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In 2016, its highest penthouse - an 8, 255-square-foot unit that occupies the entire 96th floor - sold to Saudi billionaire Fawaz Alhokair for $87. If an agent asked about the designer of her necklace, for example, she would simply tell them it was a Hungarian designer. So I opted for the second one. In case your disguise would be discovered, did you have some sort of backup plan? The developers and sales teams for 432 Park Avenue, Steinway Tower, and Central Park Tower did not immediately respond to Insider's requests for comment. Currently, these are the tallest buildings that you can see from every corner of the city. High ceilings, glass facades, huge walk-in closets, very specific kitchen layouts with a breakfast bar in the middle, and large white walls to hang up out scaled art are everywhere. First I was sure there must be a lot of Russian/Chinese/Middle-Eastern oligarchy… and while there sure is, most of the buyers are Americans, at least this is what agents told me. I never really plan, and my projects come along as I go… My artistic process is usually quite intuitive; first I do things, then I think about what I did and why it is relevant. The 1, 428-foot tower is 24 times as tall as it is wide and has only one residence on each floor. This was the way both my previous book Jing Jin City, and my current book Private Views: A High-Rise Panorama of Manhattan came along… So only time will tell. The access was instant. Private views a high-rise panorama of manhattan book. I loved discovering this completely hidden and obscure universe, which people don't even know exists. Schmied told Curbed that she toured the New York skyscrapers with her phony identity during an artist residency in Brooklyn.

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For one thing, they have horrible effects on our cities and their direct surroundings. 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. Today, an 82nd-floor penthouse in the building is currently on the market for an eye-popping $90 million. Private views a high-rise panorama of manhattan island. Of course, ultimately it is still the same thing, but it was packaged a bit differently. "For example, the layout of the apartments are essentially identical. I was left with two options: forget about getting up there, or become someone who would be granted access. She compiled her photography, essays, and transcripted dialogues from the real estate showings into a book: "Private Views: A High-rise Panorama of Manhattan. So, my only knowledge of the buyers, is that the vast majority of them are buying these homes as second-third-fourth-fifth (etc. )

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Andi's most recent publication is "Private Views: A High-Rise Panorama of Manhattan", which she spoke about during her TEDxVienna talk at this year's UNTOLD conference. One of these towers is 432 Park Avenue, which was the tallest residential building in the world at the time of its completion in 2015. "They are all the same! So I was really just going to capture the views initially. However, as I spent three months in New York, I had time to immerse myself in this obsession. She did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment for this story. And Central Park Tower - where Schmied says she toured the 100th floor - boasts the ranking of second-tallest skyscraper in the city after One World Trade Center and the tallest residential tower in the world. Private views a high-rise panorama of manhattan by train. What kind of experience were you expecting when you posed as a billionaire viewing these properties? But what I ended up finding was a much more obscure reality that kept me going; the entire world of ultra-luxury real estate is fascinating. To some extent, they are the symbols of our times, and the only thing they represent is private surplus wealth. To keep up with Andi's next projects, and to have a closer look at her previous ones, visit her website here. Basically, it all started with the biggest cliché.

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The crème de la crème of Manhattan real estate. Schmied wasn't particularly impressed. Or if an agent asked if she had a chef, at the next viewing she would start talking about "our chef" and his needs, she said. 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. Its current listings range from $8. A photographer pretended to be a Hungarian billionaire to get into some of NYC's priciest 'Billionaires' Row' penthouses, and she said they're 'all the same. 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.

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As an architect yourself, what was your initial impression of the apartments? For example, there is no direct view over Central Park that most of us can access. 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. Visit Insider's homepage for more stories. With this persona, I could even choose the specific apartment I wanted to enter一at least from the possibilities that were currently for sale or rent on the market. She says she toured 25 luxury buildings in Manhattan, including several in the ultra-exclusive wealthy enclave of Billionaires' Row. Amenities are already just simply part of the weird race between the developers to seduce the buyers of this competitive market.

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What do you have planned, or what are you working on now? "They'd just put me in this box of 'artsy billionaire'". Schmied told Curbed she spent her "entire budget" for her arts residency on clothes, bags, manicures, and makeup to project the image of a "sophisticated lady. Her persona was that of a wealthy art gallerist with a personal chef and a personal assistant named "Coco. It made Gabriella an "artsy billionaire" with whom they suddenly started to speak about MoMA's new collection. Photographer Andi Schmied duped New York City real-estate agents last year by posing as a Hungarian billionaire art gallerist to get inside 25 luxury condo buildings in Manhattan – many of which sit along the city's ultra-exclusive "Billionaires' Row, " Christopher Bonanos reported for Curbed. 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. There are a lot of strange rich people, so that is not a big deal. When some agents asked about it, she would tell them, "'Oh, my grandfather gave it to me - to record all the special moments in my life, '" she said. Not really, to be honest. Another building Schmied visited, Steinway Tower at 111 West 57th, is considered the world's skinniest skyscraper when you look at its height-to-width ratio. 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. So everything around them, amenities, interior, fancy architects' names are only there to assure the buyer that the real estate will keep its value. Sure, you might have a few inches difference in ceiling height or a different tone of oak flooring in the living room, and in some places, you have the Grigio Orobico book-matched marble as a backsplash for your freestanding soaking tub, while in others Calacatta Tucci—but does it matter?

The address and the view are the main selling points. But once you are accepted as someone who has access, they don't really doubt anymore. What kind of people do you imagine buy these types of property? To take the photographs for her book, Schmied used a film camera and told the real-estate agents they were to show her husband. "They are all the same, " Schmied said of the penthouses. I have no expectations at the start of any project… It really is just some sort of curiosity that drives me. Thinking about it further, it seemed that my only choice was to pretend to be a Hungarian apartment-hunting billionaire. The buildings that Schmied toured for her project are home to some of the most coveted and expensive real estate in New York City. And as a Hungarian artist visiting the city for a limited amount of time, I simply had no way of entering those towers. Are they worth the price? 75 million to $66 million for the 72nd-floor penthouse. These are the buildings that are breaking engineering records.

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. Would you like to live in one? "And they'd just put me in this box of 'artsy billionaire, ' and would start to talk to me about MoMA's latest collection. From simple things like casting huge shadows over up-until-then sunny areas, or raising square-footage prices to an extent that people must leave their neighborhoods, these buildings in my opinion also represent something very unhealthy for society. Homes, and the major purpose of the purchase is just to keep their money safe, not to actually live there.