{"id":412614,"date":"2025-11-29T10:04:34","date_gmt":"2025-11-29T10:04:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/412614\/"},"modified":"2025-11-29T10:04:34","modified_gmt":"2025-11-29T10:04:34","slug":"a-home-designed-by-the-grand-central-oyster-bars-architect","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/412614\/","title":{"rendered":"A Home Designed by the Grand Central Oyster Bar\u2019s Architect"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

\n No. 126 is at the center, with an arc of oxidized copper over the fourth-floor windows.
\n Photo: Modern Angles\n <\/p>\n

You might not know the name Rafael Guastavino, but you\u2019ll likely recognize his signature move: a tiled arch swooping overhead that adds grandeur to the Grand Central Oyster Bar and the colonnade of the Manhattan Municipal Building. But in 1885<\/a>, before those splashy commissions (and before Guastavino patented his technique<\/a>), he designed two rows of homes on a block of West 78th Street. Most have survived, helping make the stretch between Amsterdam and Columbus one of the neighborhood\u2019s loveliest. No. 126 is the showstopper \u2014 the central home on the widest lot that once had nine other brownstones fanned around it.<\/p>\n

Price: <\/strong>$5.795 million ($8,582 in monthly taxes)<\/p>\n

Specs: <\/strong>8 bedrooms, 6.5 bathrooms configured as an owner\u2019s triplex, two two-bedroom apartments, and a studio<\/p>\n

Extras: <\/strong>Owner\u2019s triplex has a back patio, walk-in closest, laundry, and home office<\/p>\n

10-minute walking radius: <\/strong>American Museum of Natural History, Central Park, Zabar\u2019s<\/p>\n

Listed by:<\/strong> Julie Harding and Kevin Sneddon, Compass <\/a><\/p>\n

With Moorish arches over the windows on two floors and a flashy coat of arms carved into the stone, the home was snapped up by a businessman and his wife, who, according<\/a> to the historian Tom Miller, decorated with \u201cLouis XV, Louis XIV and Louis XI period antiques and reproductions, all in ivory and gold.\u201d By the 1960s, generations of boarders had carved up the original interiors, and a young couple saw an opportunity. Hugo and Priscilla Joy Dunhill hired<\/a> an architect who would go on to design the Clinton Presidential Library and the glass-encased orb of the Hayden Planetarium up the block. But back then<\/a>, James Stewart Polshek was just a Columbia professor hacking out renovations on the side.<\/p>\n

The Dunhills hired Polshek to divide the five-story building into an owner\u2019s triplex with a pair of two-bedroom apartments on the fourth and fifth levels and a small studio on the ground floor. For the triplex, he turned a new staircase into a feature \u2014 with a curved wall \u2014 and tried to turn the low, dark English basement into a social living area by lowering the floor to raise the ceiling height. (A choice that was then novel enough that the New York Times wrote it up<\/a>.) He did that move stylishly, creating a cozy, sunken family room while keeping the passageway elevated so it functioned like a catwalk. On the parlor floor, in a closet and a bathroom where 14-foot ceilings weren\u2019t exactly useful, Polshek dropped them down and carved out a space above for a small office that \u201ccontains Mrs. Dunhill\u2019s desk, two exposures and a good deal of natural light,\u201d according to the Times. Priscilla, a children\u2019s-book author and journalist<\/a>, worked there for two decades, and the place seemed to be suffused with her relaxed, hippie-ish sense of style when she listed it in 1989.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n At the ground-floor level, James Stewart Polshek lowered the living area to create higher ceilings. An oversize casement window in the back lets in light.
\n Photo: Modern Angles\n <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I first met her, she came out of the building barefoot,\u201d said Peter Askin, who bought from her. Askin was born into the Durst clan \u2014 the grandson of founder Joseph Durst \u2014 and sold commercial real estate for years in the family name. Then, screenplays he wrote on the side started selling and getting produced<\/a>. By the time he settled into 126, he was fresh off his directing debut<\/a>, working to open a new theater<\/a>, and going through a divorce. He needed stability: a place in the neighborhood where he could host his sons. The triplex felt homey \u2014 \u201cthe kind of place you want to take your shoes off,\u201d he says, maybe because Priscilla already had, or because of the way Polshek had pulled down walls, getting rid of any formal parlors. Off the back, an extension that predated Polshek filled the kitchen with sun on two sides and had a quiet room above with a skylight that he turned into an office. \u201cYou could lie on a sofa and look at the moon or at planes flying overhead,\u201d he said. As for the separate apartments, Askin never rented them out, instead offering the units to friends, family, and a personal trainer who all repaid him by helping whenever something inevitably broke in the 138-year-old house. He made some improvements \u2014\u00a0combining two small bedrooms to create a more livable primary suite, scrubbing the white paint off the fa\u00e7ade so Guastavino\u2019s designs could sing again. Still, \u201cI don\u2019t claim the artistic merits of the apartment,\u201d he said. \u201cI inherited those.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n Peter Askin hired masons to renovate the Westside Theatre, then asked them to work on this entrance. The gate (left) allows for a private entrance to a studio apartment.
\n Photo: Modern Angles\n <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n A hall at the English basement level opens into an informal family room in the owner\u2019s triplex. The stairs lead to the kitchen.
\n Photo: Modern Angles\n <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n The kitchen is in an extension that predates Polshek\u2019s renovation and allows for light on two sides coming through a slim patio.
\n Photo: Modern Angles\n <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n The breakfast nook. Upstairs, an office with a skylight doesn\u2019t extend across, allowing for high ceilings.
\n Photo: Modern Angles\n <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n A more formal living room on the parlor floor of the owner\u2019s triplex.
\n Photo: Modern Angles\n <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n The casement window looks onto a patio in back.
\n Photo: Modern Angles\n <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n French doors off the more formal living room lead to a home office.
\n Photo: Modern Angles\n <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n The office. Peter Askin worked here while directing Hedwig and the Angry Inch, one-man shows for his friend John Leguizamo, and the film Trumbo.
\n Photo: Modern Angles\n <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n Askin created a more comfortable primary bedroom on the upper level of the triplex that looks over the back patio.
\n Photo: Modern Angles\n <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n A smaller bedroom on the same floor looks over 78th Street.
\n Photo: Modern Angles\n <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n That bedroom is connected to a small, windowed room that could be used as a bedroom, nursery, or home office.
\n Photo: Modern Angles\n <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n The triplex has a third bedroom on the parlor floor, looking over 78th Street.
\n Photo: Modern Angles\n <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n There are two full two-bedroom units on the top levels, and this one looks over 78th through windows framed with Guastavino\u2019s Moorish arches.
\n Photo: Modern Angles\n <\/p>\n

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