Finishing Touches: A Tastefully Designed, New-Build Town Home, Complete At Last

ON AN OPPRESSIVELY WARM AFTERNOON NOT LONG AGO, the Observer endeavored to cross Central Park on foot, heading east on the 79th Street traverse, which whorled with dust and pollen, hectoring our allergy-afflicted reporter. So it was a relief to reach the pristine, climate-controlled foyer of our destination, a magisterial townhouse at 54 East 81st Street.

Its neoclassical limestone facade was new; ditto the outdoor plantings and black ironwork fence, the filigreed Juliet balconies that lend the home a little dignity to go with its sheer (20-foot-wide) grandeur. In fact, the whole structure was new-a four-year project that was only just getting its finishing touches. For Richard Phan, the Corcoran broker who co-acquired it earlier this month, the listing was new, too, and he insisted that the owners had built the 8,147-square-foot house intending to live there long-term.

"They only decided to sell recently," Mr. Phan explained. "The owners' children go to school in Connecticut, and this winter, especially, they were complaining about the commute."

In point of fact, however, the property-in degrees of completion-has been on and off the market since 2011, practically since the current owners bought it, for $8.15 million. Douglas Elliman listed it at various times for between $12.95 million and $17.95 million, and a listing last fall with Charles Rutenberg asked $25 million flat. The current price, $36 million, is the most optimistic yet, which seems to suggest the owners now perceive just how lovely a thing they've made.

And it is lovely indeed. Descending through the home-alongside a commercial-grade elevator-is a twisting staircase with American walnut risers and delicate ornamental metalwork running beneath its banister. Italian artisans were brought in for the plaster molding in the second-floor formal dining room, which is painted a robin's-egg blue. Each of the home's six bedrooms is elegant and gracious, none more so than the master, which sports 12-foot ceilings, and whose attached bathing quarters allegedly benefited from three separate marble installations.

Many rooms are hung with original sketches by Picasso and colorful works by 20th-century European painters; throughout, interior decoration bespeaks a refined and highly particular taste. Walking the halls, one might even guess that the responsible parties intended to take off their coats and stay awhile.