3 Riverside Drive

Note: certain photos are renderings.

Three Riverside Drive, erected in 1895, is one of the most important historic homes still standing on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. For a time, 3 Riverside Drive was the residence of William Guggenheim, an iconic New York magnate.

This 37-foot wide, ornate limestone mansion was designed by C.P.H. Gilbert – the same architect who produced many other NYC landmarks including the Warburg Mansion on 92nd & 5th (now the Jewish Museum), the Otto Kahn Mansion one block south on 5th, the Woolworth Mansion on 80th & 5th, the Seligman mansion on 56th St and many other mansions for the most prominent and wealthy business families in NYC in this era.

Riverside Drive and the limestone mansions erected upon it at the turn of the last century, with their unrivaled views of Olmsted-designed Riverside Park and the Hudson River, was the West Side’s answer to 5th Avenue. In this context, 3 Riverside Drive has epic proportions in each room with ceiling heights on its nine levels spanning from 10’ to 24’ high. The home has stunning views of Riverside Park, the Hudson River and open skies throughout. These unobstructed views are extraordinarily unusual for a townhouse in NYC most of which look across fairly narrow streets to other townhouses or buildings and accordingly have comparatively limited light.

Purchased by the current owners in 2017, the house has been reimagined as a modern home on the inside with a historic outside fully preserved. Most unusually, the home has been designed with an unprecedented suite of amenities normally found in a large, full-service building including: a large swimming pool, partial basketball court, spa, gym, stadium seating movie theatre and game room. To make space for these amenities, a now complete, extremely costly, four year 36-foot deep excavation through solid bedrock was undertaken adding nearly 6,000 square feet and three stories below grade to the already enormous 12,000 square feet, 6-stories above grade.

The house now stands ready for the next owner to carry out their own vision within this massive, already complete envelope. Italian-architect designed plans are fully DOB and Landmarks approved and completed, but may be modified to your own preferences. All engineering work is completed and fully designed and paid for. In addition to the below-grade amenities, current above grade plans provide for 8 bedrooms including a full-floor master suite spanning nearly 2,500 square feet with a duplex closet with an internal staircase and two primary, massive bathroom suites along with 7 other en-suite bedrooms (including a staff bedroom on the ground floor), dual studies, a staff office, kitchen, formal dining room, double-height living room, sitting room, bar, breakfast room, den and a sweeping roof-top terrace with open views of the park and river and of the home’s cherub. The house boasts 4 other terraces. This is quite simply no home in Manhattan with this extent of excavation, this historic pedigree, this ornate, limestone facade, these kinds of views and this width that can be found for sale.