Your Exclusive Tour of the Renovated Cartier Mansion on Fifth Avenue

Photo by: Grace McCarthy

Last week I headed to the renovated Cartier mansion on 5th Ave for rooftop cocktails and a tour of the mansion.

-By Shivani Gonzalez

I grabbed my insanely talented photographer friend and proceeded to spend the next three hours enjoying “summertime daiquiris” and “dragonfruit margaritas” and looking at all the beautiful jewelry and the gorgeous house.

The mansion has a long and interesting history — it was first opened in 1917 and was declared a New York Landmark in 1970. In between those two historic moments, Alfred Eisenstaedt, an iconic LIFE magazine photographer published a photo essay of the mansion, Grace Kelly shopped in the story a few short months before marrying Prince Rainer III of Monaco and the intersection between 52nd St and 5th Ave was named Place de Cartier.

The house was closed in 2013 for restoration after the owners decided that they had steered too far from the original vision of Cartier back in the early 1900s. In 2016, the Mansion finally re opened with lots of new and exciting changes.

Photo by: Grace McCarthy

My personal favorite part of the Mansion were the rooms dedicated to Grace Kelly, Elizabeth Taylor, Andy Warhol and Pierre Cartier himself. Their pictures decorated the rooms, the staircases and the hallways.

While the Mansion was redesigned with the original vibe in mind, some of the original pieces from the Mansion actually remain. One staff member told us that they are not allowed to move most of the furniture because it is from the 1700s. If you are curious as to how we found this out, it involves a strange story of me shimmying under the couch in one of the private rooms (with the staff’s permission of course) to plug in the charger for my friends camera.

The Mansion was designed with the intention of an Art Deco theme and stayed primarily in the oak espresso color scheme.

Photo by: Grace McCarthy

While you are not allowed (for obvious reasons) to take pictures of the actual jewelry cases, as you can imagine all the jewelry inside is breathtaking. My favorite room was the one dedicated entirely to the LOVE collection featuring the iconic LOVE bracelets and rings.

Of the new changes they made to the Mansion during renovation, the top floor is dedicated to accessories, which is something lots of couture designers have had to start adding to their collections to increase revenue. The floor with the accessories also featured a sitting area and a cash bar.

And finally, the rooftop, the reason why I was there that day is the newest part of the renovation. It is inspired by the jewelry collection “Cactus de Cartier” so it was decorated with lots of succulents, cactus themed photos, and red, green and orange cushions.

Photo by Shivani Gonzalez

Long term, they built the rooftop to continue to host clients for different events in the future.

If you have a couple hours off and find yourself anywhere near 5th & 52nd, make sure you stop in the renovated Cartier Mansion to get transported back to a world of Art Deco decor and endless eye catching jewelry.

Photo by Grace McCarthy

-GG