Only three blocks long, Central Park South is lined on one side with busy buildings, where people live in apartments that are mostly pricey and often glamorous. Squirrels and statues reside on the other side, among the trees of Central Park.

Patients who visit Dr. Daniel Kaplan, a periodontist and implant specialist who works in one building facing the park and lives in another a block away, often tell him that the view from his chair is “very calming,” he said. “It’s a soothing view. With each changing season, the park has a different coat.”

Dr. Kaplan, 61, said he enjoyed the view so much that after opening his office at 200 Central Park South, in a mostly residential condominium, in 1989, he began looking for an apartment nearby. In 1994, he bought a two-bedroom, two-bath condo at 100 Central Park South, also known as Trump Parc East, with a panorama that extends to the park’s northern edge 51 blocks away. “You’ll laugh,” he said when asked the price: “I paid $750,000.” (At the moment, apartments in the building are listed for $2 million to $7 million, according to StreetEasy.) At first, he used the apartment on workdays, while his wife, Tova, and their three children, still in school, stayed in the leafy Bronx neighborhood of Riverdale. But these days, he and Tova spend most of their time there. “Riverdale is now the country house,” he said.

“This street used to be hotel row,” he added. “Now, it’s more residential.” Most of the hotels have been completely or partially converted to condos or co-ops. Central Park, Dr. Kaplan said, “is our gym.” He jogs, walks and ice skates there. “We’re not planning to sell the apartment, ever.”