#the dakota

[andallshallbewell]

#nyc #New York #the dakota #architecture #snow #winter

[javelinbk]

John Lennon inside the Dakota. New York City, 25th February, 1975 © Brian Hamill

#hey smiley #still sitting like a cat I see #not that I mind #john lennon #the dakota #february 1975 #1975

[ripplefactor]

At Graydon Carter’s flat, Christopher Simon Sykes, The Dakota, New York, 1996 ..

#Graydon Carter #The Dakota #ripplefactor #rpf2

[cardigancyn]

#john lennon #the beatles #1980 #the dakota

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Roberta Flack, Graydon Carter, Rosemary Clooney, Leonard Bernstein and Judy Garland have been on its long list of notable residents. It takes more than fame and wealth to get in — the co-op’s notoriously stringent board has rejected Billy Joel, Madonna and Cher.

The building’s board once stopped the documentary filmmaker Albert Maysles, who was also a collaborator of Ms. Ono’s, from selling his unit to actress Melanie Griffith. “More and more, they’re moving away from creative people and going toward people who just have the money,” Mr. Maysles had told the Times in 2005.

Today, there is one unit listed for sale in the building: a 6,000 square-foot, five bedroom, nine bathroom apartment on the eighth floor. It has its own separate studio unit, and the listing price is $20 million.

#NYC #buildings #The Dakota #Yoko Ono

[historydailyfrancischappellblack]

British musician John Lennon, Previously of the Beatles, Was Shot and Mortally Wounded in the Archway of the Dakota, His Residence in New York City. December 8, 1980.

Image: John Lennon and Yoko Ono in 1980. On this day in history, December 8, 1980, British musician John Lennon, previously of the Beatles, was shot and mortally wounded in the archway of the Dakota, his residence in New York City. The assassin was Mark David Chapman, an American Beatles fan who was envious and angry by Lennon’s wealthy lifestyle, alongside his 1966 comment that the Beatles were…

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#1980s #assassination #History Daily #John Lennon #Strawberry Fields #The Dakota

[dontcallittimetravel]

On This Day: John Lennon no longer had to imagine there's no heaven

#on this day #on this date #happy death day #john lennon #I'm saying he found out for himself #imagine #mark david chapman #the dakota #central park #strawberry fields forever

[myhauntedsalem]

The Dakota New York

Although it is most well known for being the site of the gruesome murder of John Lennon, it also has quite a reputation for being haunted. During construction in the 1960’s, workers saw the apparition of a young mans body with a young boys face. Several year later, painters saw the apparition of a girl with long blonde hair and a period dress bouncing a ball. Many others have seen her since. Residents in the third floor apartment hear footsteps and other noises. Rugs and chairs also slide on their own, and one resident saw the glow of a chandelier. When he went into the room where he saw the chandelier, he noticed that a chandelier did not exist, although there were still the remnants of the bolts for one. Another couple of tenants were assaulted by a shovel which flew off the wall and almost hit them in the basement. They also saw garbage bags being thrown around on their own, and an electrician working in the basement saw a ghost which matched the description of Edward Clark. The ghost of John Lennon himself has also been seen by several people.

The visionary behind The Dakota was a lawyer named Edward Clark, The Dakota architect also designed the Waldorf Astoria and Plaza Hotel, Apartment living in New York was considered undesirable before The Dakota, The Dakota was used for the filming of 'Rosemary's Baby', John and Yoko owned five apartments at the Dakota, John Lennon believed the Dakota was haunted, The Dakota is haunted by the murder of John Lennon, Boris Karloff was the first actor to move into the Dakota, Leonard Bernstein's Dakota apartment sold for $21 million. After the hopefuls have paid thousands of dollars to oil the cogs of the process, acceptance is still not guaranteed. Big names such as Madonna, Billy Joel, Cher, Antonio Banderas, Melanie Griffith, and Carly Simon have failed the Dakota's stringent acceptance policy. Yet, according to the legendary documentary filmmaker Albert Maysles, who sold his Dakota apartment in 2005 after being a resident for over three decades, the co-op board has lost touch with what once made the Dakota great.

#The Dakota #haunted locations #paranormal #ghost and hauntings #ghost and spirits #haunted #haunted salem #myhauntedsalem

[transpondster]

Feb 25, 1975

[photo by Brian Hammill]

#john lennon #the dakota #new york rooftops #new york city #nyc #1970s #the beatles #central park

[johnmccharmly]

I’ve been trying to find confirmation of this but I haven’t ever been able to. Was Paul actually hurt when John turned him away when he showed up at fhe Dakota with a guitar? i can’t tell sometimes what’s fanfiction or real life. Thanks.

We will never know the full truth to this, I have heard many sides...

One being Paul went to check on him, seeing as John "disappeared" from public eye, wouldn't take any phone calls, and never left the walls of the Dakota. Many of John's friend were incredibly concerned for him and curious as to why he was "wasting his talent away" in the prison of Yoko Ono. That is a strong statement I am aware, however I do believe the story of Yoko mentally abusing him, and controlling every aspect of his life, to the point he became her pet that she took endless money from. John as we know was not the strongest mentally, and Yoko knew that, she knew he needed Paul, and with that knowledge she turned John further against him, blocking all his calls, and did nothing to help John come out of his depressive state...

Another side, John’s side, is that Paul showing up unannounced really flustered him seeing that he had a family and baby to take care of, and dilly dally playing around on guitars just was not possible anymore. I believe he said something along the lines of “this isn’t liverpool anymore”, meaning that they weren’t kids who could show up out of the blue and play any longer... Though I see John’s point, I feel it goes much deeper than this. I feel the John Lennon we all know and love would jump at the opportunity to play with his one time bestfriend, I feel that whoever answered the door that day, was not the John Paul has known and loved for oh so many years. He was simply not himself, and Paul knew that...

I am sure Paul was aware of how far John was gone mentally, and when he was turned away by him, It had to have been hard... However Paul knew John, better than anyone else had or ever will, he had to have known that Johnny was not doing well and that being turned down was just a result of just that. I hurt for John during those years living in the Dakota, he was not well, and anyone that actually knew him could tell you that, but the only person who had full access to him was Yoko. The control she had was disgusting, and I can only wish John had been strong enough to stand up to her and take his life in his own hands. A part of him had to have yearned to play with Paul again that day, just like the old days, just like their days in Paul's bedroom back in Liverpool... In a perfect world some would say...

So yes, I do think Paul was hurt, obviously being turned away by the person that once knew your every move and thought, and you him, would feel like a knife through the heart... but again there had to have been some understanding, and sadness for John on Paul's end... John was not the John he knew and loved, and Paul must have seen that.

I apologize for the lengthy answer to such a simple question, this topic just opens the door to many happenings at the time... I can only wish they got to do that one more studio session that was planned before Johnny passed... in another lifetime my friends<3

#paul mccartney #john lennon #mclennon #the beatles #lennon mccartney #john lennon and paul mccartney #they were electric together #mclennon feels #i miss you john #the 70's #yoko ono #the dakota #we miss u johnny

[andallshallbewell]

#nyc #fall #autumn #the dakota #Central Park

[leclercari]

i need everyone to hear the story of colman domingo meeting his husband bc it's just the most beautiful thing i've ever heard

#colman domingo #graham norton #dakota johnson #sterling k brown #domhnall gleeson #everyone's reactions too 🥹 #LOVE MAN #IT'S EVERYTHING

[javelinbk]

John Lennon, on the roof of the Dakota with the eastside skyline toward 5th Ave in the background. New York City, 25th February, 1975 © Brian Hamill

#things I like: #the clothes #the elvis pin #the boots! #the smile #the view #things I’m not too keen on: #the hat #the hair #sorry johnny #I hope he called george on his birthday #john lennon #the dakota #february 1975 #new york 1975 #1975

[ripplefactor]

At Graydon Carter’s flat, Christopher Simon Sykes, The Dakota, New York, 1996 ..

#Graydon Carter #The Dakota #ripplefactor #rpf2

[whileiamdying]

Yoko Ono and the Dakota

Word that the pop culture icon has left the fabled Upper West Side apartment building that she defined for a generation has sparked reflection on her impact as a resident there for 50 years.

Derek Hudson/Getty Images

By Anna Kodé Published July 21, 2023 Updated July 24, 2023

Much is transient about New York City real estate. Buildings are demolished, cafes turn into Duane Reades and rents go up. But for the last 50 years, there was a constant — Yoko Ono lived in the Dakota. She stayed even after that tragic December day in 1980 when John Lennon was fatally shot right outside the building.

For years, tourists and New Yorkers alike trekked uptown, hoping to catch a glimpse or have the chance to meet the artist, singer and New York icon. Ms. Ono’s presence sustained the mystique of the Dakota — already well known as a coveted quarters for celebrities and artists when she and Mr. Lennon moved into the Upper West Side apartment complex in 1973.

To the distaste of some other residents, the couple at one point owned five units at the Dakota, which — in addition to being their primary residence — they used as a guest home, a storage space and a studio for Ms. Ono. The living space and studio alone had a combined square-footage of nearly 6,000 square feet, New York magazine reported in 1996.

Stories of the couple’s rumored lavish expenditures spread in tabloids and magazines, such as one 1979 report that Ms. Ono and Mr. Lennon imported a Japanese teahouse for their first-floor apartment, which they promptly returned upon realizing it was too large for the space. More mundane activities made the news too, including the couple contributing sushi to a building potluck.

Yoko Ono and John Lennon moved into the Dakota in 1973. Credit… Allan Tannenbaum/Getty Images

After a half century of eccentricity, opulence and tragedy, Ms. Ono has moved out of New York City to the sprawling Catskills farm she bought with Mr. Lennon in 1978, according to reports earlier this year. For many, it signals that yet another link to old New York — the one filled with grit and glamour, run by artists and musicians — is missing. City residents and artists feel a sense of loss knowing that the odds of a momentary sighting or fleeting run-in with Ms. Ono are now even lower, and some have started writing tributes to her time in New York in blogs and small outlets.

The thought of New York without Ms. Ono is a New York with a little less magic.

After hearing the reports, author Lorraine Duffy Merkl wrote in the local news site The West Side Spirit, “I’m still in the ‘New York or Nowhere’ zone, but I have to confess, this native, Bronx girl was beginning to fade.”

“I think Yoko lent such a great romance to the Dakota,” said Julie Lucas, a trustee of the Emmy Awards.

In the early 2000s, Ms. Lucas briefly met Ms. Ono in the elevator of the Dakota. The interaction was fleeting, but impactful for Ms. Lucas, who remembers it sharply to this day.

“That was the one person, as we came into the Dakota, I had always hoped to see — not even talk to, but just see,” said Ms. Lucas, 71, who was there for a cocktail party hosted by television personality Maury Povich. “She had this wonderful calmness and sense of welcoming about her.” For the next 45 seconds or so, until the elevator opened its doors and the two went their separate ways, they spoke about a recent art exhibition of Ms. Ono’s.

“That building represents so much of the hopes of the ’70s and ’80s,” Ms. Lucas said. “And then when John Lennon was killed, she soldiered through all of that grief and stayed on in that building.”

Ms. Ono, who turned 90 earlier this year, no longer participates in interviews, Elliot Mintz, a representative for her, said in an email. Mr. Mintz said she “continues to own her apartment at the Dakota” and added that information on her whereabouts is kept private for security reasons.

‘The Capital of the Capital’

“I think Yoko lent such a great romance to the Dakota,” said Julie Lucas, a trustee of the Emmy Awards. Credit... Allan Tannenbaum/Getty Images

The mid-rise, gothic style building sits at 1 West 72nd Street, overlooking Central Park, and was built by developer Edward Clark, who died before its completion in 1884. All 65 units in the complex were rented out before its doors even opened. As the popular tale goes, the Upper West Side was largely unclaimed at the time, so the building’s name came from the notion that it was so far away from developed downtown Manhattan that it might as well have been in Dakota, so say many guidebooks and New Yorkers. But in 1993, The Times reported that Mr. Clark wanted to name his projects after the new states and territories which were named in “excellent taste” (he also suggested Montana Place for Eighth Avenue and Idaho Place for 11th Avenue, but those didn’t stick).

Though it was sumptuous from the start, it wasn’t always the most expensive — there was a period of time where it was rent-controlled, drawing in creative types. Yet its design lends itself to a private way of life that celebrities would naturally seek out; the building encircles its courtyard, so it isn’t visible from the street. The ornate exterior and strict security make it obvious that it isn’t a place anyone can just stroll into.

As the setting for the 1968 classic horror film, “Rosemary’s Baby,” the building’s lore grew. If “New York were considered to be the capital of American art, culture and fashion, the Dakota seemed to be the Capital of the capital,” wrote Stephen Birmingham in his 1979 book, “Life at the Dakota.”

John Lennon and Yoko Ono lived together on the seventh floor of the Dakota. Credit... Scott Cardinal

Roberta Flack, Graydon Carter, Rosemary Clooney, Leonard Bernstein and Judy Garland have been on its long list of notable residents. It takes more than fame and wealth to get in — the co-op’s notoriously stringent board has rejected Billy Joel, Madonna and Cher.

The building’s board once stopped the documentary filmmaker Albert Maysles, who was also a collaborator of Ms. Ono’s, from selling his unit to actress Melanie Griffith. “More and more, they’re moving away from creative people and going toward people who just have the money,” Mr. Maysles had told The Times in 2005.

Today, there is one unit listed for sale in the building: a 6,000 square-foot, five bedroom, nine bathroom apartment on the eighth floor. It has its own separate studio unit, and the listing price is $20 million.

Merry Christmas and Happy Birthday

Those who haven’t been inside the Dakota have been able to vicariously experience it through the stories and photos. One homey image, taken by rock ’n’ roll photographer Bob Gruen in 1975, shows Ms. Ono and Mr. Lennon sitting comfortably in bed with magazines splayed. In it, Mr. Lennon, who is wearing a robe, holds their newborn son, Sean. In 1980, Annie Leibovitz photographed Mr. Lennon nude and curled up, with his arms wrapped around Ms. Ono’s head while kissing her cheek. It would later run on the cover of Rolling Stone, but just hours after it was taken, Mr. Lennon was killed.

The Imagine mosaic is part of Strawberry Fields, a memorial for John Lennon in Central Park. Credit... Justin Lane/EPA, via Shutterstock

A crowd gathers in front of the Dakota a day after John Lennon was murdered. Credit... Chester Higgins Jr./The New York Times

Another from Mr. Gruen, taken in 1981, shows Ms. Ono at work, photographing Mr. Lennon’s bloodstained glasses from that day for the album cover for “Season of Glass.”

Ms. Ono’s life in the Dakota was spent in the company of friends and collaborators.

Before Ms. Ono had moved there, in 1966, Mr. Maysles, the documentarian who also lived in the building, and his brother had filmed Ms. Ono’s performance work “Cut Piece.” The performance, which eventually became an influential work of Fluxus art, involved Ms. Ono inviting audience members to come up to her and cut off a piece of her clothing.

Roberta Flack, the Grammy-winning singer of “Killing Me Softly,” had lived next door to Ms. Ono. In “Roberta,” a documentary about Ms. Flack, Sean Lennon said, “At first, you know, I didn’t even think of Roberta as this incredible artist and musician, she was just this really cool neighbor. We used to call her Aunt Roberta.”

“We’re very close to each other and our kitchen is connected,” Ms. Ono said in the documentary.

Erika Belle had heard the stories. So when Keith Haring, a friend of Ms. Belle’s, invited her to dinner at Ms. Ono’s apartment on a rainy Tuesday night in the 1980s, she let out a squeal. “I’d been obsessed with that building, like many lifelong New Yorkers, for years,” Ms. Belle, who is in her 60s, said in an interview. “It had so much old, ’50s Hollywood glamour.”

“To arrive at that building and to know that I was meeting Yoko, was like ‘Merry Christmas’ and ‘Happy birthday’ all rolled into one,” said Ms. Belle who co-owned the nightclub Lucky Strike and is a model. Ms. Belle was also a backup dancer for Madonna, who she said came to the Dakota with her that evening.

After taking off her shoes to enter, the first thing Ms. Belle noticed about Ms. Ono’s apartment was “how high the ceilings and how wide the hallways were. You could drive a car through those hallways.”

The dinner menu was simply takeout from a Chinese restaurant, but the highlight of the night was getting an apartment tour from Ms. Ono. “She held my hand — even saying it now, I get goose bumps — and asked, ‘Do you want to see the apartment?’”

It was an obvious yes from Ms. Belle. What she remembers most from that intimate walk-through wasn’t a work of art or an expensive piece of furniture, but a bathroom. “Yoko took me to see this bathroom, and she said she left it the same as the day John was murdered,” Ms. Belle said. “She’s like, ‘I haven’t touched this bathroom.’ And that was very touching and moving.”

‘New York Is Like an Old Friend’

Before Ms. Ono was associated with the glamour of the Dakota, she lived downtown, where she became a pioneer of conceptual art.

After moving from Japan in the early 1950s, Ms. Ono attended Sarah Lawrence College in a suburb north of New York. She dropped out in 1956, and then moved to the city. Many of the places she lived and spent time in became meeting places for artists and are now unofficial landmarks of the downtown art scene. In the early 1960s, her Chambers Street loft was where she organized performance events with composer La Monte Young. This became the Chambers Street Loft Series, which was attended by John Cage, Peggy Guggenheim and Marcel Duchamp.

For her 2015 MoMA show, Ms. Ono reflected on that time in her life. “By then, I knew a few people. And I realized that all these people usually create music in New York City,” she said. “But there’s no place for them to present their work. And I said, you know, I think it’s a great idea if we created a place where all of us can present our music.”

The Chambers Street loft was a far stretch — in city blocks and in essence — from the Dakota. “It’s a cold water flat, and it was in the winter. It was so cold, you know? We didn’t even have electricity,” Ms. Ono said.

Ms. Ono and Mr. Lennon first met at an exhibition of her work in London in 1966. Credit… Getty

In 1965, Ms. Ono performed “Morning Piece” at 87 Christopher Street, where she briefly lived and worked as a superintendent. She and Mr. Lennon met in 1966, at an exhibition of her work in London — she had a work titled “Apple,” which featured a real apple on display, and Mr. Lennon went up and bit into it.

The couple soon moved to 105 Bank Street, which is now memorialized as “John Lennon’s First New York Home” on Google Maps. They lived there from 1971 to 1973, when they, as the Plastic Ono Band, released the album “Some Time in New York City.”

In more recent times, Ms. Ono has expressed her evolving relationship with New York through posts on Twitter. “John once said that he fell in love with New York on a street corner,” she said in January of this year.

After half a century of Ms. Ono living at the Dakota, and even longer in New York altogether, New Yorkers are filled with nostalgia, melancholy and gratitude for the various ways she has shaped the city and their life in it.

To many people, Ms. Ono will forever be a part of New York. The writer and curator Phillip Ward — who organized a public 90th birthday celebration for Ms. Ono earlier this year — thinks of the artist every time he passes by the Dakota. “I always look up and just smile and say, ‘Thank you,’” he said.

Ms. Ono, too, has felt reflective about her time in New York.

“New York is like an old friend. It has its moods,” Ms. Ono wrote in 2017. “But I know them all.”

“John once said that he fell in love with New York on a street corner,” Ms. Ono said in January of this year. Credit… Derek Hudson/Getty Images

Susan C. Beachy and Kirsten Noyes contributed research.

Audio produced by Parin Behrooz.

Anna Kodé is a reporter for the Real Estate section of The Times. She writes about design trends, housing issues and the relationship between identity and home. More about Anna Kodé

#New York Times #Anna Kodé #Yoko Ono #The Dakota

[artfilmfan]

Chase Iron Eyes & Tokata Iron Eyes in Oyate (2022)

#native american #oglala lakota #dapl #indigineous people #indigenous #tokata iron eyes #chase iron eyes #biodiversity #dakota access pipeline