Manhattan House

Manhattan House
Seen from Third Avenue and 65th Street
General information
Type	Condominiums (mixed residential and commercial)
Location	200 East 66th Street, Upper East Side, Manhattan, New York City
Coordinates	40°45′55″N 73°57′46″W / 40.76528°N 73.96278°W / 40.76528; -73.96278
Groundbreaking	April 1949
Construction started	1950
Completed	1951
Client	New York Life Insurance Company
Technical details
Structural system	Concrete slab
Floor count	21
Design and construction
Architect(s)	Gordon Bunshaft of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill Albert Mayer and Julian Whittlesey of Mayer & Whittlesey
Engineer	Richard T. Geoghegan
Other information
Number of units	582 (original)
New York City Landmark
Designated	October 30, 2007
Reference no.	2246

Manhattan House is a 21-story residential condominium building at 200 East 66th Street on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City. The building was designed in the modern style by Gordon Bunshaft of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM), in partnership with the firm of Albert Mayer and Julian Whittlesey. It occupies a full city block bounded by Third Avenue to the west, 66th Street to the north, Second Avenue to the east, and 65th Street to the south. Constructed between 1949 and 1951, Manhattan House was developed by the New York Life Insurance Company as a middle-class apartment building. The complex is a New York City designated landmark.

Manhattan House consists of a central "spine" with five wings each facing north and south, as well as low-rise retail podiums to the west and east. The structure is set back from both 65th and 66th Streets and only occupies about two-fifths of the lot. To allow the construction of a tall structure with fewer setbacks, New York Life donated the northern part of the site to the New York City government, and it placed a garden on the southern part. The facade is made of pale white brick. The main entrances are on the north side of the building, facing 66th Street, while there are various storefronts on Second and Third Avenues. Manhattan House contains a lobby with glass walls, as well as a basement parking garage and a roof garden. The upper stories were originally divided into five sections and contained approximately 582 apartments, each with two to seven rooms. Most of the apartments contained glass balconies, and some of the apartments included fireplaces.

The structure was built on the site of a 19th-century car barn, which New York Life had acquired in 1946. After various delays, New York Life began constructing the building in April 1949, and the first residents moved into Manhattan House in October 1950. Throughout the mid- and late 20th century, New York Life operated Manhattan House, renting apartments to largely middle-class tenants; its residents included Bunshaft, clarinetist Benny Goodman, and actress and later Princess of Monaco Grace Kelly. New York Life sold the building in 2005 to developer N. Richard Kalikow and investor Jeremiah W. O'Connor Jr., who converted the apartments into condominiums. The conversion project was delayed by numerous lawsuits, complaints from existing tenants, and the 2007–2008 financial crisis. O'Connor ultimately completed the project by himself at a cost of $1.1 billion, making it one of the most expensive condominium conversions in New York City; the last condos were sold in 2015.