The photographer Andi Schmied assumed the identity of a Hungarian billionaire named Gabriella to get inside Manhattan’s ultra-luxury high-rises.
“Most of these viewings were like theatrical scenes for me,” she said the other day, from Budapest. Many of them are reproduced in the text. “Sit down, Gabriella. It is really a moment for you,” an agent says, at one boxy high-rise. “Imagine I am not here. Imagine your son running around, saying words in Hungarian. . . . Imagine the smell of your favorite food going through the apartment, from the kitchen to the dining room; perhaps a goulash.
“ ‘Timeless yet contemporary’: this expression, whatever the hell it means, I heard in every single apartment,” she said. “The agents try to make the buyer feel that this apartment is the most unique thing you’ve ever seen. Everything is ‘handcrafted’ or ‘hand-selected,’ but the fact is these apartments are all the same.” Just about every one had, as its crowning indulgence, a soaking tub in front of a floor-to-ceiling window.
“I will always remember the surprise on their faces when I said I actually wanted to live there. One of their favorite tactics is to assure the buyer that no one lives in the building,” she said. “As if the fact that you will be completely alone in this monster tower is desirable.
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