Never-lived-in $50M residence lists at Manhattan’s historic Apthorp building

An apartment approaching 8,500 square feet would be remarkable almost anywhere in Manhattan.

Finding that kind of space inside one of the Upper West Side’s best-known prewar buildings narrows the field considerably.

A newly completed residence at The Apthorp has hit the market for $49.995 million, bringing seven bedrooms, nine bathrooms and approximately 8,400 square feet to the historic 1908 building at 390 West End Avenue.

The home has never been lived in following an extensive redesign by Katherine Newman Design, with virtually every surface and architectural detail reconsidered.

Michael Lorber and Alexander Boriskin of Douglas Elliman hold the listing.

Rather than dividing the enormous footprint into a series of interchangeable open-plan spaces, the apartment retains the sense of procession associated with grand prewar homes.

A formal entry leads into a substantial gallery, which in turn opens onto a sequence of entertaining rooms.

The living room alone measures approximately 21 by 37 feet — proportions that would swallow the entire footprint of some Manhattan apartments.

Next door, a separate formal dining room provides another large-scale entertaining space, while a private study and dedicated television room allow the home to shift easily between formal gatherings and everyday life.

Despite its size, the interiors avoid the heavy, overly ornate treatment that might be expected in an apartment of this pedigree.

Katherine Newman Design instead worked with pale woods, warm metals, custom millwork and architectural paneling, using richly detailed stone and integrated lighting to add depth without overwhelming the rooms.

Bronze-framed openings mark transitions between spaces, while custom doors, hardware and cabinetry recur throughout the home.

The extensive built-ins also perform a less glamorous but particularly useful function: hiding an enormous amount of storage.

Oversized windows bring in abundant natural light and open the apartment toward city, treetop and river views, helping some of the home’s largest rooms feel considerably less enclosed than their scale might suggest.

The kitchen is another room sized accordingly.

At approximately 26 by 15 feet, it has enough space for serious cooking without forcing food preparation into the entertaining areas.

Extensive cabinetry and storage are accompanied by a pantry, dedicated laundry room and separate service entrance — part of a larger floor plan that deliberately keeps household operations away from the home’s more formal spaces.

That division continues as the apartment moves into its private wing.

Wide galleries lined with cabinetry lead toward the bedrooms, separating sleeping quarters from the entertaining rooms at the other end of the residence.

The primary suite is particularly substantial.

Its bedroom stretches nearly 25 feet in length and is accompanied by multiple dressing areas and extensive custom-fitted closets.

In the primary bath, large slabs of book-matched stone wrap the room, surrounding a sculptural freestanding soaking tub and oversized glass-enclosed shower.

Custom vanities and integrated lighting continue the same highly tailored treatment used elsewhere in the apartment.

Six additional bedrooms provide considerable flexibility, particularly in a home this large.

Depending on the next owner’s needs, some could remain conventional bedroom suites while others could become offices, a library, media space or dedicated guest quarters without leaving the residence short on sleeping accommodations.

Altogether, there are seven full bathrooms and two powder rooms.

Perhaps the most unusual aspect of the apartment is that all of this work has been completed without anyone actually moving in.

The residence is being offered never lived in, eliminating the lengthy design and construction process typically required to create a highly customized home of this size in Manhattan.

And reproducing it would be no small undertaking.

Between the custom millwork, cabinetry, stonework, architectural detailing and sheer 8,400-square-foot footprint, a comparable renovation would likely involve years of planning and execution before furnishings even entered the equation.

All of it sits inside The Apthorp, the imposing 12-story Upper West Side building completed in 1908.

With 161 residences and a scale that already sets it apart along West End Avenue, the building provides an appropriately grand setting for an apartment whose living room alone measures nearly 800 square feet.

At $49.995 million, residence 7GH isn’t trying to compete on novelty or rooftop theatrics.

Its extravagance is considerably more old-school: enormous rooms, seven bedrooms, separate public and private wings, serious service spaces and enough square footage to make an 8,400-square-foot Manhattan apartment feel almost like a townhouse laid horizontally across a single address.