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THE CENTURION — 33 West 56th Street, New York City
Rare Developer Sales Presentation Book | Designed by I.M. Pei
Up for sale is an extraordinarily scarce upscale sales brochure for The Centurion, the exclusive Manhattan condominium at 33 West 56th Street — the only ground-up residential building in New York City ever designed by legendary Pritzker Prize-winning architect I.M. Pei, in collaboration with his son Sandi Pei of Pei Partnership Architects.
This is not a folded pamphlet — it\'s a substantial presentation brochure , produced for prospective buyers and brokers during the building\'s original marketing campaign. These were given out in extremely limited numbers to a qualified, high-net-worth clientele and were never sold or mass-distributed, making surviving copies exceptionally hard to find today.
What\'s included:
- Full 8\"x8\" brochure \"THE CENTURION\" embossed on cover
- Dozens of glossy photographic spreads: building exterior, lobby, water garden, interiors, and neighborhood context
- \"Creators of The Centurion\" spread featuring I.M. Pei and the architectural/development team
- Full-page pull quotes from Pei on architecture and design philosophy
- Neighborhood location map centered on West 56th Street / Fifth Avenue
- Original sales office business card laid in, still showing period contact info and phone number
- Sold as pictured — please review all photos closely as they are part of the description
Why it matters:
I.M. Pei is one of the most celebrated architects in history — designer of the Louvre Pyramid in Paris, the East Wing of the National Gallery of Art, the Bank of China Tower in Hong Kong, and the Four Seasons Hotel New York. The Centurion stands alone as his single ground-up residential condominium project in Manhattan, making anything connected to its original marketing a genuine piece of architectural and real estate history — not just real estate ephemera, but a collectible tied directly to a world-renowned architect\'s body of work.
Given the building\'s ultra-luxury positioning (units have traded well into eight figures), the caliber of buyer it was created for, and the rarity of surviving copies, this is a unique find for collectors of architecture, design, or NYC real estate history.
