Peek Inside Gloria Vanderbilt's Whimsical NYC Apartment for Sale

[IcyPeas]

11 photos here.

30 Beekman Place, #2A
$1,125,000 | 3 beds, 2.5 baths

https://www.apartmenttherapy.com/gloria-vanderbilt-nyc-apartment-36958796?utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Category%2FChannel%3A+main

The kitchen is shockingly unadorned compared to the rest of the pictures.

[Tomconroy]

1. As I understand it, she lost most of her money.

A million bucks won't buy you anything real fancy in Manhattan these days. Probably Anderson Cooper helped out.

[Me.]

4. She LOst MOst Of Her Inherited Money

but made a bundle selling her jeans

[Tomconroy]

9. She ended up sung people because that money was stolen

By a lawyer and a business manager some time in the 1990s.
Apparently there isn't a Vanderbilt alive today that is considered to be really wealthy.
She left 1 million dollars to Anderson Cooper and the apartment to her other son.

[mcar]

2. Garish

[StarfishSaver]

5. It might seem garish to someone who doesn't live there, but I really like it

It looks like the home of a very individual, interesting personality who surrounded herself with things that she loved and that represented a life well lived.

[mcar]

7. Way too busy for me but you are right

It does represent the individual's personality.

[StarfishSaver]

12. I'm not a fan of the unadorned spare, look

It looks cold and contrived to me. I much prefer spaces with lots of personality, even if they may look cluttered ... I'm always much more comfortable in spaces that tell me something about the people who created and inhabit them.

That's just me - but I know I'm in the minority.

[pandr32]

15. I completely agree

I can't handle cold, sterile interiors. Being a big art fan I much prefer my environment to be filled with art and special, interesting things. There is no place like home.

[StarfishSaver]

17. At least there are two of us ...

I've aalways been put off by homes that look like they are waiting for the photographers to show up at any moment and shoot the rooms for a cover spread in Architectural Digest: no personal effects, no photos, nothing that reflects the personality of the owners.

If given the choice, I so much prefer rooms that may be a little "junky," but are full of color and life and history and tales to be told.

[Hortensis]

24. Me too. I've noticed most continue to like what their generation was first

oriented to when young. Whatever comes next, it always tends to be a favorite.

I do appreciate the clean looks of the current "fusion," unisexual, hotel-inspired interiors of people who mostly must be gone working all day and who either clean after work or have anonymous employees of middle class cleaning services in to do it. (None of those were trusted near or to do a proper job with Ms. Vanderbilt's possessions!) It can be very good looking, with modern production methods nice stuff very affordable.

But when I was young, the rich "layered" colorful look reflecting the lives of people who lived rich, big, colorful lives was very popular, or a more bohemian look for those more like me, and I still love it.

I also still like the clean, simplified modern of that era, which was not at all austere -- in the glossy mags museum-quality art and sculpture , and I still love the wonderful serene quiet of rooms carpeted wall to wall. Art aside, in my experience modern was very unforgiving of gouges or wear of any kind and was very hard to carry off without a big budget for quality furniture. Now it's much more within ordinary means.

[malaise]

20. It's ot me but I also like it

bright and full of flowers

[StarfishSaver]

3. That's a steal in Manhattan!

[catbyte]

6. Maybe it's just me, but I'd be creeped out in a room filled with pictures of myself.

But, as I said that's just me, ymmv.

[Sympthsical]

8. This apartment is my personal nightmare

*twitches* I cannot stand clutter. It's open space or nothing. I put my partner on probation when he suggested we put shelves on various walls to display tchotchkes that he then wanted us to shop around for together. So this place is my worst nightmare.

After 18 months, I finally -f-i-n-a-l-l-y - put my art on the walls in my office.

I won't go into the fact I'd have to pirate-eye it just to walk through the place. How do you look at this everyday? And the windows, oh god. Gaze lovingly out into the street and never get diarrhea again.

[kskiska]

10. As far as a kitchen is concerned...

Anderson has claimed he never had vegetables and still doesn't eat them. He has weird tastes and said he doesn't understand waffles - they're just pancakes with holes, said there wasn't much in their refrigerator growing up except vodka and Carr's Water Biscuits.

Jackie Kennedy's Central Park apartment's kitchen was very old-fashioned and outdated. After all, she never had to cook there. The hired help prepared all their meals.

[tblue37]

11. My eyes hurt!

[greatauntoftriplets]

13. As someone with a red living and dining room, I mostly like this.

I would not have so many patterns in a single room, though. That rug is way too busy, but it probably had meaning to her. No portraits of myself, please!

[brooklynite]

16. I'm amazed you can get 3 BR for that low a price in Manhattan.

Whimsical or not, there's got to be some major renovation work needed.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

18. I'm going to guess she never or rarely cooked herself.

I've also noticed over the years that the homes of the wealthy tend to be hideously overdecorated, with lots and lots of patterned fabrics that clash terribly.

No wonder she moved regularly in earlier years.

[StarfishSaver]

19. True - but there's a difference between being "overly decorated" and full of stuff they like

I agree - over-decoration is not a good look when we're talking about contrived decoration full of things that were curated but not personal to the owner. But, on the other hand, homes with lots of stuff that mean something to the people living there can be quite lovely, even if that stuff would be clutter to anyone else.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

21. I realize everyone has different taste, but

the pictures of Ms. Vanderbilt's home look to me like a cluttered, over-decorated place. Other than the kitchen, which I suspect she essentially never went into.

[StarfishSaver]

22. It may feel cluttered and over-decorated to you, but I'll bet she loved it just as it was

Which is what matters.

[TreasonousBastard]

23. Reminds me a lot of grandparents' house in Maryland. Organized clutter of good stuff...

No idea if any of those furnishings are included in the fire sale price. (Or if it's a walkup, with no AC.)

I do love the kitchen, though-- loads of space, and hardly broken in.

[IcyPeas]

26. you can see air conditioning units in the kitchen and one of the other rooms

pictures 7 and 9.

[TreasonousBastard]

29. Yep, there they are. No idea if they are powerful enough. Many of the older NYC buildings didn't...

have decent wiring, and not all of them were upgraded over the years.

"AC? We don't have AC, we just go to our place the shore when it gets hot."

[OnDoutside]

25. It's like a bad Barbara Cartland book...

[Luciferous]

27. Wow, that is a lot of ugly stuff 😂

[Hortensis]

28. That was a nice kitchen for its era, whenever that actually was.

Dorothy Rogers', wife of composer Richard Rogers, socialite, entertainer, and big lover of cooking, designed her last big kitchen for herself as a highly efficient workroom that could meet all demands well, very small to very large. She designed a means of quickly serving large meals, without servants, from the privacy of the kitchen to the beautiful, large very sophisticated dining-living room next door but very separate. Not for her crowds of guests wrongly imagining her workroom provided a better atmosphere than fine art, books, Richard's piano and Richard, their gorgeous view, etc.

Her house before that one was something of a "country" version of Ms. Vanderbilt's NYC look. Gorgeous, but high maintenance that she finally tired of after years of loving it.

[chowder66]

30. I bet there are a lot of interesting stories that go with her treasures. nt