Leaving the sun-baked boulevards of Los Angeles behind, our urbane sophisticate has returned to the stately embrace of New York City.

The anodyne haze of the Pacific gives way to the dappled sunlight of autumn in Central Park. Unending heat is replaced by cool mornings and clear afternoons. Memories of driving on twelve-lane freeways ground down to a walking pace fade, as he finds the dense neighborhoods of Manhattan walkable again. The familiar gravity of New York's art, style, and culture announce that he is back from his sabbatical at the edge of the world. While returning to New York is noteworthy for the Man at His Best, settling into the penthouse of the SoHo Mews is characteristically remarkable. Designed by the legendary New York firm Gwathmey Siegel & Associates Architects, the SoHo Mews is at the epicenter of what is already one of the most legendary districts in the world, having served as the cradle of the art explosion of the 60s and now almost an embarrassment of urban riches. As architect Charles Gwathmey explained, it was the quality of the urban space, as much as the commission itself, that brought his firm to the project. The scale of the SoHo streets is unique, said Gwathmey. What you end up with is a very rich mix of things: residential living, but also commerce, retail, the galleries, the restaurants. It's really a microcosm of what the ideal city neighborhood should be.

We were attracted to SoHo Mews for two reasons, he continued. First, because it's a chance to do a modern intervention into a very classic cast-iron neighborhood. Second, because the site itself, with its through block, allowed for two buildings with a courtyard in the middle. There isn't going to anything like it in the neighborhood. I grew up on the edge of SoHo and I've seen the neighborhood change in my lifetime. There's no place like it. It's a wonderful place to build, and it'll be an extraordinary, unique place to live.

The SoHo Mews takes its distinctive name from the street-wide garden space between the two buildings. (Mews is an old English term that connotes a stable, a back garden, or more intriguingly, a secret place or hideaway.) This unique green space was designed by Peter Walker, the renowned landscape architect who recently won the commission to design the outdoor space at the new World Trade Center monument. Walker, who lived in an industrial loft in SoHo in the 70s, where needless to say, we had no gardens, calls the chance to design this private green oasis truly a wonderful opportunity in the center of what was my New York.

Of all the privileges the Ultimate Bachelor values, first among them are his principles. Welcome and enjoy the 2009 Esquire SoHo apartment. Man at His Best, back in the center of it all.