One Lincoln Plaza (aka ASCAP Building) was the first residential tower to go up in Lincoln Square after completion of Lincoln Center. But it’s not exactly what the developers had in mind, thanks to a scrappy holdout – the owner of a five-story brick-and-brownstone on W 63rd Street.

There are two versions of what transpired between tenement owner Col. Jehiel R. Elyachar and developer Paul Milstein. The New York Times’ account and Holdouts!: The Buildings That Got in the Way differ in some details, but essentially the Colonel kept raising the price of his $50,000 property to more than $600,000. Exasperated, the Milsteins decided to build around the tenement (a city-mandated park had already been cut out of One Lincoln Plaza’s footprint).

One Lincoln Plaza Vital Statistics

• Location: 20 W 64th Street at Broadway
• Year completed: 1972
• Architect: Philip Birnbaum & Associates
• Floors: 43
• Style: Postmodern

One Lincoln Plaza Recommended Reading

• Wikipedia entry
• The New York Times Upper West Side Journal | Tenement Long Outlasts Fight Against Skyscraper (October 8, 2010)
• The New York Times Philip Birnbaum, 89, Builder Celebrated for His Efficiency (November 28, 1996)
• City Realty review
• Street Easy NY listing
• Emporis database
• Condopedia entry
• Ogden CAP Properties: official website
• One Lincoln Plaza Living: unofficial website (includes all floor plans)
• Holdouts!: The Buildings That Got in the Way

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