Kips Bay and Murray Hill, two adjacent East Side enclaves nestled between Turtle Bay and Gramercy, has one of the highest concentrations of hospitals and medical professionals anywhere in the US. Anchored by NYU Langone, a leading hospital for patient care, research, and education, and Bellevue Hospital, the oldest public hospital in the US established in 1736, the city deliberately clustered medical facilities along First Ave throughout the second half of the 20th Century to provide for the UN and its associated embassies, and consulates.
Kips Bay is bordered by Gramery and Stuyvesant Town at East 23rd St to the south, and Muray Hill by Turtle Bay at East 42nd St to the north. Kips Bay extends west to Lexington Ave, and Murray Hill a bit further to Madison Ave.
Nora Ephron’s characters frequently navigated their UWS sactuaries with their Kips Bay & Murray Hill jobs and family roots. Ephron herself referenced the ares throughout ‘Wallflower at the Orgy’ as having shaped her 20s, when she lived there. Ephron was and continues to be in good company: the neighborhoods have been a magnet for young professionals for their convenience and relative affordability from just after WWII.
The most notable residential architecture includes Kips Bay Towers, a brutalist , two-tower complex by I.M. Pei, the Madison and Park Ave townhouses of prolific, pre-war NYC architectural firm McKim, Mead & White, and The Corinthian, the area’s tallest residential tower at over 800 condo units.
