Michel Arnaud
This pencil-thin skyscraper that became the world's tallest residential building upon its completion in 2015.
Michel Arnaud
Designed by Uruguayan architect Rafael Viñoly, the 1,396-foot-tall skyscraper is home to 104 luxury apartments.
Michel Arnaud
Found in New York's Upper East Side, 10 Gracie Square went into foreclosure during the Great Depression. It is now one of the city's most desirable apartment buildings.
Michel Arnaud
Former residents of 10 Gracie Square include Gloria Vanderbilt and Madame Chiang Kai-shek, the Republic of China's former first lady.
Michel Arnaud
Built in the late 1920s, 960 Fifth Avenue is one of a glut of luxury apartment buildings constructed in the years before the Great Depression.
Michel Arnaud
Residents of 960 Fifth Avenue have access to an in-house restaurant, a private building chef and a rooftop gym with views over Central Park.
Michel Arnaud
Built on the site of a former cigar factory in 1931, River House is renowned for its board's strict approvals system. A number of celebrities have reportedly been blocked from purchasing apartments in the building.
Michel Arnaud
Inside the master bedroom of an apartment in the exclusive 720 Park Avenue.
Michel Arnaud
Built in 1884, The Dakota was one of New York's first luxury apartment buildings.
Michel Arnaud
Famous former residents of The Dakota include Maury Povich and Lauren Bacall. John Lennon also resided in -- and was murdered just outside -- the apartment building.
Michel Arnaud
A 25-room luxury apartment on Fifth Avenue that was first occupied by mining magnate Murry Guggenheim.
Marco Ricca/Charles Pavarini
A Park Avenue penthouse boasting its own private teahouse.
Michel Arnaud
Found in Manhattan's West Village, 173 and 176 Perry Street are a pair of high-rise apartment buildings completed in 2002.
Pawel Kaminski
Inside a luxury duplex once inhabited by a young Jackie Kennedy (then Bouvier).
Michel Arnaud
An apartment kitchen found inside The Beresford, a 1920s building designed by eminent New York architect Emery Roth.
Michel Arnaud
A Japanese screen print hangs in the media room of a luxury apartment in East Midtown.
Michel Arnaud
A quartz and wooden kitchen inside 820 Fifth Avenue, one of New York's most exclusive apartment buildings.
Michel Arnaud
A new book has brought together floor plans and photographs from 15 of the city's best known apartment buildings.
CNN  — 

When luxury apartments first started appearing in the 1880s, wealthy New Yorkers still preferred the type of Victorian townhouses that lined Central Park.

But a sudden change in taste transformed New York’s real estate market, according to a new book exploring the city’s unique relationship with luxury apartment buildings.

Take a look inside New York's architecture and design gems 

“Around the turn of the century, the most affluent people in society gravitated away from their Beaux-Arts mansions into equally grand apartment buildings,” said Kirk Henckels, a luxury real estate specialist and co-author of “Life at the Top: New York’s Most Exceptional Apartment Buildings.”

Michel Arnaud
Built in the late 1920s, 960 Fifth Avenue is one of a glut of luxury apartment buildings constructed in the years before the Great Depression.

“This really signified a move towards living communally and vertically – cutting expenses, using shared services and transitioning to a cleaner style. In Manhattan, the construction that went on between 1910 and 1930 is unlike anything we have seen since. There was a massive amount of building across the whole city – but for the wealthy it was really around Fifth Avenue and Park Avenue.”

A rare glimpse

Indeed, these two streets account for more than half of the 15 buildings featured in Henckels’ book.

Thanks to floor plans and over 300 photographs, readers get a rare glance into some of exclusive New York addresses – from the 19th-century grandeur of The Dakota, one of the city’s oldest apartment complexes, to the pencil-thin 432 Park Avenue (which became the world’s tallest residential building upon its completion in 2015).

Michel Arnaud
Built in 1884, The Dakota was one of New York's first luxury apartment buildings.

But while Henckels admits that his glossy book offers an unashamed dose of “architectural pornography,” he hopes to tell a wider story about the city’s history. With a glut of new luxury developments appearing on New York’s skyline in recent years – more than we’ve seen in the 80 years, Henckels argues – it’s a story that’s still being written.

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“Now, a hundred years after the first boom, we’re in another transition,” he said. “People are going from Georgian and traditional to contemporary. They’re are going away from cooperatives and going to condos. Once again, they’re going more vertical and to a cleaner style.”

“Life at the Top: New York’s Most Exceptional Apartment Buildings,” published by Vendome Press, is available now.