Urban Elegance

A celebration of luxury apartment towers by RAMSA, the unquestioned leader in this architecture arena

In the early twentieth century, a spate of elegantly proportioned and classically detailed residential buildings in New York gave rise to the concept of the Golden Age of apartment living. After a significant hiatus, these design values have resurfaced and expanded in reach, with New York-based architecture firm RAMSA leading the charge.

Urban Elegance is an immersive exploration of RAMSA’s residential towers, including 15 Central Park West and 220 Central Park South—two renowned buildings in New York —as well as projects in exclusive residential enclaves around the world, from South Florida, San Francisco, and Chicago to Lima, London, Tianjian, and Shanghai.

The book spotlights RAMSA’s deep appreciation of history, commitment to modern classicism, and focus on interpreting the architecture for local climate and culture. Each project is introduced by a short essay describing the place, its history, and the architectural traditions that inspired the building’s form and materials. Dialogues between RAMSA partners Michael Jones, Gemma Kim, Daniel Lobitz, and Paul Whalen address the design intent as well as the final execution of the work.

Lush photographs of the completed projects, capturing both the larger neighborhood context and the fine artisanal details, bring these extraordinary buildings to life. Preliminary sketches, plans, and renderings reveal the meticulous process that characterizes all RAMSA designs.

RAMSA partners Michael D. Jones, K. S. Gemma Kim, Daniel Lobitz, and Paul L. Whalen have collaboratively assembled an extensive portfolio of multifamily residential buildings that have had a transformative impact on cities around the world.

Michael Jones joined the firm in 1988, working initially on projects in New York and subsequently applying his understanding of architectural history and urbanism to residential complexes in Asia and Lima, Peru.

Gemma Kim has been at RAMSA since 2003. She has played a key role in RAMSA’s luxury apartment buildings in New York and Chicago as well as mixed-use projects in South Korea and Charleston, South Carolina.

Since joining the firm in 1986, Daniel Lobitz has overseen many of the firm’s residential towers, leading the design on the tallest residential building in Lower Manhattan, adding romance to the Chicago skyline, and developing a San Francisco complex that restores the residential fabric of Presidio Heights.

Paul Whalen believes that the key to a successful city design is understanding its culture, history, urban principles, and the languages of its architecture. Pivotal projects include 15 Central Park West, 220 Central Park South, and 520 Park Avenue in New York, multiple buildings in Palm Beach and Miami, and group of luxury towers that have transformed the historic San Isidoro neighborhood in Lima.

Pulitzer prizewinning architecture critic Paul Goldberger began his career at the New York Times and subsequently wrote for the New Yorker and Vanity Fair. He is the author of Why Architecture Matters and Building Art: The Life and Work of Frank Gehry and a contributor to Rosario Candela and the New York Apartment 1927–1937, among many other titles.