Whitney Port’s Apartment from “The City”

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As fate would have it, last year’s New York vacation ended just a few weeks prior to the series premiere of the MTV Hills spin-off entitled The City.  That, of course, meant that I had to wait almost an entire year to stalk any of the locations featured on the new show.  🙁  And, while I have to admit that I don’t even really like the series all that much, at the top of this year’s NYC stalking list were quite a few locales used on it.  One of the locations I most wanted to stalk was the building where series’ heroine/burgeoning fashion designer Whitney Port supposedly lived during Season One.  But, of course, as is often the case on The City, things weren’t quite as cut and dry as they seemed.  Thanks to fellow stalker Virginie, who posted a comment on my site back in January with a link to this article from the blog Curbed, I found out that the building shown as Whitney’s on the show isn’t where the reality starlet actually lived.   So much for The City being a “reality” show.  LOL  But even though Whitney didn’t actually live in the building featured on the series, because the place is a filming location, I, of course, still had to stalk it!  🙂 

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The building where “Whit” supposedly lived on The City is ultra-tall, ultra-modern, ultra-luxurious, and just oh-so-New-York!  And, thanks to the dwelling’s quintessential New York feel, it’s not very hard to see why producers chose to use it as the residence of the girl Page Six Magazine dubbed as “The New Carrie Bradshaw”.  The building is the ideal home for a modern-girl-about-town.  And I would just about give my left foot to live there!  🙂  

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Ironically enough, though, Whitney wasn’t too keen on the place when she first toured it with then-boyfriend Jay Lyons in the Season One episode entitled “The L Word”.  Upon first seeing the apartment, Whitney said, “I kind of envisioned myself whenever I moved here that I would be, like, in one of those shorter brick buildings.”  Um, you mean, like, a brownstone, Whitney?  LOL LOL LOL  Boyfriend Jay changed her mind, though, and later in that same episode Whit became a resident of the building, where she remained through the show’s first season.  Or so MTV would have you believe.  But we know different, don’t we?  🙂

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As you can see in the above screen capture, the balcony of Whitney’s apartment doesn’t look at all like the balconies of the building shown in the show’s exterior shots, which is how the bloggers over at Curbed were able to figure out that MTV was trying to pull the wool over its viewers eyes.  The building Whitney actually lived in is located less than a mile away from her “fake” building and is called the Elektra.  Sadly, I was not able to stalk that location during this year’s trip, though.  🙁  And, as fate would have it, during The City’s Second Season, which just premiered last month, Whitney moved out of her hi-rise digs and into a “shorter, brick building” somewhere in Greenwich Village.  And while I have not figured out the exact location of that spot yet, I definitely plan to stalk it during next year’s New York trip.   🙂

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  Whitney’s “fake” building, which was designed by architect Stephen B. Jacobs, is fairly new to the New York skyline.  The property was just recently completed in 2006 and is comprised of 390,000 square feet of living space which is divided into 250 individual condominium units.  The building features a 24-hour doorman, a concierge, a lobby, a garage, a business center, a gym, a yoga room, a massage room (and here I don’t even know what a massage room is!), a sauna, a residents’ lounge complete with fireplace, a children’s playroom, a conference room, and an indoor pool and spa.  Individual apartments in the building boast floor to ceiling windows, marble baths, hardwood floors, sweeping views, and private balconies.

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A side note about my photographs – I accidentally took the above pictures from the opposite end of Fifth Avenue from where the The City’s set-up shots were taken.  If you want to snap a pic from the exact spot where the screen captures were taken, head over to the corner of Fifth Avenue and West 32nd Street.  🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  🙂

Stalk It: Whitney Port’s “fake” apartment building from The City is located at 325 Fifth Avenue.  In reality, Whitney lived at a building named The Elektra, which is located at 290 Third Avenue.

Tavern on the Green

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One of my favorite places in New York to grab a drink is a restaurant called Tavern On The Green. So, on Monday night I immediately recognized the Tavern as the location where The Hills Finale Live From NYC was held. Oh, how I wish I could have been there! 🙂 The Tavern has long been a New York institution. In 2007, over 500,000 people dined there, grossing it over $38 million in revenues. According to Wikipedia, it is the second highest grossing independently owned restaurant in the U.S., second only to Tao in Las Vegas!. But the Tavern actually had very humble beginnings. The structure now known as Tavern on the Green was first built in 1870 and served as Central Park’s Sheepfold, a shelter for the many sheep who called the park home. In 1934 New York City’s Commissioner of Parks Robert Moses renovated the building and turned it into a restaurant. Forty years later, in 1974, Warner Leroy, the son of Wizard of Oz producer Mervyn Leroy and Doris Warner (Harry Warner’s daughter), purchased the restaurant and began a $10 million renovation turning the Tavern into the ornate crystal and glass masterpiece it is today.

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Tavern on the Green is no stranger to the big or small screen. Besides The Hills Finale Live From NYC (which was filmed in the Crystal Room), the Tavern has also appeared in Ghostbusters (Rick Moranis fights with the “terror dog” outside the restaurant’s Crystal Room), Rich Girls (MTV’s really, really dumb reality show about Tommy Hilfigers’s daughter and her best friend), New York Stories (where Woody Allen shares a meal with his mother), Misery (the site of James Caan’s novel release party), Hitch, Yo! MTV Raps, ElimiDATE, Only When I Laugh, Stella, Crimes and Misdemeanors, The Eddy Duchin Story, Made, Portrait of Jennie, The Out-of-Towners, and Wall Street. And I am about 99.9% positive that Carrie and Big dined in the Tavern’s lantern covered outdoor garden in the Season 2 episode of Sex and the City entitled “The Caste System” (pictured above), but I haven’t been able to confirm that yet. And according to the latest issue of People Magazine, Tavern on the Green is where my girl Jennifer Aniston ate Christmas Eve dinner every year as a child. 🙂

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Tavern on the Green is a beautiful place to grab a drink or a bite to eat. Although a few tour books have labeled the restaurant tacky, I would have to disagree. The Tavern’s gaudiness and over-the-top decor are exactly what make it so appealing. Where else, but New York can you dine in a crystal ballroom complete with glass walls, hand-painted and hand-carved ceilings, brass and copper mirrors, walls decorated with 52-foot murals, and thousands upon thousands of twinkle lights? It is one of the most unique, special restaurants I have ever visited in my life. I absolutely LOVE IT! 🙂 And while the Tavern is pricey, it is worth saving your pennies to experience its rare ambience at least once in your life. I absolutely love the Tavern’s small cocktail bar (pictured above), but during the summer months nothing beats its outdoor garden, which is lit by hundreds of colored paper lanterns. It’s absolutely beautiful.

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But the most magical time of year at the Tavern is Christmastime. The interior of the restaurant is covered with countless wreaths, ribbons, and candy canes. But it is actually the Tavern’s outside that is the most awe-inspiring.

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Coming upon the Tavern from Central Park, it is almost like a beacon in the night. The trees in the front and the back are completely covered in twinkle lights – thousands upon thousands of them. I’ve honestly never seen so many in my life! Tavern on the Green gives Clark Griswold a run for his money! Pictures truly don’t do the light display justice – it must be seen in person to truly be appreciated.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Tavern on the Green is located at Central Park West at 67th Street. You can visit their website here. Reservations are highly recommended! The bar is first come, first served, but arrive early. It’s standing room only even on weekdays.