death in May 1994<\/a>, he rented a suite at the nearby Sherry-Netherland hotel, according to his son, Leon Tempelsman, the president at Lazare Kaplan International, the diamond importer where his father was chairman. (Mr. Tempelsman also had two daughters, Rena and Marcy.)<\/p>\nThe search for a more permanent residence for his father had been a long one. \u201cWe looked at so many places \u2014 uptown, downtown, East Side, West Side, even townhouses,\u201d Leon Tempelsman said. \u201cWe were just about ready to give up when we found this apartment.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said Mr. Tempelsman was immediately struck by the grand scale of the rooms in the penthouse and the enormous wraparound terrace. At around 3,660 square feet, it is nearly twice the size of the actual unit.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was walking through the apartment with the broker trying to put on a game face, then he turned around with his hand cupped over his mouth and said, \u2018I love it,\u2019\u201d his son recalled. \u201cIt was love at first sight.\u201d<\/p>\n
The penthouse has roughly 1,872 square feet of interior space, with two bedrooms, one of which was turned into a library, three and a half bathrooms, and a staff room that could be converted into a home office or breakfast nook. There\u2019s also a laundry area.<\/p>\n
Mr. Tempelsman kept the layout intact, and aside from painting and adding wallpaper, made few changes to the interior space, which he decorated with traditional furnishings and classic American art from the late-18th to early 21st centuries.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe biggest change was the elaborate build-out of the garden,\u201d his son said. \u201cIt was nowhere near as heavily planted.\u201d<\/p>\n
Entry to the home is on the 12th floor. A private foyer has a set of stairs leading up to the unit\u2019s spacious dining area. The room is surrounded by floor-to-ceiling windows and features French doors that open to the park-facing west side of the terrace. Nearby is a windowed galley kitchen and staff bedroom.<\/p>\n
Beyond the dining area is a large living room anchored by a wood-burning fireplace with a carved wooden mantel and marble surround.<\/p>\n
The primary bedroom suite includes two walk-in closets and an en-suite tiled bathroom. The library, also with an en suite bathroom, has a wall of built-in bookshelves.<\/p>\n
Throughout the apartment are hardwood floors, high ceilings and oversize windows. And nearly all the rooms have access to the exterior, even the staff quarters.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a seamless flow between the indoors and outdoors,\u201d said Allison Bandier Koffman of Sotheby\u2019s International Realty, who is listing the penthouse with her colleague Juliette Janssens.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe exposures are spectacular,\u201d Ms. Janssens said. \u201cYou get city and Central Park views. You can see the reservoir. And you can even see the East River.\u201d<\/p>\n
The irrigated rooftop terrace, which features a fountain with koi fish, is lined with concrete pavers and brimming with potted plants, flowers and trees. Among them: Japanese maple, weeping cherry and crab apple trees, dogwoods, wisteria and English ivy.<\/p>\n
Mr. Tempelsman enjoyed reading on the terrace, his son said, and would often entertain there, sometimes on a grand scale, in addition to hosting intimate dinner parties inside.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe would have dignitaries and political figures visit him and you would have these Secret Service sweeps,\u201d Leon Tempelsman said. Many of the guests were from Africa, where his father had frequent business dealings as a gem importer. Mr. Tempelsman would also hold gatherings for the charities he supported, like the Corporate Council on Africa and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, he added.<\/p>\n
The terrace has several areas carved out for lounging and dining, and something you probably won\u2019t find anywhere in New York: a wooden skiff from Martha\u2019s Vineyard.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe loved telling people about the vertical journey involved in hoisting a 13-foot boat up 12 floors to the top of a New York City building,\u201d Leon Tempelsman said. \u201cThis is most likely the first penthouse apartment to come with its very own skiff.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The longtime Manhattan penthouse of Maurice Tempelsman, the Belgian-born diamond magnate who was Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis\u2019s companion for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":225300,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[88565,1670,69612,88561,88563,9,24,55,54,56,88564,578,88562],"class_list":["post-225299","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-carnegie-hill-manhattan","tag-high-net-worth-individuals","tag-jacqueline-kennedy","tag-lazare-kaplan-international","tag-maurice","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-city-headlines","tag-new-york-city-news","tag-ny","tag-onassis","tag-real-estate-and-housing-residential","tag-tempelsman"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225299","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=225299"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225299\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/225300"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=225299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=225299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=225299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}