I certainly would not want to live in these places. It is a place full of tax avoidance, name-dropping, millions of dollars, the ecological workings of architecture, huge designer names, etc. For example, some agents noticed that the camera which I was supposedly using to document the apartment for my husband was a film camera. In an interview with Bonanos, Schmied said she created a fake personal assistant, used an artist grant to splurge on new clothes and bags, and pretended she had a private chef to convince real-estate agents she was wealthy enough to afford the apartments. Several of the skyscrapers she toured for her project sit on Billionaires' Row, a wealthy enclave made up of eight recently-built luxury residential skyscrapers along the southern end of Central Park in Manhattan. Private views a high-rise panorama of manhattan beach. So, in reality, the only thing that might have happened is that they found me strange. Thinking about it further, it seemed that my only choice was to pretend to be a Hungarian apartment-hunting billionaire.
In all of these apartments, the best view is from the living room, and the second-best is from the master bedroom. Schmied wasn't particularly impressed. The buildings that Schmied toured for her project are home to some of the most coveted and expensive real estate in New York City. Schmied told Curbed that she toured the New York skyscrapers with her phony identity during an artist residency in Brooklyn. What I did think through though, is what would be the absolute worst-case scenario if during a viewing they would realize I am not an actual billionaire. Private views a high-rise panorama of manhattan by train. So I started to walk for miles and miles and listed all the buildings I wanted to climb to take pictures, but I very quickly realized that all those supertalls, with their robust presence in the city, are newly-built luxury residential skyscrapers一a secluded and secretive universe, only accessible to the very few who belong there. Homes, and the major purpose of the purchase is just to keep their money safe, not to actually live there. What are you taking away from your experience touring the apartments?
She said she went by her middle name, Gabriella, so that her previous projects on luxury buildings in China wouldn't raise suspicions if agents Googled her, and invented a fictional husband and 21-month-year-old son. People with a net worth of over 30million USDs are called "Ultra-high-net-worth individuals", and an average "ultra-high-net-worth individual" owns 5 properties, so logically they don't live in 4 of those. I was left with two options: forget about getting up there, or become someone who would be granted access. Private parks in manhattan. What kind of experience were you expecting when you posed as a billionaire viewing these properties? And what I know about the actual buyers is mainly based on research. Currently, these are the tallest buildings that you can see from every corner of the city. Of course, ultimately it is still the same thing, but it was packaged a bit differently.
Andi Schmied is a visual artist and architect from Budapest, Hungary. Not really, to be honest. The tower is right around the corner from 220 Central Park South, where billionaire hedge-fund CEO Ken Griffin paid $238 million for a penthouse spread last year, breaking the record for the most expensive home sale in the US. Following Andi's talk, I had the chance to learn more about her personal experience posing as a billionaire in order to attend viewings of the most elite high-rise apartments in Manhattan. What kind of people do you imagine buy these types of property? The address and the view are the main selling points. "For example, the layout of the apartments are essentially identical. What was your reason for wanting to document them? But once you are accepted as someone who has access, they don't really doubt anymore. Basically, it all started with the biggest cliché. For example, there is no direct view over Central Park that most of us can access. Would you like to live in one? Andi Schmied, a photographer from Budapest, crafted a fake identity as a Hungarian billionaire art gallerist to tour some of New York City's most expensive penthouses last year, Christopher Bonanos reported for Curbed.
If an agent asked about the designer of her necklace, for example, she would simply tell them it was a Hungarian designer. 75 million to $66 million for the 72nd-floor penthouse. However, as I spent three months in New York, I had time to immerse myself in this obsession. Then once I am more rationally approaching my subject, I go back and continue. As Schmied pointed out in her interview with Curbed, most people can only get such views of the city by visiting one of the city's observation decks at places like the Empire State Building or One World Trade Center. So I opted for the second one.
Are they worth the price? She says she toured 25 luxury buildings in Manhattan, including several in the ultra-exclusive wealthy enclave of Billionaires' Row. To master this guise, Schmied adapted Gabriella's persona based on the questions she got from real-estate agents. But by simply saying that I got the camera from my grandfather, who had urged me to document all my special moments in life, I more than got away with it. She graduated from the Barlett School of Architecture (UCL) in London and has since exhibited worldwide.