Balancing understated architectural details with exuberantly opulent décor, the apartment underwent a bespoke two-year renovation and restoration by the seller, Regina “Gigi” Mahon, an interior decorator and author (“The Last Days of the New Yorker”) married to international financier and former Citicorp Vice Chairman Thomas C. Theobald who several years back landed herself in the property gossip columns when she turned an impressive, multimillion dollar profit on a pair of neighboring apartments on the fifth floor of The Plaza that she snatched up in early 2008 for just over $14 million and sold in mid-2011 for $19 million.

An always coveted private elevator landing leads to an ample but still warmly intimate foyer furnished by Mahon with a gilt-trimmed commode topped by a glitzy array of gilded and presumably pedigreed antique this and thats. Painted a gutsy deep navy, the living room stretches grandly to nearly 29-feet-long with an antique fireplace and sunny south and east exposures while the separate dining room, painted Tiffany blue and furnished as an informal lounge with a second fireplace, opens to a small loggia fitted as a home office. Lined with jet black lacquered cabinets with pristine white countertops and toile pattern window shades, the high-glam eat-in kitchen was designed to accommodate at-home entertaining with a huge center island and a pass-thru wet bar and pantry equipped with a second dishwasher.

Both bedrooms, along with a powder room described in marketing materials as “fanciful” with “a marble floor that is a copy of a garden at Versailles”, are clustered away from public spaces in a private wing off the foyer. The guest bedroom offers two closets and a windowed an en suite bathroom while the somewhat larger master bedroom opens to a private wrap-around terrace and includes two closets, one of them a custom-fitted walk-in, plus an only average-sized but lavishly finished bathroom. Marketing materials indicate the penthouse transferred with an in-building storage unit and a double maids room on the second floor was also available for purchase at an additional price but it’s unclear if Rhimes acquired the suite.

Shonda Rhimes

Famous owners