1000 Park Avenue is an apartment building on the

Upper East Side The Upper East Side, sometimes abbreviated UES, is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 96th Street to the north, the East River to the east, 59th Street to the south, and Central Park/Fifth Avenue to the wes ...

of the

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

borough A borough is an administrative division in various English-speaking countries. In principle, the term ''borough'' designates a self-governing walled town, although in practice, official use of the term varies widely. History In the Middle Ag ...

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

. It is located at the northwest corner of the intersection of

Park Avenue Park Avenue is a wide New York City boulevard which carries north and southbound traffic in the boroughs of Manhattan and the Bronx. For most of the road's length in Manhattan, it runs parallel to Madison Avenue to the west and Lexington Avenu ...

and East 84th Street. It was built in 1915–16 by the developers

Bing & Bing Bing & Bing was one of the most important apartment real estate developers in New York City in the early 20th century. The firm was founded by Leo S. Bing (1874–1956) and his brother, Alexander M. Bing (1878–1959). The brothers often worked w ...

from a design by

Emery Roth Emery Roth ( hu, Róth Imre, July 17, 1871 – August 20, 1948) was an American architect of Hungarian-Jewish descent who designed many of the definitive New York City hotels and apartment buildings of the 1920s and 1930s, incorporating Beaux-A ...

. The brown brick structure is 13 stories tall with some

Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

-inspired stone and

terra cotta Terracotta, terra cotta, or terra-cotta (; ; ), in its material sense as an earthenware substrate, is a clay-based unglazed or glazed ceramic where the fired body is porous. In applied art, craft, construction, and architecture, terracotta ...

decoration Decoration may refer to: * Decorative arts * A house painter and decorator's craft * An act or object intended to increase the beauty of a person, room, etc. * An award that is a token of recognition to the recipient intended for wearing Other ...

. Two

carved Carving is the act of using tools to shape something from a material by scraping away portions of that material. The technique can be applied to any material that is solid enough to hold a form even when pieces have been removed from it, and ...

figures in medieval dress near the main entrance are said to represent the Bing brothers. Across 84th Street is the

Church of St. Ignatius Loyola The Church of St. Ignatius of Loyola is a Catholic parish church located on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, New York City, administered by the Society of Jesus (Jesuits). The parish is under the authority of the Archdiocese of New York, and wa ...

. The building is currently a

co-op A cooperative (also known as co-operative, co-op, or coop) is "an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democratically-control ...

owned by its residents. There are 64 units.

Residents

Among the former residents of the building are the British author

P. G. Wodehouse Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, ( ; 15 October 188114 February 1975) was an English author and one of the most widely read humorists of the 20th century. His creations include the feather-brained Bertie Wooster and his sagacious valet, Jeeve ...

, James J. Rorimer, former Director of the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

, and

Nicola Kraus Nicola Kraus (born August 17, 1974) is an American novelist. Personal life Kraus was born in New York City, and graduated from the Chapin School and then New York University's Gallatin School of Individualized Study. She met Emma McLaughlin w ...

, co-author of the

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...

bestselling A bestseller is a book or other media noted for its top selling status, with bestseller lists published by newspapers, magazines, and book store chains. Some lists are broken down into classifications and specialties (novel, nonfiction book, cookb ...

chick lit Chick lit is a term used to describe a type of popular fiction targeted at younger women. Widely used in the 1990s and 2000s, the term has fallen out of fashion with publishers while writers and critics have rejected its inherent sexism. Novels id ...

novel ''

The Nanny Diaries ''The Nanny Diaries'' is a 2002 novel by Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus, both of whom are former nannies. The book satirizes upper-class Manhattan society as seen through the eyes of their children's caregivers. Writing The writers were studen ...

''. She vehemently denies that Mrs. X, the mother in the novel, set at a similar Park Avenue building with a fictitious address, is based partially on women she worked for at 1000 Park. Most often speculated as the model for the character is

Lisa Birnbach Lisa R. Birnbach is an author best known for co-authoring '' The Official Preppy Handbook'', which spent 38 weeks at number one on the ''New York Times'' bestseller list in 1980. Early life and education Birnbach was born to a Jewish family on ...

, a part-time

CBS News CBS News is the news division of the American television and radio service CBS. CBS News television programs include the ''CBS Evening News'', ''CBS Mornings'', news magazine programs '' CBS News Sunday Morning'', '' 60 Minutes'', and '' 48 H ...

correspondent best known for editing ''

The Official Preppy Handbook ''The Official Preppy Handbook'' (1980) is a tongue-in-cheek humor reference guide edited by Lisa Birnbach and written by Jonathan Roberts, Carol McD. Wallace, Mason Wiley, and Birnbach. It discusses an aspect of North American culture describe ...

'' in 1980, who has some similarities to the character in the book. Birnbach confirmed that Kraus had worked for her, but described her as "more of a

play date Play date or playdate is an expression, primarily used in the United States, for an arranged appointment for children to meet and play. It should not be confused with dating as there is no implied romantic component. Play dates have become co ...

for my daughter" than an actual

nanny A nanny is a person who provides child care. Typically, this care is given within the children's family setting. Throughout history, nannies were usually servants in large households and reported directly to the lady of the house. Today, modern ...

. Another resident of 1000 Park named as a possible model for Mrs. X did not return phone calls from ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' requesting comment. Kraus did not think it inappropriate to use her former neighbors as models for her characters, but current residents of building disagreed. One even referred to Kraus as a "

snitch Snitch may refer to: * Informant Film and television * ''Snitch'' (1998 film) or ''Monument Ave.'', an American crime drama directed by Ted Demme * ''Snitch'' (2011 film) or ''Witness Insecurity'', an American thriller starring Edward Furlong ...

" and suggested the co-op board should forbid residents from fictionalizing their neighbors' lives.

References

{{Coord, 40.779258, -73.958502, display=title Residential buildings completed in 1916 Residential buildings in Manhattan Park Avenue Upper East Side Apartment buildings in New York City Emery Roth buildings