The Upper East Side is known for being New York’s—possibly the country's—most elegant residential neighborhood, with streets near Park and Fifth Avenues conveying the hushed ambiance of the privileged and powerful. The majority of apartment buildings here were built between the turn of the century and the 1930s. 

Fifth Avenue is entirely residential in this area except for the many cultural institutions along its "Museum Mile," home to the City's highest concentration of cultural institutions including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the MoMA, Whitney, and Guggenheim museums, the Frick Collection and many smaller high-quality institutions. Also here are the elegant residential enclaves of Sutton and Beekman Place. Carnegie Hill is the City's most coveted neighborhood for families, and Yorkville toward the East River is a popular home to young professionals and singles who enjoy stunning river views and the added perk of Carl Schurz Park. 

Central Park, on the western border of this area, makes a world-class front yard—with its zoo, tennis courts, formal gardens, bridle paths, running tracks and reservoir. Madison Avenue—possibly the world’s most famous retail address and famed center of the advertising industry in the mid-20th century—entices shoppers with boutiques like Chanel, Prada, Tiffany and fashion mecca Barney's New York, and a more commercial strip runs through the southeast corner, anchored by Bloomingdale’s at 59th Street and Lexington/Third Avenues. 

World-class hotels in the neighborhood include the Carlyle, the Mark, the Lowell and the Plaza-Athene, and dozens of fine restaurants line side streets. Transportation includes a number of buses and subway stations at 77th, 68th and 59th Streets on Lexington Avenue, 60th Street on Fifth Avenue, as well as plentiful taxicab service due to the area's aforementioned hotels.

Carnegie Hill

Located between 79th and 98th Streets and Fifth Avenue and Third Avenues, the Upper East Side neighborhood known as Carnegie Hill is, for many New Yorkers with families, the city’s finest—if not quintessential—residential neighborhood. The area gets its name from the great mansion and fenced garden—now the National Design Museum—that the steel magnate built on Fifth Avenue between 90th and 91st Streets. 

While busy Lexington Avenue near 90th Street offers the classic selection of chain stores, gourmet delis and eyewear boutiques, location dictates that these be interspersed with progressive preschools, sushi restaurants, and that venerable cultural anchor, the 92nd Street Y. Cross-streets are lined with elegant brick towers and stately pre-war townhouses. 

The existence of historic landmark districts and very active community groups guarantees that new developments here will have to proceed with care. The neighborhood boasts the city’s highest concentration of major museums—the "Museum Mile"—including the crown jewel that is the Metropolitan Museum of Art—as well as fine schools, numerous religious institutions, and a large supply of sizable apartments, mostly in pre-war buildings. There's also a healthy mix of distinguished architecture, good public transportation, and the coveted proximity to Central Park as well as a very pleasant collection of charming restaurants along Madison Avenue.