What are New York City’s best apartment buildings? Before 1900, it was the Dakota and the Osborne; soon after came McKim, Mead & White’s 998 Fifth and the ultra-soigné 820 Fifth Avenue. The roaring twenties produced true luxury: 740 Park Avenue, the art deco–inspired River House, and Rosario Candela’s extraordinary 778 and 720 Park Avenue. Today, the city’s skyline sparkles with palatial new buildings, such as Robert A. M. Stern’s 15 Central Park West, Richard Meier’s glass-walled Perry Street towers, and 432 Park Avenue, New York’s tallest residential building.

Kirk Henckels and Anne Walker, real estate and architectural insiders, chronicle the fortunes and features of 15 outstanding apartment houses with a wealth of vintage and new photography and architectural plans, and show off select apartments as they look today, designed by top interior designers.