Vacuum magnate James Dyson is the buyer of a wildly extravagant pied-a-terre at 520 Park. The sale set the inventive billionaire back $73.8 million.
And what, pray tell, does nearly seventy-five mil buy you in the luxury Manhattan market these days? 75 million-dollar views of the Park and city, for one. The unit is an upper-floor penthouse in one of Robert A.M. Stern’s higher-profile building projects of the last decade, and the most recent feather in the firm’s cap.
The limestone-loving Stern didn’t stray from his preferred expressive choice of exterior material, and designed 520 Park with inspiration from a series of iconic New York buildings, among them the Sherry-Netherland—one of the most enduring luxury residential buildings in the city—and others that help sustain the architectural patina of Manhattan.
The duplex unit extends to 9,138 square feet of living space, with six bedrooms and 7.5 baths. It begins with a centrally-positioned double-height gallery with herringbone white oak floors, where a staircase of the same material rises dramatically, and out of which the rest of the residence falls outward on all sides.
The layout of the place is fascinatingly labyrinthine, showing a compartmental complexity that enhances the sense of discovery when moving through it. The master suite features two master baths, one with a dressing room, the other with a cavernous walk-in closet. And, yes, the kitchens in the building come by way of Christopher Peacock. The unit is serviced by three elevators.
Dyson’s net worth is in the neighborhood of $10 billion.