.5 BATH. $19.95M. WEB# 14575707. John Burger 212-906-9274
Par $19 Joh
BUILD YOUR DREAM 20’ WIDE TH
UNPARALLELED HIGH LINE VIEWS
SUNRISE TO SUNSET AT 15 CPW
BE
77th/ RSD. 6BR. 8.5 BATH. $10.995M. WEB# 15882687. Wolf Jakubowski 212-588-5630
23rd & 10th Avenue. 2BR. 3 BATH. $9.5M. WEB# 16016007. Norah P. Burden 212-588-5617
CPW/W. 60’s. 2BR. 2 BATH. $8.595M. WEB# 15660750. Paula Del Nunzio 212-906-9207
Mi $8M Ka
CONDO OFF CENTRAL PARK
ELEGANT NINE ON FIFTH
GRAND PREWAR CONDO ON 57TH ST
BR
East 85th. 3BR. 3 BATH. $5.75M. WEB# 15982684. Elayne Roskin 212-906-9336
Upper East Side. 3BR. 3.5 BATH. $5.395M. WEB# 16044102. Leslie J.W. Singer 212-588-5675 John Venekamp 212-588-5619
Sutton Place. 4BR. 4.5 BATH. $5.25M. WEB# 15633008. Wendy J. Sarasohn 212-906-9366 Allison Chiaramonte 212-906-9324
No $4, WE Ter
PH WITH TERRACE, PLUS PARKING
3-4 BR CONDO W/ 855 SF TERRACE
EXPANSIVE PREWAR
HA
Chelsea. 2BR. 2.5 BATH. $3.995M. WEB# 15385593. Frans H. Preidel 212-906-0507
Upper East Side. 4BR. 3.5 BATH. $3.8M. WEB# 15650358. Daniella G. Schlisser 212-906-9348 Matthew D. Hughes 212-906-9351
Park Avenue. Virtually Staged. 3BR. 3.5 BATH. $3.5M. WEB# 16023977. Larry Sicular 212-396-5852 Caroline E. Y. Guthrie 212-396-5858
Cen $3.3 Sco
Caroline G. Buck
Cassie Foley Glover
Christina van Hengel
Craig T. Filipacchi
Diane C. Dunne
Edward F. Johnston, III
Ginger C. Brokaw
Jeffery L. Welch
All information is from sources deemed reliable but is subject to errors, omissions, changes in price, prior sale or withdrawal without notice. All rights to content, photographs and graphics reserved to Broker. Equal Housing Opportunity Broker.
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H.
Kathryn Steinberg
9 RMS, PARK AVE & PARK VIEWS
GRAND PENTHOUSE HOME ON RSB
NEW PARK BLOCK SINGLE-FAMILY
Park Ave/ E. 62nd. 4BR. 3.5 BATH. $19.5M. WEB# 15110313. John A. Sheets 212-906-9359
Upper West Side. 6BR. 8.5 BATH. $17.5M. OP No. CD13-0089. WEB# 14893365. Lisa K. Lippman 212-588-5606 Gerard S. Moore 212-588-5608
CPW & 89th. 6BR. 10 BATH. $15.99M. WEB# 16039253. David E. Kornmeier 212-588-5642
Margery R. Hadar
Monika J. Ingram
Nancy Candib
BEST CORNER ON HIGHEST FLOOR
A VERY FINE PENTHOUSE
PENTHOUSE PLUSH IN NEW TRIBECA
Midtown East. 4BR. 3.5 BATH. $8M. WEB# 15075169. Kathleen M. Sloane 212-906-9258
Tribeca. 3BR. 3.5 BATH. $6.995M. WEB# 15943928. Wendy Maitland 212-452-6255 Wyatt Bertz 212-906-0594 Emma Maitland 212-906-0543
Tribeca. 3BR. 3 BATH. $5.495M. WEB# 14658838. Siim M. Hanja 212-317-3670 Rudi Hanja 212-317-3675
Natalie Rabaa
Paula Del Nunzio
Richard N. Rothbloom
BRAND NEW WITH ICONIC VIEWS
ICONIC FULL FLOOR LOFT
STUNNING TERRACED PREWAR PH
Nomad. Co-Excl. 3BR. 3 BATH. $4,964,990. OP No. CD13-0283. WEB# 15751689. Terry Naini 212-452-6267
Flatiron. 3BR. 2.5 BATH. $4.75M. WEB# 15697422. Linda Stillwell 212-452-6233 Dennis G. Stillwell 212-452-6234 Tate Kelly 212-452-6235
WEA/80s. Virtually Staged. 2BR. 2 BATH. $3.995M. WEB# 15774495. Nancy Candib 212-906-9302 Kristin M. Clark 212-906-9261
Sonya Farrell
Susan Conway Mcnicholas
Susan Mary Kelleher
HAMPSHIRE HOUSE PARK VIEWS
PERFECT PIED A TERRE
RARE BROWNSTONE CONDO
Central Park South. 2BR. 2 BATH. $3.395M. WEB# 14892661. Scott Harris 212-317-3674
66th & Fifth Ave. 2BR. 2 BATH. $2.45M. WEB# 15579138. Mary K. Rutherfurd 212-906-9211 Leslie R. Coleman 212-906-9387
Upper West Side. 2BR. 1.5 BATH. $1.695M .WEB# 15454559. Kathryn Marie Johnson 212-317-7790 Paul Anand 212-452-6275
All information is from sources deemed reliable but is subject to errors, omissions, changes in price, prior sale or withdrawal without notice. All rights to content, photographs and graphics reserved to Broker. Equal Housing Opportunity Broker.
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ASK HALL F. WILLKIE
A moment with one of the city’s top real estate experts . . . FAIR HOUSING To protect everyone’s rights in housing, there are important fair housing laws that underlie the principles of American culture. There are federal laws (based on the Civil Rights Act and the Fair Housing Act), and there are New York State laws and New York City laws that govern fair housing. In this city we adhere to all three. Specifically protected categories are age, citizenship, familial status, handicap/disability, marital status, national origin, occupation, race, religion, sex, sexual orientation, and lawful source of income. The purpose of fair housing laws is to make certain that everyone is treated fairly and equally and not discriminated against. Although real estate brokers serve their clients in a fiduciary capacity, these laws—rightfully so—supersede these obligations. Sometimes, for even the most concerned and law-abiding citizens and professional brokers, this can be neither intuitive nor obvious. Some acts that may stem from a sense of kindness or concern could be considered discriminatory, actually breaking the law. For example, one might think that a broker is doing a good job by not presenting a property that lacks handicapped access to someone who would benefit from it. That practice, however, would be a legal violation, as it is a form of discrimination. These laws are good, because diversity is what makes our city so vibrant and productive. Real estate agents are trained to ensure that customers and clients are treated according to the law. ✦
Hall F. Willkie, President, Brown Harris Stevens Residential Sales, 212.906.9203 or hwillkie@bhsusa.com
FRANCIS HILLS
The purpose of fair housing laws is to make certain that everyone is treated fairly and equally and not discriminated against.
68 | AVENUE MAGAZINE • AVENUE ON THE BEACH • FEBRUARY 2017
THE DOMMERICH MANSION
UPPER EAST SIDE, MANHATTAN
• Historical, century-old building • 21,070 sq ft interior, plus 5,000 sq ft basement • Views of the city skyline and Central Park Located on the sought-after Gold Coast of Manhattan’s East Side, this impressive Beaux Arts limestone mansion is steeped in early 20thcentury splendor. The home, designed by acclaimed architect Henry C Pelton, is elegant to the core - a synthesis of classical themes creating a refined yet comfortable residence. It enjoys an enviable position close to
Park Avenue, surrounded by a streetscape that echoes with the history of New York City. Behind the stunning limestone façade lie seven levels of architectural beauty bathed in dazzling light, with 14 marble fireplaces and an original curved staircase that glides upwards to a glorious stained-glass dome, plus a basement level with 15 ft-high ceilings. Two original elevators serve all seven levels. Meanwhile, outdoor space comprises more than 3,350 sq ft with a terrace on the second floor, one adjacent to the solarium, and a roof terrace with views of Central Park. $72M. Web#15500716
NO OTHER NEW YORK BROKER HAS THIS TRACK RECORD. • Paula represented the seller in the $53 million dollar sale of 4 East 75th Street, The Harkness Mansion, which still remains the record for the highest price paid for a townhouse in New York. • No one else has sold 71 townhouses since just 2006, for a total value of over $1.25 billion. • Paula has closed 25 townhouses measuring 25 feet or wider.
• Paula holds the record for the highest price paid for a 25-foot wide home with the $37.5 million dollar closing of 18 East 80th Street. • In her 20 years as a townhouse specialist, Paula Del Nunzio has sold 111 townhouses. • Of the three residential townhouse sales over $50M in New York, Paula represented the sellers of the top two.
Paula Del Nunzio 212-906-9207 • pdelnunzio@bhsusa.com • 445 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10022
All information is from sources deemed reliable but is subject to errors, omissions, changes in price, prior sale or withdrawal without notice. All rights to content, photographs and graphics reserved to Broker. Equal Housing Opportunity Broker.
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Properties of the Month Luxury Listings Curated For You
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Sotheby’s International Realty LENOX LUXURY This grand 7-room, 3 full-size-bedroom prewar residence is located in a highly coveted full-service cooperative in Lenox Hill. This turnkey home offers the perfect combination of modern conveniences and preserved architectural elements. 130 East 67th Street was built in 1908 and designed by Charles A. Platt. Offering full-time doormen, a superintendent, handymen and multiple porters. Finished to the highest standards. $4,250,000. Web #: 0139150. Contact Jeremy V. Stein @ 212.431.2427 or Jennifer Lanza @ 212.810.4960.
Brown Harris Stevens QUOGUE MEWS…BRAND-NEW Seated on a private road off Quogue Street is the brand-new 4,000-squarefoot Quogue Mews #2. Extremely well appointed with the finest amenities and finishes available. Four en suite bedrooms including 2 serious master suites. 10’ ceilings, full basement with 2 egress windows, pool house with bath & 2nd laundry, heated gunite pool & spa, 2-car garage. Sited in the heart of Quogue Village and waiting for you to furnish. New is nice. $3,500,000. Exclusively listed by Marcia Altman. Contact her @ 631.255.5100.
Premier Sotheby’s International Realty BEAUTY AND THE BEACH Luxury beachfront living in Naples, Florida, is best experienced from this penthouse residence. Views of the Gulf of Mexico are viewable from the floor-to-ceiling windows as you step off the private elevator. This property includes 4 bedrooms, an office, a climate-controlled wine room, dual master baths, 3 screened balconies and 4 garage spaces. This low-density, pet-friendly building is amenity-rich with attentive management, Har-tru tennis court, pool, and spa with southern exposure. $10,995,000. Web #: 215068242. Contact Michael G. Lawler @ 239.261.3939.
70 | AVENUE MAGAZINE • AVENUE ON THE BEACH • FEBRUARY 2017
LAWRENCE A. MOENS ASSOCIATES, INC. “Specializing In Palm Beach’s Finest Residential Properties.”
245 Sunrise Avenue, Palm Beach, Florida 33480 (561) 655-5510 Fax: (561) 655-6744 www.moensrealestate.com
DIRECT LAKEFRONT ESTATE NEWLY COMPLETED An elegant custom residence with large gracious spaces and several bedrooms with tropical water views. ____________________________ More than one acre of very private grounds. __________________ An exquisite new masterpiece from Mark Timothy custom homes and Marc-Michaels Interiors. _________ $42,500,000 with furnishings.
THE PERFECT BEACHFRONT VILLA A wonderful direct oceanfront retreat tucked privately into the dune. __________________________ Generous living and dining room with several bedrooms for family and guests. ________________ A great opportunity to live on the beach. _________ $24,500,000 furnishings available separately.
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Exclusives
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Jewelry Designer Freida Rothman’s Journey… A Successful Marriage of Family and Business
M
“
y business is my fifth child,” says Freida Rothman. The jewelry designer and mother of four has spent the past four years of her life building her namesake business, which counts Bloomingdale’s and Nordstrom, and scores of jewelry and fashion boutiques across America, as retail partners, but it is nothing new to her. Rothman is a Brooklyn girl, born and raised, where she grew up in the jewelry business. “Being born and raised in Brooklyn has inspired me to find beauty in so many people and places,” she says. Her father has been a leading jewelry manufacturer for over 35 years, and Freida’s journey began when she started her career working with him designing for private label jewelry brands. Her family has always been one of the biggest driving factors in her life, as it was her husband, Matt, who encouraged her to branch off and do her own jewelry line four years ago. A trained artist, Freida’s first collection was called the Love Knot Collection, and it was also the one that immediately caught the attention of retailers. They took one
72 | AVENUE MAGAZINE • AVENUE ON THE BEACH • FEBRUARY 2017
look at it and felt it was something no one else was doing, and it was all uphill from there. This year, she is focused on building her presence in New York City and evolving her Freida Rothman lifestyle brand. Sunglasses were her first brand extension and leather goods are on the drawing board for 2017. The Freida Rothman sunglass collection projects the designer’s sophisticated, contemporary look referencing black and gold and stunning color accents with tinted lenses. Right now, a focus of her business would be an actual “jewelry box in the wall” located at 248 Mott Street. Opened in 2014, Rothman’s intimate, sophisticated NoLiTa boutique services everyone from New York locals to tourists from around the world and carries her full line of jewelry, as well as some of her accessory offerings like sunglasses and leather goods. While she is working on developing other categories, her signature pieces currently focus on her stack bracelets and rings. “I encourage women to have fun stacking my jewelry—I love layering,” she says. “My signature Collection embodies the classic FR woman – timeless elegance with a metropolitan look.” The unique thing about her jewelry is the rigorous attention to detail and the fact there is so much work done by hand that no two pieces are the same. A hands-on designer, Freida works from her own draftsman sketches. She’s also renowned for her signature mixed gold on matte black finish. Each season brings a new gemstone color. This Spring its Amazonian Allure using an amazonite blue-hued stone. Coming up for the brand, they will be introducing a “stack” party this February, where bloggers, shoppers and potential new clients invited to her boutique can either begin or expand their collection of Freida Rothman jewelry. What a grand introduction it is sure to be. ✦
344 Pirates Bight | $6,595,000
Le Rivage PH5 | $10,995,000
M I C HA E LL A WL ER. C OM Naples, Florida
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Sotheby’s International Realty® and the Sotheby’s International Realty logo are registered service marks used with permission. Each office is independently owned and operated. Equal Housing Opportunity. Property information herein is derived from various sources including, but not limited to, county records and multiple listing services, and may include approximations. All information is deemed accurate.
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Brunch at the Barn Chef John Doherty’s Black Barn Restaurant is a Must-Do Dining Venue
A
fter 23 years as the executive chef at New York’s Waldorf Astoria, Chef John Doherty found himself a new venture. Located in the Flatiron district, Black Barn has become one of the premier restaurants in New York City. Step inside the extravagant space, and it’s like you’ve left New York City and have been taken into a more rustic America, with a sense of luxury. The restaurant is divided into four areas. The first is the tavern, which features high-top tables and lounges. The menu consists of small and large plates of casual, classic American fare. They serve breakfast, lunch and dinner. A live blues band performs there during brunch on the weekends, and there’s a happy hour for the after-work crowd. Then there is the main dining room, a vast space with wooden rafters overhead and antique hanging lights. Wood floors, leather chairs and an open kitchen keep the feel very unique. After that, there is the prestigious chef’s table. This 20-seat, reservation-only section allows guests to dine at two high-top tables right in the kitchen. The six-course tasting menu paired with wine changes monthly. Doherty, who also takes time to interact with the guests, cooks the meal personally. For those looking to host a private event, the restaurant offers several spaces, including the Shed, the Cabin, the Loft and the Wine Cellar, which are all rooms that can hold anywhere between 8 and 250 people. While the restaurant has only been open since September 2015, it has quickly gained a huge following almost solely due to word of mouth. The crowd is mixed, with clients and customers including residents, businesspeople and tourists. The restaurant has grown
so fast that the brunches alone can average around 300 people. “What I enjoy the most is watching people have fun,” Doherty says. His secret to creating such an amazing experience?
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It’s all in the details. The restaurant was designed in collaboration with Mark Zeff, and both he and Doherty were very meticulous about making sure the restaurant was a balance between formal and rustic. One notable element is the contrast between the concrete, steel and wood environment with the refined food. “Why not?” Doherty says. Customers come back because it’s like an escape from New York City within New York City. It’s the closest you can get to dinner at a lodge without leaving the five boroughs, with delicious food to match. Between the foie gras that melts in your mouth and arguably the best venison you’ll be getting in the city, you certainly won’t bedisappointed. Bon appétit. ✦
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Elliott Jaffe, Howard Gittis, Todd Slotkin, David Jaffe, Howard Sosin, Liana Silverstein Backal and Sharyn Mann
A FARE Fight for Allergy Awareness Liana Silverstein Backal is one of the biggest advocates for food allergy awareness in America
F
ood Allergy Awareness has become a more prominent issue in our time as organizations have worked to draw attention to it. Liana Silverstein Backal has been one of the biggest advocates and educators on this issue for many years. She took time out her busy schedule to discuss her work with AVENUE.
How did FARE come about? FAI (Food Allergy Initiative) and FAAN (Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Network) merged in 2012. FAI was founded in 1998 by five concerned families (Silversteins, Manns, Jaffees, Sosins and Slotkins) that were committed to advancing research. It was born out of desperation to keep our children safe. Both charities realized that they could best service the food allergy community by creating one unified voice. How far has food allergy awareness come? Awareness has grown in recent years, but there is always more work to be done. Tell me about your family’s experiences with food allergies. One of your kids almost died at age 3. I can’t imagine how traumatic that was. My son ate a cookie containing nuts. I held him in a cab to Mt. Sinai ER. They saved his life. “Anaphylactic shock”—what was THAT? It was a very scary, confusing and lonely time.
We were so fortunate to have found Dr. Hugh Sampson at John Hopkins and even luckier that he and his team are at the Jaffe Food Allergy Institute here in NYC. When I try to step away from this cause, I remember the helplessness, despite the love and support from my family. I’m also keenly aware of the support and lifelong friendships we developed with other families. Collectively, we started a movement. What challenges can arise within food allergic families and between friends? Holidays, birthday parties and special events can be very complicated. Everything involves food! The lack of understanding about severity, cross-contact— there’s so much to educate our loved ones about. Communication is everything, but we have to stay vigilant. Like most food allergy parents, I baked the cupcakes or cake for birthday parties. Now there is a growing market of allergy-aware businesses that produce safe, labeled foods. It’s amazing. What exactly does FARE do? FARE works on behalf of the l5 million food allergic people in the U.S. Its mission is to improve the quality of life, enhance health through access, diagnosis and treatment, and hope that research will bring us a “cure.”
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What are some of FARE’s most impactful accomplishments? FARE was instrumental in the passage of laws that have improved food allergy labeling and expanded access to emergency epinephrine. Currently, FARE is advocating for sesame to be added to the major allergens list and training colleges across the country on food allergies. FARE collaborates with scientists around the globe, having invested about $90 million in food allergy research. You’ve been involved with FAI/FARE for 20 years and have helped train schools, camps, universities, restaurants, hotels etc. Yes, and none of us could have done it without the support of this organization. When we train others, we are paving the way for the next round of people. I worked with Point’O Pines, and they have a solid food policy. They took the issue seriously and head on. FAAN and Dr. Hemant Sharma worked with me training Georgetown University. It takes time, patience and conviction. Our
When I try to step away from this cause, I remember the helplessness, despite the love and support from my family. —Liana Silverstein Backal
Liana Silverstein and Arthur Backal
Tell me about the annual women’s luncheon. We founded it in 2000 as an offshoot of our Gala. It’s a sold-out event with 700-plus fabulous women. It is informative, social, upbeat and definitely one of the spring’s best. This April, Roxanne and Amanda Palin are being honored. In 2014, I received the Legacy Award, presented to me by my children. It will remain one of the best moments of my entire life. Your daughter raised $25,000 in October 2016 for the FARE Long Island walk. What is that? The FARE walks serve as a great vehicle for families to come together as a community. Like the other events throughout the country, it’s an important source of our fundraising. My 10-year-old daughter, who is in phase two of a clinical trial, set a higher goal than in the past, and exceeded it.
JULIE SKARRATT PHOTOGRAPHY
Is there anything else we should discuss about FARE and food allergy awareness? Yes. FARE is an unbelievable resource for those Mario Carbone, Joseph Ianniello, Jennifer Ianniello, Karen Mandelbaum, with or without food allergies. This is a serious and growing public health Lianne Mandelbaum, Sharyn T. Mann, Jeff Zalaznick, James R. Baker, Jr., MD epidemic. Anyone can develop a food allergy at any age. Awareness is and Janet Atwater important, but accuracy and empathy are just as critical. Food allergies are not a lifestyle—we did not choose this for our children. experiences traveling have varied widely, and we Nick Valenti, Geoffrey Zakarian, Alain Sailhac and Unless you’ve seen a child in the throes of anaphylaxis, see there are different levels of awareness and Drew Nieporent you may not understand the consequences of taking training around the world. For example, Disney Parks are incredible. JetBlue is the gold standard for air travel. We honored them this past fall at our annual gala. Unfortunately, there are airlines that don’t provide any accommodations for the food allergy community. We have a strong, passionate, very capable army of volunteers and advocates who are making the world a better and safer place for the 1 out of 13 (and growing) children with food allergies. One particular mom who champions our cause is Lianne M. Andelbaum. She is revolutionizing the airline industry with her website, nonuttraveler.com. It starts with taking your personal experience and working toward the change that you want to see … then the cause becomes bigger than us.
food allergies lightly, so the media and entertainment industry should use their powerful platform to educate the public. It’s offensive when food allergies are a punchline on late night TV. I recognize that no harm is meant, but the truth is we take many steps backward. You would never see comedians joke about a child dying from cancer. It is all just so wrong. How do you think the public struggles with this issue? There are so many important causes that it’s unrealistic to expect others to be on guard the way we are. It is hard to convey the seriousness because in large part it is an invisible disability. I think I speak on behalf of all food allergy families that we are truly grateful to those who protect our kids. ✦
FEBRUARY 2017 • AVENUE MAGAZINE • AVENUE ON THE BEACH | 77
P OST C A RD F RO M . . . |
by
K ELLY LAFFEY
A DREAMY ESCAPE AVENUE Deputy Editor Kelly Laffey Explores the Magic of Puerto Rico
YEARS AGO, I remember the Puerto Rican Tourism Company running an ad campaign with the slogan “You’re Not Dreaming. You’re in Puerto Rico.” With New York City blanketed in clouds for the foreseeable future, I’d like to go back to my dreams. In September, I headed south for a long weekend at El Conquistador Resort, a Waldorf Astoria property located in Fajardo. The getaway is on the eastern tip of Puerto Rico, set atop a 300-foot bluff that overlooks the converging waters of the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. With 23 restaurants, bars and lounges, an on-site water park, and access to tropical sports, El Conquistador is true to its tagline—#ItsAlwaysSummerAtElCon.
Time to Escape
Las Casitas Village
Puerto Rico boasts crystal-clear waters and white sand beaches. It doesn’t get much better than that!
Las Casitas Village
Las Casitas Village is El Conquistador’s private escape, offering individual rooms and one-, two- and three-bedroom villas. Amenities include a 24-hour butler, as well as a personalized grocery service, vacation planning and private check-in.
Let It Rain!
El Yunque National Forest
The El Yunque National Forest is the only tropical rainforest in the U.S.’s national forest system. El Conquistador provided our group with a guided tour, where we explored the lush landscape. Covering 29,000 acres, the park is one of the smallest in the forest system, but we spent hours meandering along the trails, and even jumped into a waterfall to cool off!
private island offering water sports and an on-site café. I spent a few hours just paddling around the blue Caribbean waters. I SUP a lot—even in New York City!—so when my mom wanted to try, I hooked us together using the leash so that she could enjoy all the benefits of being on the water without worrying about drifting off!
What’SUP?
Pool Time
Stand-up paddleboarding (SUP) is one of my all-time favorite activities. It’s a total body workout that strengthens your core muscles. I was so pumped to see that you could rent stand up paddleboards at Palamino Island, El Conquistador’s
78 | AVENUE MAGAZINE • AVENUE ON THE BEACH • FEBRUARY 2017
If salt water’s not your thing, El Conquistador has you covered on the pool front. In addition to a lap pool—perfect for keeping your beach bod in tip-top shape!—the resort features a pool with a swim-up bar. Now that’s true vacation living. ✦
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SOCI AL SA F A RI |
by
R . COU RI H A Y Madonna @ Raising Malawi
Ariana Rockefeller, Hannah Selleck and Georgina Bloomberg @ NY Botanical Garden Winter Wonderland Ball
Event planner Harriette Rose Katz @ Animal Ashram
Prince Pavlos, Princess Marie-Chantal and Princess Maria-Olympia of Greece and Denmark
Georgina Chapman hosted a dinner in Gstaad
Anne Hathaway @ NY Botanical Garden Winter Wonderland Bal
Board Members Audrey and Martin Gruss @ Lincoln Center Fund Gala, honoring Carolina Herrera
PARTY OF THE YEAR TEARS OF A CLOWN
If parties could win an Oscar, then Madonna’s Raising Malawi bacchanal would take home top honors for 2016. It was a night of a hundred stars, including Leonardo DiCaprio, Adriana Lima, A-Rod, Donna Karan, Len Blavatnik, Jeremy Scott, Natasha Poly, Alexander Gilkes, P. Diddy, Calvin Klein, Ron Burkle and David Blaine, who smirked as he swallowed a broken wineglass. They all played a role in this night of fun, performance and mischief. Madonna’s 11-year-old son, David Banda, whom she adopted from the tiny African nation, said, “I’d like to introduce you to this clown that I call Mom.” In a room decorated like a circus tent, the radiant Material Girl used her wicked tongue (she kissed and twerked with Ariana Grande) and wild antics (she gave lap dances) to raise $7.5 million to build a children’s hospital in Malawi. Sean Penn helped get the riotous auction rolling when he jumped onstage, handcuffed Madonna and crawled through her legs to help sell a trio of their wedding photographs by Herb Ritts. “For once, he’s not the one being arrested,” Her Madgesty quipped, before confessing “I’m still in love with you, in fact I think I love you more now that we’re divorced.” Penn countered with, “As Americans, we’re used to serving either a queen or a clown, but I’m used to doing both.” This unique strategy racked up $230,000 for the 80 | AVENUE MAGAZINE • AVENUE ON THE BEACH • FEBRUARY 2017
Karolína Kurková @ Raising Malawi
photographs. Other items included artwork by Damien Hirst, Ai Weiwei, Julian Schnabel, Cindy Sherman, Richard Prince, Steven Meisel and a piece by Tracey Emin, who beamed from the audience when it sold for $550,000. Karolína Kurková sold a diamond snake by Bulgari to Prince Alexander von Furstenberg for $180,000, but only after she offered to lick the serpent. Ooh la la! When a Fiat 500 came on the block, she slapped Agnelli heir Lapo Elkann, saying, “This car has been arrested along with its owner.” Ouch! After The Late Late Show host James Corden introduced hilarious sets by Dave Chappelle and Chris Rock, Madonna came back and confessed, “Dating is hard. It’s weird to think the love of your life might not even be born yet,” adding, “I’m very single and haven’t had sex in a long time,” before she launched into an inspired set that ranged from her own “Holiday” to Britney Spears’ “Toxic,” as pictures of The Donald flashed behind her. The Queen of Pop revealed, “I’ve been in Donald Trump’s bed,” but professed it was “only for a magazine shoot and Trump wasn’t there.” Then she took a dig at his sheets, exclaiming, “They weren’t Egyptian cotton, because we all know how he feels about Muslims, don’t we.” Meow! The evening felt like a private affair because 80 percent of the 300 people already knew each other. Tickets ranged from $5,000 (no
©PATRICK MCMULLAN
Gstaad,Valentino, Georgina Chapman, Botanical Garden, Carolina Herrera, Wilbur Ross, Madonna & Animal Ashram
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SOCI A L SA F A RI Cornelia Guest @ Animal Ashram
guarantee of a seat) to $150,000 for a table, but don’t quibble: you got a single plate of French fries (to share) as the only course. Madonna closed the four-hour extravaganza saying, “They think I’m controversial, but the most controversial thing I’ve done is stick around for 34 years.” Want more? There was an after party with Paris Hilton, Rosario Dawson and Courtney Love. At 4 a.m., Madonna swept in and had a tête-a-tête with Sean Penn. What happened after that, only they know, but the Blond Ambition singer wasn’t found handcuffed to her bed; then again, she had the key.
MARCHESA TAKES GSTAAD
Marchesa designer Georgina Chapman and Harvey Weinstein had a dinner for director Quentin Tarantino at Gstaad’s Palace Hotel, which at 104 remains the life and soul of the village. Patricia and Henry Hay’s dashing son, Julian Hay, led the young set to the hotel’s notorious GreenGo nightclub, where all the ritzy students from Le Rosey dance until dawn. Regulars in this tiny alpine enclave include Valentino, who entertained Prince Pavlos and Princess Marie-Chantal of Greece and their daughter, Princess Maria-Olympia; Nati Abascal; Margherita Missoni; and Tatiana Santo Domingo at his Chalet Gifferhorn. Other regulars at the very private Eagle Club include Prince Nikolaos of Greece and Denmark and Princess Tatiana, Pia Getty, Lady Liliana and Lord William Cavendish, Janna Bullock and Roman Polanski. The Alpina Hotel, the ultrachic newcomer favored by Tarantino and Elton John, is a must-do for its Sixth Sense Spa experience and New Year’s Day brunch, as well as the end-of-the-year fireworks extravaganza orchestrated by owners Marcel Bach, Jean-Claude Mimran and his sons David and Nachson Mimran. Larry Wohl and Leesa Rowland@ Animal Ashram
Princess Tatiana and Prince Nikolaos of Greece and Denmark do Gstaad
CHEERS AT DOUBLES
Hilary Geary and Wilbur Ross got more attention than Santa Claus at Jay and Anne Hearst McInerney and George Farias’ festive party at Doubles. Ross confided they had gotten a house suitable for entertaining in Washington, where he will become secretary of commerce. Muffie Potter Aston said that Hilary will be “the hostess with the mostess in DC.” In the mix were Patricia Hearst Shaw, Michael and Tara Rockefeller, Candace Bushnell, Agnes Gund, Diandra Douglas, Judith Giuliani, Carol Mack, Deborah Norville, Donna Tartt, Hunt Slonem, Amanda Hearst, Robert Zimmerman, Carol Alt, Chuck Scarborough, Ann Dexter-Jones, Wendy Carduner and 200 others more or less just like them.
WINTER WONDERLAND BALL
Alexandra Lebenthal and Sharon Bush @ Animal Ashram
Valentino entertains Nati Abascal in Gstaad
Anne Hathaway led the perfumed pack to the New York Botanical Garden’s Winter Wonderland Ball. The night showcased their Holiday Train Show winding through a sprawling landscape of iconic New York landmarks made of natural materials. Among those enjoying a sumptuous dinner by Starr Catering Group were Gillian Hearst Simonds, Natalie Bloomingdale, Georgina Bloomberg, Kick Kennedy, Ariana Rockefeller, Alexandra Lebenthal, Cristina Cuomo, Whitney Fairchild, Alexandra Lind Rose, Ben Diamond and Emil Gotshall. The Garden is one of our city’s treasures and should be visited every season. nybg.org
Sibylle Eschapasse and entrepreneur Royce Pinkwater unveil $25 million townhouse @ 14th East 11th Street
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Cornelia Guest and Leesa Rowland organized a benefit for Animal Ashram, which helps homeless pets find forever families. Miss Guest served a vegan dinner with Urbani truffles for 80, paired with Dom Ruinart champagne and Whispering Angel rosé. Guests included Prince Dimitri of Yugoslavia, Sharon Bush, Jennifer Creel, Somers and Jonathan Farkas, artists Peter Max and Robert Cenedella, Maggie Norris, Patrick McMullan, Dr. Chris Calapai, and others of that ilk and stripe. Chef Josh Tanner of New York Prime Beef prepared Kobe and Wagyu steaks for the carnivores. animalashram.com ✦
©PATRICK MCMULLAN
ANIMAL ASHRAM
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WOR L D A C C O RD I N G TO . . .
JEAN-GEORGES VONGERICHTEN AVENUE’s back-page column asks New York notables our version of the questionnaire made famous by Marcel Proust
T
he mere mention of Jean-Georges Vongerichten tantalizes the taste buds. The chef and cookbook author is internationally known, with 10 restaurants in New York City alone, and countless others spread across such far-flung locales as Miami Beach, St. Barts, Paris, Dubai and Tokyo. Jean-Georges was born and raised on the outskirts of Strasbourg in Alsace, France, but his signature cuisine reflects his love for the exotic flavors of the East. By abandoning the traditional use of meat stocks and creams, Jean-Georges has made his mark on the culinary world. Though we’d love to invite Jean-Georges into our kitchen, we’ll settle for getting an inside scoop for how he spends his days.
WHAT DID YOU HAVE FOR BREAKFAST THIS MORNING? Two eggs sunny side up, cappuccino, green juice from the Mercer Kitchen. WHAT IS YOUR EARLIEST CHILDHOOD MEMORY? Planning parties for my friends and siblings. WHO IS YOUR FAVORITE DINING COMPANION? My brother Philippe. We eat lunch together five days a week. WHERE TRAVEL DESTINATION WOULD YOU RETURN TO INDEFINITELY? Japan. I love the food scene and culture. I visit at least once a year. WHAT IS YOUR CONNECTION TO THE CARIBBEAN? I love St. Barts. I travel there for a few weeks every December to celebrate the holidays with family and friends. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE INGREDIENT TO COOK WITH? Chilies! I use them in everything I make.
WHERE IS PARADISE FOR YOU? St. Barts. It’s a place where I truly disconnect and spend time with the people I love most. I take my shoes off for three weeks and couldn’t be happier. ✦
FRANCESCO TONELLI
YOU’RE HAVING YOUR LAST MEAL. WHAT DO YOU CHOOSE TO EAT? Either sushi or a bowl of pasta.
84 | AVENUE MAGAZINE • AVENUE ON THE BEACH • FEBRUARY 2017
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