While glass skyscrapers are being built around it, the world’s most demanded building is dressed in traditional and enveloping limestone.

The question of who we would like to spend Christmas with usually has an easy and quick answer: with our dearest ones, with someone very special who is no longer there, with some personality (whether famous or not) with whom We feel identified or with any living being that, for one reason or another, makes us happy. But a more difficult question to answer is where would we like to spend Christmas?

This week I am going to propose a very special place: the most quotized building in the world. And why appellate size? Because it concentrates (or has concentrated) a series of factors and personalities whose economic relevance has made construction an icon of power. The first factor is to be located in front of the most famous park, the Central Park of New York, the second is to be erected recently, its construction was completed in 2008 (this is almost a decade old).

The 15 Central Park West was designed under the hands of promoters Arthur and William Lie Zeckendorf. It consists of two towers, one of 19 floors and another of 35, with capacity for 202 mega-luxury apartments with typologies for all tastes (from a room with 92 square meters to four rooms with 370), their duplexes exceed 500 square meters, like the one bought in 2006 by Goldman Sachs CEO, Lloyd Blankfein, for 25.7 million dollars (21.63 euros).

The complex has two entrances, 24-hour staff, gardens, 30 individual wineries (with solid oak cabinets), a library (do not miss good customs), a private restaurant, a health club with private massage rooms and an area of yoga. The promotion was a success from the beginning, so Daniel Loeb, manager of hedge funds, paid for an apartment in 2005 the extraordinary figure of 45 million dollars (38 euros) when the first stone had not been laid.

The architects of Robert A.M. Stern wanted to emulate with its new construction the fantastic buildings that surround Central Park and that made the city great, its Art Deco style, is reinforced by a limestone exterior, extracted by the same quarry that was used in the Empire State Building. Limestone is a stone that stands out in the New York city, shines in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Frick Museum, or apartment buildings such as 998 Fifth Avenue or 740 Park Avenue.

The popular British musician Sting was one of his tenants, bought in 2008 an apartment for 26.5 million dollars (22.31 euros), to sell it this fall for 50 (42 euros), a profitable business: it goes to a annual increase of 2 million dollars (brutal). Denzel Washington is another famous tenant, more modest in his claims, paid $ 13 million (11 euros) for a three-bedroom property in 2006.

The team of architects who took care of part of the efforts is SLCE Architects, they are also proud of this mega-work, which covers 82,000 square meters, whose summit is at 167 meters high and whose construction cost reached (sit down please) 950 million dollars (800 euros). However, it was an immediate success, and not only sold quickly, it also sold at double the cost, having a profit of almost 100 percent.

The vast majority of homes have exceptional views, some include views to the east and west to contemplate the exit of the star king. Inside, its tenants enjoy a 1300-square-meter gym, a 23-meter-long indoor pool and a cellar designed by David Spon, with raised arches, elaborate mosaics and beautiful fractured stones. Surely the daughter of Russian tycoon Dmitry Rybolovlev has enjoyed it more than once … knowing that his father paid 88 million dollars (74 euros) for the attic he bought!

In the mega-tower of luxury there is also space for artistic fun, a projection room designed by Theo Kalomirakis, with capacity for 20 users is available for residents to enjoy the night of the Oscars, the Super Bowl or for their parties birthday. Daniel Och, an American investor, will know it well, who bought the last plant of the largest of the towers for 41.25 million dollars (35 euros).

In May of this same year, a well-known Chinese buyer with no face paid 50 million dollars (42 euros) to the Ceo de Barclays Capital, Bob Diamond, for one of the highest-rise apartments, which, in turn, had paid 37 million dollars (31 euros) in 2012, a clear example of how the properties of this complex are listed at a dizzying increase. Another big business was done by car driver Jeff Gordon who paid 9.67 million dollars (8.14 euros) for an apartment in 2007 and sold it in 2013 for 25 (21 euros).

Other attractions that make this building attractive are nearby cultural institutions such as the Lincoln Center or Carnegie Hall, and high-end stores such as those located on nearby Fifth Avenue. Entering the complex a bronze door welcomes you, the lobby opens onto a lobby with two unique chimneys, copper ceilings in the entrance pavilion, granite fountains in the connection between the two towers and ponds and gardens are part of what users and their visitors see daily.

Actors like Kelsey Grammer and Mark Wahlberg, Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang, former Google executive Omid Kordestani, or NBC journalist Bob Costas are some of the personalities who reside or have resided in the towers. Good real estate management, adequate advertising, an impressive display of materials, a great design based on the golden stages of the 20s and 30s of the city and, above all, the interest generated among the high fortunes, have located this complex between the most expensive in the world and, of course, among the places where it would not be bad to leave the new year. Do you agree?