Residence of the United States ambassador to the United Nations

[2] Beginning in 1947, shortly after the siting of the United Nations secretariat in New York, the U.S. State Department took a long-term lease for occupancy of a suite of rooms by the U.S. ambassador at the Waldorf-Astoria, a luxury hotel constructed in 1931.

[10][11] In 2015, it was announced the State Department would no longer permit staff to be housed at the Waldorf-Astoria, due to security concerns arising from the recent purchase of the property by Chinese business interests.

[10][14][5][15] According to reports, Holbrooke and his wife, journalist Kati Marton, would throw "glittery parties" in the suite "where pols and foreign ministers mixed with the likes of Robert De Niro and Sarah Jessica Parker.

[17] Described in press accounts as "palatial," the residence is decorated with, among other items, a Jim Dine painting, an Alexander Calder mobile, and a grand piano, and features "twinkling city views" of the New York skyline.

It is located on the opposite side of the corridor from an apartment owned, at times, by William Benton, publisher of the Encyclopædia Britannica, and the so-called"royal suite" as it was long used by the Duke of Windsor as his unofficial New York City residence.

Dorothy Bush Koch noted that the apartment was designed with "high ceilings, handsome old woodwork, working fireplaces, and big windows with beautiful views of New York City.