Meet the Janklow Townhouse

SELLERS: Luke Jankow and Julie Daniels
LOCATION: West 12th Street, New York, NY
PRICE: $24,975,000
SIZE: 3 bedrooms, 5.5 bathrooms (plus 2 staff rooms and 1 staff bathroom)
DESCRIPTION: Often regarded as a showcase of Greenwich Village's finest architectural achievements, the renowned block of 12th Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues contains superior examples of Beaux-Arts, Modernist, Art Deco and Greek Revival architecture. While this block has been home to such notables as Malcolm Forbes, Jimi Hendrix, and Edan St. Vincent Millay, this outstandding renovation of a 25-foot wide townhouse with elevator surpasses the reputation of the block...

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: Rather than discuss another poorly decorated celebrity owned home in Los Angeles, Your Mama thought the children might like to start the morning with a little New York City townhouse deliciousness that due to the impending dee-vorce of it's glammy owners Luke and Julie Janklow is on the market with a hair raising asking price of $24,975,000.

Luke Jankow, for those not schooled in the minutia of Manhattan's who's who among the pretty and rich down town denizens, is one of those impossibly pedigreed New Yorkers that make some people goose pimpled with envy and others sulky and resentful because of the comparative ordinariness of their own lives. See my puppies, good looking Mister Janklow's great grandfather was Harry Warner, co-founder of the Warner Brothers film studio and his grandfather, Mervyn LeRoy, produced The Wizard of Oz. His uncle on his mother's side–the late restaurateur Warner LeRoy–owned Tavern on the Green and the Russian Tea Room, two of New York City's most famous (and touristy) eateries.

His lucky familial connections do not end there. Oh no. Mister Janklow's father Mort founded the notable New York City literary agency Janklow & Nesbit who represents authors like Al Gore, Michael Moore, Malcom Gladwell and Barbara Walters. The younger Mister Janklow once dreamed of being a rock star but eventually, after ten years of making music and roaming the world, joined the family bizness and became a literary agent himself. In addition to representing the exuberanty prickly Simon Cowell, Mister Janklow famousy negotiated a million clam deal for the well bred CNN talking head Anderson Cooper's memoir and recently sold some sort of a lifestyle book by wanabe jill of many trades Gynnie Paltrow who seems to think the world wants to know all about what books she reads, foods she cooks and shoes she wears. For better or worse, she's probably right.

Anyhoo, somewhere along the glittery path of the toweringly tall Mister Janklow's charmed life he met a pulchritudinous broo-nette from Beverly Hills named Julie Daniels. They married and made a baby who will no doubt grow up to be obscenely attractive. In April of 2004, the well connected couple forked over $4,500,000 for a 15-foot wide and five floor (plus basement) West 12th Street townhouse which they purchased from high-style hotelier Andre Balazs and his now ex-wife and major mannequin manager Katie Ford who previously bought the house from Jonathan Newhouse of the Condé Nast Newhouses.

The happy and well-heeled couple soon set about renovating their new townhouse and from the looks of things they did things up and over like two people with a never ending pot of paper to pull from. We are thrilled to see an elevator installed but are disappointed it serves only four the six floors in the house. Four is better than none, but six would save Your Mama from having to schlep our art supplies up a flight of stairs to the 5th floor studio.

A large foyer on the garden level successfully forms a barrier between the street and the interior spaces and effectively keeps the Chinese food delivery man from having to feel so bad about how rich the Janklows are and how impoverished he is. In addition to the foyer, the garden floor is comprised of a small service kitchen adjacent to the 28-foot long dining room with its exquisite mercury-mirrored walls, a large laundry room, powder room and two shamefully small staff rooms that share a bathroom and are only accessible by going through the coat room which is just a fancy term for a walk in closet. Nothing like making the nanny feel like part of the family. The basement, according to listing information and the floor plan, is mostly given over to some sort of windowless recreation room and heaps of storage.

The parlour floor has been opened to include a roller skate friendly marble floored living room that stretches 44-feet long and is anchored by two fireplaces with monumental 16th century stone mantels. The couple have filled the space with a silly white grand piano and a melange of mis-matched furniture from various eras which are united by the mostly monochromatic beighe and dark beige upholstery work. A little color and a few pieces of art would have gone a long way in here, but even still the room is undeniably striking and well conceived if not chilly and hotel lobby like. Also, we are not feeling that fur rug which would have our imperious house gurl Svetlana in a conniption over how to vacuum the damn thing and will have PETA throwing cow blood at the front of the house faster than a hummingbirds wings flutter. The southern end of the living room, which actually looks like the less comfortable end of the room, converts to a screening room with a rear projector and a screen that descends from the ceiling. It's unclear to Your Mama where one would actually sit and be comfortable in this area for as long as it takes to watch a film. At the rear of the townhouse's parlour floor is the eat in kitchen which is warmed by a fireplace and opens through several sets of French doors to a small terrace and stair that leads to the Portuguese cobblestoned garden.

The third floor is entirely devoted to a master suite. A sleeping chamber at the front features a fireplace and there are his and her bathrooms and dressing rooms. Hers, according to listing information, is all did up in Perspex and pink silk carpeting and his includes a small window wrapped study with a fireplace. A second bedroom on the fourth floor includes private study, walk in closet and a gigantic bathroom with a circular bathtub sitting in the middle of the damn room. This seems silly and extravagant but it's probably good for when the nanny is bathing the children and the house gurl is washing the pooches. At the rear of the fourth floor, according to listing information, is an office/bedroom with custom Chinoiserie wallpaper and a high drama double height ceiling that is open to the full floor studio space on the fifth floor which is all very theatrical but not very practical if the owner wants to paint (or whatever) while an over night guest is trying to get some sleep. Then again, if you're rich enough to pay 25 million bucks for a townhouse in the West Village, you're rich enough to put your guests up at 60 Thompson or The Mercer and provide them with a car and driver to get back and forth to your house, right?

As we mentioned earlier, the Janklows are headed for the court of dee-vorce. However, even though they will eventually sell their former family digs, they still have the matter of their recent bizness venture with super chef Mario Batali. Last summer the couple opened Sweetiepie Restaurant, the fantastically decorated restaurant and dessert parlor in the West Village where a hamburger runs twelve bucks, and ice cream cone six bucks and a dessert called the Sweetiepig will set the children back a shocking $75.