The Pierre (795 Fifth Avenue)
795 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10065
- Year built
- 1930
- Type
- Hybrid hotel-cooperative — 77 cooperative residences combined with the Taj Pierre Hotel's 140 rooms and 49 suites in a single building
- Landmark
- Designated
- Pets
- Permitted under cooperative rules; confirm with management
- Subletting
- Restrictive; board approval required
The Pierre at 795 Fifth Avenue is one of three Schultze & Weaver Manhattan trophy hotel-residences from the late 1920s and early 1930s — the others being the Waldorf-Astoria (1931) and the Sherry-Netherland (1927) — and is the most architecturally distinctive of the three at the building level. Schultze & Weaver designed The Pierre as a 525-foot French Renaissance / Châteauesque tower for the restaurateur-turned-hotelier Charles Pierre Casalasco, capitalized at $15 million from a syndicate of New York's leading financiers including Otto H. Kahn, Finley J. Shepherd, E. F. Hutton, and Walter P. Chrysler. The hotel opened in October 1930 to extensive press coverage and immediate cultural recognition; the green-tiled mansard pyramidal crown that defines the building's silhouette is among the most photographed elements of the Manhattan skyline.
The Great Depression unraveled the original financing structure. The hotel went bankrupt in 1932 — just two years after opening — and changed hands multiple times across the 1930s and 1940s. The building's modern identity took shape under J. Paul Getty's ownership in the 1950s. Getty acquired The Pierre and, recognizing both the hotel's distressed economics and the rising New York demand for trophy residential addresses, converted a portion of the building to cooperative ownership in 1959. The conversion produced 77 cooperative apartments alongside the continuing hotel operation, a model that proved sufficiently successful that it became the template for subsequent Manhattan hotel-cooperative hybrids (The Carlyle at 35 East 76th followed the same pattern in 1967).
The resident roster across The Pierre's near-century reads as a cultural register comparable to The Plaza's and The Carlyle's combined. Cary Grant lived in the building. Elizabeth Taylor lived in the building. Aristotle Onassis maintained an apartment. Yves Saint Laurent died in the building in 2008. The hotel side has hosted heads of state, every category of celebrity, and a continuing cycle of weddings and state events. The combination of cultural cachet, Grand Army Plaza positioning, and the Schultze & Weaver architectural distinction makes The Pierre singular even among the small set of comparable Manhattan trophy addresses.
The Taj Hotels operating partnership (since 2005) has continued the hotel program with substantial restoration and renovation work, including detailed preservation of the original Schultze & Weaver public interiors (the Rotunda, the Cotillion Room, the Wedgwood Room). Residents have access to the hotel's full service infrastructure on an a la carte basis — Two E Bar, Perrine restaurant, the gym and spa — alongside the dedicated residential entrance on East 61st Street and the cooperative's standard service program (doorman, concierge, valet).
For buyers, The Pierre represents a particular tier of Manhattan trophy hotel-cooperative inventory: Schultze & Weaver architectural pedigree, Grand Army Plaza positioning at the southeast corner of Central Park, the hotel-residence service program, and a 77-unit cooperative scale that produces moderately broader buyer dynamics than the smallest tier-one pre-wars while preserving institutional culture.
Architecture and unit composition
The 77 cooperative residences span configurations from approximately 1,000 sf 1BRs to substantial 4,000+ sf 4BRs, with some duplex configurations and combined apartments at the upper floors. The 1959 conversion preserved the apartments' Schultze & Weaver architectural character to the extent feasible within a hotel-conversion context; renovations across the building's nearly seven decades of cooperative occupancy have produced varied configurations and finish conditions.
Schultze & Weaver's pre-war architectural signatures throughout: 10–11 foot ceilings in primary rooms (lower than the pre-war Candela / McKim Mead & White norm but generous by hotel-conversion standards), formal entry galleries, library-living-room combinations, and the building's original architectural detailing preserved in cooperative units to varying degrees.
Park views are available from the building's upper-floor north-facing apartments — direct sight lines across Central Park's southern boundary to the Park itself and the Manhattan skyline beyond. Fifth Avenue-facing apartments on the building's western flank look across to Grand Army Plaza and the Pulitzer Fountain; East 61st Street-facing apartments have residential cross-street exposures.
The famous green-tiled mansard pyramidal crown houses some of the building's most distinctive upper-floor apartments, with unusual ceiling configurations and view envelopes reflecting the architectural geometry.
Building operations
The Pierre operates as a cooperative with full-time doorman (residential entrance on East 61st Street), 24-hour concierge, valet service, and integrated access to the Taj Pierre Hotel's broader service infrastructure on an a la carte basis.
Specific cooperative policies (financing posture, flip tax structure, sublet rules, pied-à-terre allowance) should be confirmed directly with cooperative management during due diligence. The Pierre's particular hybrid program produces a board approval framework that considers both standard cooperative criteria and the implications of integration with the hotel operation. The cooperative board has historically been selective and the building's institutional culture has preserved the residential character through multiple cycles of hotel ownership changes.
The hotel side's operating partnership with Taj Hotels (since 2005) provides continuity and substantial capital investment in the building's shared infrastructure (lobby, public spaces, mechanical systems). Cooperative residents benefit from this investment indirectly through preservation of the building's shared architectural character.
Recent sales
Last 5–10 closed sales at The Pierre (replace this section with current ACRIS data — pull at publication time and refresh quarterly):
[Recent sales table to be populated from ACRIS]
Sales context at The Pierre (per CityRealty, StreetEasy, BHS, Christie's):
- Inventory turnover is moderate given the 77-unit scale; typically 3–6 transactions per year.
- Pricing spans a range — 1BRs in the $1.5M–$3M range; 2BRs in the $3M–$8M range; larger configurations in the $8M–$25M+ range; the building's most consequential trades have transacted at meaningfully higher levels for the upper-floor and pyramidal-crown apartments.
- A 2204 unit was offered at $20.5M; a 2704 was offered higher; the building maintains substantial transactional activity in the $10M–$25M trophy range.
- Public listing through StreetEasy and Compass private exclusive is standard for most inventory; private network outreach matters for higher-priced apartments.
What to know if you’re buying
Understand the hybrid hotel-cooperative program. Buyers acquire a cooperative residence in an actively-functioning luxury hotel. Hotel guest activity in shared circulation is part of the daily-life signature. Buyers who want strict residential privacy may prefer pure-residential Gold Coast pre-wars (820 Fifth, 998 Fifth, 1040 Fifth); buyers who value hotel service integration find The Pierre uniquely positioned.
Board approval is institutionally serious. The cooperative board reviews with standard criteria (financial profile, references, primary-residence intent) plus attention to fit with the building's specific hotel-integration program.
Schultze & Weaver architectural pedigree matters. Among Manhattan trophy buildings, The Pierre's architectural identity — the green mansard crown, the Châteauesque vocabulary, the Schultze & Weaver firm's broader portfolio (Waldorf-Astoria, Sherry-Netherland) — places it in a particular cultural register.
Hotel services are available a la carte. Residents can use Taj Pierre services but pay separately. Model anticipated service use into your monthly budget alongside standard maintenance.
Confirm specific policies directly with management. Financing posture, flip tax structure, sublet policy specifics, and pied-à-terre allowance should be obtained directly during the contract review process.
Renovation is constrained by the building's pre-war character and hotel-cooperative integration. The board reviews scope and quality with attention to preservation of the Schultze & Weaver detailing where it remains in apartments.
View permanence is excellent. Central Park at the building's north; Grand Army Plaza at the west; East 61st Street is a stable residential cross-street.
What to know if you’re selling
Marketing should emphasize the architectural and cultural register. Listing copy should reference the Schultze & Weaver design, the green mansard crown, the building's cultural history, and the Taj Pierre hotel integration — these are differentiators that the typical comparable Manhattan trophy doesn't carry.
Pricing requires apartment-level context. The building's 77-unit scale produces meaningful variation; view, exposure, floor altitude, configuration, mansard-crown placement, and renovation history all matter.
Closing timelines are co-op standard. 6–10 weeks from contract signing to closing.
The Roebling Team at The Pierre
The Roebling Team at Compass specializes in Central Park West, the Upper East Side, and the broader Park-facing Manhattan trophy market. We publish this building profile because mixed-use trophy buyers and sellers deserve building-specific intelligence — architecture, board culture, transactional mechanics, the realities of the hotel-cooperative program, and pricing at the apartment level — not generic market commentary.
If you're considering a purchase or sale at The Pierre, a 30-minute consultation is the right starting point. We'll bring the full context this page provides plus the transactional specifics your situation requires — financial structuring, board approvability, comparable analysis at the apartment level, and the pacing strategy that fits your timeline.