I.M. Pei’s stunning Sutton Place townhome lists for $8M

Legendary Pritzker Prize-winning architect I.M. Pei, who passed away in May at 102 years old, left an indelible mark on New York City. Among his lauded works are NYU’s Silver Towers and the Four Seasons Hotel.

But to less notoriety, the modernist Chinese-American architect also designed his own Sutton Place townhome, where he lived with his wife Eileen for more than 45 years. The four-story house has just hit the market, asking $8 million, the Wall Street Journal first reported.

The 3,848-square-foot home has four bedrooms, three full bathrooms, two powder rooms, a wine cellar in the basement, and a garden. It has a modernist aesthetic and boasts several stunning details including floor-to-ceiling picture windows, a spiral staircase, and an oblong skylight that resembles Pei’s glass pyramid at Paris’s Louvre Museum.

Its living room has 10-foot ceilings, Tasmanian oak floors, and a fireplace with a soapstone frame, also designed by Pei. There are multiple additional fireplaces, built-in bookshelves, and marble floors on the garden level. It offers views of Sutton Square Gardens, the East River, Queensboro Bridge, and Roosevelt Island.

City records show that Pei bought the house back in 1973 for $215,000. It was “dark and dirty and sort of crumbling,” Pei’s son Sandi tells WSJ. But Pei transformed it, adding the house’s iconic details including its floor-to-ceiling windows and staircase.

Aside from selling the home, Christie’s is also auctioning art works collected by Pei and his wife over the years, including Jacques Lipchitz’s “Man with Guitar,” and an oil on canvas by Zao Wou-Ki, according to WSJ.

The house is located at 11 Sutton Place, between East 57th and East 58th streets. Taxes are $4,807/month. Edward F. Joseph of Christie’s International Real Estate has the listing.

Courtesy of Christie’s International Real Estate