After years of living in suburban New Jersey, an exacting music executive and her similarly high-achieving husband decided to try life in a Manhattan high-rise. But despite both being born-and-raised New Yorkers, their brief confrontation with the cacophony of downtown confirmed they required the kind of space and privacy they weren't likely to find in America's largest city.
The pair craved a serene retreat where they could relax at the end of the day, but one replete with the kinds of pampering amenities that would make hosting their friends and adult children easy. Rather than give up the plush, hotel-like perks that the city's best buildings now offer—indoor and outdoor pools, kitted-out gyms and spas, movie theaters, and the like—they decided to search for them back across the Hudson River in Alpine, N.J. The affluent suburb has long been prized for its quiet seclusion and grand residences. But nothing on the
