How I faked being a billionaire so you could see NYC’s best views | Andi Schmied | TEDxVienna

Summary

The transcript follows artist and architect Andi Schmied, who created the persona 'Gabriella,' a Hungarian billionaire, to gain access to ultra-luxury apartments in New York City. Through her persona, she explores these exclusive residences, highlighting the absurdity of the wealth displayed. Schmied humorously recounts her experiences and the problematic nature of these skyscrapers, which serve as wealth preservation tools rather than homes. She critiques how these buildings dominate city skylines, cast shadows, and represent societal inequality, emphasizing that ideal cities shouldn't be shaped by private wealth symbols.

Takeaways

• 🔑 The speaker, an artist and architect, created a persona named 'Gabriella' to gain access to ultra-luxury apartments in New York.
• 🏙️ Gabriella viewed multimillion-dollar apartments, including an $85-million apartment in Manhattan, posing as a Hungarian billionaire.
• 🗺️ The project was inspired by the speaker’s desire to see New York from different perspectives, especially from the city's ultra-high skyscrapers.
• 🕴️ To access these exclusive buildings, she created a fictional assistant named Coco and a fake billionaire husband.
• 🎭 Gabriella’s persona evolved through interactions with real estate agents, often adapting based on their questions and assumptions.
• 💼 Agents targeted Gabriella with emotional appeals (kitchen, family life) and her 'husband' with financial arguments (investment potential).
• 🏢 The luxury apartments are mostly vacant investments, with up to 70% being unoccupied at any time.
• 🌆 These high-rises dominate the New York skyline and cast large shadows, impacting the city’s environment and residents.
• 📊 The speaker highlights how these buildings symbolize private wealth and are not intended for actual living, but rather for storing wealth.
• 📚 The project culminated in a book titled 'Private Views: A High Rise Panorama of Manhattan,' which critiques the societal implications of these ultra-luxury developments.

Q & A

Who is Gabriella in the context of the script?

Gabriella is a persona created by the artist and architect, Andi Schmied, as part of her project to access ultra-luxury apartments in Manhattan. Gabriella represents a fictional wealthy Hungarian billionaire.

What motivated Andi Schmied to create the persona of Gabriella?

Schmied was inspired by her desire to experience the views from ultra-luxury skyscrapers in New York, which are normally inaccessible to the public. By pretending to be a wealthy apartment-hunting billionaire, she could gain access to these exclusive buildings.

How did Schmied manage to gain access to luxury apartments as Gabriella?

Schmied created a fake personal assistant named 'Coco' to call real estate agencies and set up appointments. She also enlisted a friend, Zoltán, to pose as her billionaire husband, which helped her pass as a legitimate buyer.

What kind of behavior did Schmied notice in real estate agents when she viewed apartments as Gabriella?

Real estate agents would often direct financial information to her fictional husband and focus on emotional, lifestyle-based selling points for her. They assumed she would be more interested in family-oriented features, while her husband would be concerned with investment value.

What was Schmied’s main realization about the ultra-luxury apartments she visited?

She realized that most of these apartments were not designed for living, but rather to serve as a way for wealthy individuals to store their money safely. Many of the apartments remained empty and were bought for investment purposes.

How did the real estate agents try to sell the views to Gabriella and her husband differently?

The agents would try to appeal to Gabriella’s emotions by asking her to imagine waking up to the views, while they would present the views to her husband as a feature that would ensure the property retained its value.

What were some of the common features Schmied noticed across all the luxury apartments?

The apartments typically featured high ceilings, glass facades, large spaces for art collections, corner master bedrooms with views, and kitchens with breakfast bars. The main difference between them was the type of marble used in the bathrooms.

What impact do these ultra-luxury skyscrapers have on New York City, according to Schmied?

Schmied argues that these skyscrapers not only visually dominate the skyline, but they also cast large shadows over the city, affecting both the human experience and the environment, such as changing the flora and fauna in Central Park.

What message does Schmied believe these buildings convey to the public?

She believes that the skyscrapers symbolize private surplus wealth and send a message to the public that they are excluded from these exclusive spaces, which are inaccessible to most people.

What is Schmied’s final takeaway about urban development and the role of these high-rises?

Schmied argues that an ideal city should not be dominated by high-rises that primarily serve the ultra-wealthy. Instead, urban development should focus on more communal and inclusive spaces.

Outlines

00:00

🏡 A Persuasive Apartment Viewing Experience

The narrator, 'Gabriella' (a persona of Andi Schmied), is shown an extravagant $85-million Manhattan apartment by a persuasive realtor named Edward. He encourages Gabriella to imagine herself and her family living there, painting a picture of a luxurious life, including a maid, champagne, and her daughter playing in the apartment. Although Gabriella expresses her love for the apartment, Edward insists she persuade her husband to buy it. On stage, Andi reveals that Gabriella is a fictional character she created to gain access to exclusive luxury real estate.

05:01

💼 How 'Gabriella' Gained Access to Luxury Real Estate

Andi Schmied explains the origin of 'Gabriella,' a persona she invented to access ultra-luxury apartments in New York City. Initially inspired by the views from the Empire State Building, Andi developed an obsession with visiting high-end residential buildings. Realizing she couldn't access them as herself, she decided to pose as a Hungarian billionaire. She created a fictional assistant named Coco and enlisted the help of her friend Zoltán to pose as her husband. By adopting this persona, she gained easy access to properties that were otherwise exclusive to the ultra-wealthy.

10:02

👗 The Transformation into 'Gabriella'

Andi recounts how she transformed herself into 'Gabriella,' dressing in luxurious clothing and carrying a journal titled 'Luxury Listings' to complete the illusion of wealth. Her commitment to the role extended to hailing a cab for even the shortest distances to maintain appearances. Some viewings began with extravagant showrooms, and despite her goal to photograph the properties, poor weather conditions often disrupted her plans. The character of Gabriella evolved as real estate agents prompted her with questions about her lifestyle, which she answered in ways that bolstered her wealthy persona.

15:04

🛋️ Gendered Communication in Real Estate

During her visits, Andi observed a clear difference in how real estate agents communicated with her and her supposed husband, Zoltán. When alone, agents directed all financial decisions to her husband through her, treating her more like a messenger. When Zoltán accompanied her, the agents focused on selling the investment value of the apartments to him, while Andi was steered toward emotional appeals—such as imagining herself in luxurious settings, like kitchens and closets—further reflecting gender biases in luxury real estate sales.

🏙️ The Monotony and Purpose of Luxury Apartments

As Andi visited more apartments, she realized how similar they all were. Each featured spectacular views, high ceilings, glass facades, art display spaces, and luxurious kitchens. The agents often touted unique but ultimately trivial features, like different types of marble. Andi was struck by the shock of agents when she suggested she might actually live in one of the apartments, revealing that these properties were primarily intended as financial investments rather than homes, with many apartments remaining empty most of the time.

🌆 The Societal Impact of Ultra-Luxury High-Rises

Andi concludes by reflecting on the broader implications of the ultra-luxury real estate market. These skyscrapers, which dominate the skyline and cast shadows over the city, are largely empty and serve to safeguard the wealth of the global elite. She argues that these buildings, designed not for living but for storing wealth, symbolize private surplus at the expense of public space and sunlight. Andi emphasizes the problematic nature of these developments, which alter the physical and social landscape of New York City.

Keywords

💡Ultra-Luxury Real Estate

Ultra-luxury real estate refers to the high-end properties designed for extremely wealthy individuals, often located in prestigious areas like Manhattan. In the video, the protagonist gains access to these exclusive apartments by pretending to be a billionaire. These apartments are designed more as investments than places to live, symbolizing the wealth and status of their owners.

💡Gabriella

Gabriella is the persona the protagonist adopts, a fictional Hungarian billionaire created to gain access to ultra-luxury apartments. Her character evolves based on questions posed by real estate agents, allowing her to explore and critique the secluded world of wealth and real estate. Gabriella represents the role of privilege in accessing exclusive spaces.

💡Perspective

The protagonist's fascination with different perspectives is a central theme. Initially inspired by views from the Empire State Building, she becomes curious about the perspectives available to the ultra-wealthy. These perspectives, both literal (from the high-rise apartments) and metaphorical (the lifestyle of the wealthy), highlight the divide between ordinary people and the elite.

💡Investment

Investment is a critical concept in the context of luxury real estate. Many of the high-end apartments are not purchased for living but for storing wealth. The agents emphasize the investment potential of these properties to the protagonist's fictional husband, reinforcing the idea that these buildings serve as financial assets rather than homes.

💡Skylines

Skylines are the visible representations of a city's architectural profile. In the video, the protagonist critiques how ultra-luxury residential buildings dominate Manhattan’s skyline, overshadowing communal structures like churches or offices. These buildings symbolize private wealth rather than public good, altering the character of the city.

💡High-Rises

High-rises are tall buildings, often skyscrapers, that dominate urban landscapes. The video focuses on ultra-luxury residential high-rises, which symbolize the concentration of wealth. The protagonist argues that these high-rises contribute to inequality, casting literal and figurative shadows over the city and its people.

💡Empty Apartments

The concept of empty apartments is significant because most of the ultra-luxury properties are rarely occupied. Owners, often holding multiple properties globally, buy these apartments as investments rather than places to live. This leads to an urban landscape filled with buildings that are mostly vacant, while contributing little to the community.

💡Real Estate Agents

Real estate agents in the video serve as gatekeepers to the world of luxury apartments. They use different sales tactics depending on whether they are speaking to the 'husband' or the 'wife,' appealing to either financial or emotional reasons for purchasing the property. These interactions reveal the gendered assumptions and roles in high-end property sales.

💡Gentrification

While not directly mentioned, gentrification is implied through the discussion of how ultra-luxury apartments change the character of cities. The development of these expensive buildings often pushes out long-term residents, alters neighborhood dynamics, and exacerbates inequality, as illustrated by the protagonist’s commentary on the impact of high-rises on Central Park.

💡Architectural Homogeneity

Architectural homogeneity refers to how the ultra-luxury apartments are strikingly similar in design, featuring high ceilings, glass facades, and minimalist interiors. Despite their high price, these apartments lack uniqueness, using the same features like marble backsplashes or expansive views to appeal to buyers. This uniformity contrasts with the idea of personal, lived-in spaces.

Highlights

The speaker, Andi Schmied, created a persona called 'Gabriella,' a Hungarian billionaire, to gain access to ultra-luxury residential skyscrapers in New York.

She used a fake personal assistant named 'Coco' and a friend as her 'husband' to make appointments with real estate agencies, successfully gaining access to exclusive properties.

Despite being an artist and architect, Schmied played the role of an affluent buyer, navigating the real estate world by pretending to be interested in purchasing high-end properties.

The real estate agents often addressed business matters to Schmied’s ‘husband,’ while discussions with her were centered around lifestyle and emotions, reflecting gender biases in high-end sales.

Through this experiment, Schmied exposed how ultra-luxury apartments are often not lived in and instead serve as a safe investment for wealthy individuals to store their money.

She discovered that approximately 70% of these ultra-luxury apartments are empty at any given time, as many buyers own multiple properties worldwide.

These buildings are primarily built to protect and increase the wealth of their owners, rather than to serve as functional living spaces, which has implications for urban planning and social equity.

The uniformity of these apartments, with features like glass facades, high ceilings, and marble backsplashes, highlights how they are designed more for show than for comfort or uniqueness.

The project critiques the dominance of these high-rises in city skylines, suggesting they symbolize private surplus wealth rather than community or public interest.

Schmied noted that these luxury buildings change the character of neighborhoods, including casting shadows over parks and disrupting local flora and fauna.

The work was compiled into a book titled 'Private Views: A High Rise Panorama of Manhattan,' which combines Schmied's photographs and interviews with agents to explore the phenomenon of ultra-luxury real estate.

Through her project, Schmied aimed to reveal how these exclusive spaces contribute to social inequality by creating physical and symbolic barriers in the urban environment.

She demonstrated that simply assuming a wealthy persona could grant access to spaces that are otherwise inaccessible, highlighting the arbitrary nature of exclusivity based on wealth.

The speaker’s use of humor and personal anecdotes, such as taking a cab just to be seen getting out of it, illustrated the absurdity and performative aspects of appearing wealthy.

Schmied's findings question the role and ethics of such developments in cities, advocating for an urban landscape that serves broader social purposes rather than catering solely to the wealthy elite.

Transcripts

Transcriber: Rochelle Tan Reviewer: Zsófia Herczeg

(Video) (Indistinct conversation)

Man: Sit down, Gabriella. It really is a moment for you.

A moment of decision.

I can’t emphasize enough that this apartment is just unbelievable.

You will feel, Gabriella, it is like going on a journey

from the sidewalks of 19th-century old New York

to the sidewalks of Florence,

and ending up back in New York again in the 21st century.

Andi Schmied: I actually might just prefer the 21st century.

Man: So this is really your place, Gabriella.

Just look around for a second. Imagine I am not here.

Imagine your daughter running around, saying words in Hungarian.

Imagine her coloring books and smiling.

Imagine she would grow up in this apartment.

What a wonderful childhood she would have.

Imagine the smell of your favorite food,

going through the apartment from the kitchen to the dining room.

Perhaps a goulash.

Your maid would be getting ready with dinner

while you’re just having one of the finest champagnes

in a soaking tub with your husband.

Imagine waking up every morning to these views.

Gabriella, I really see you living here.

AS: You don’t have to try to convince me, Edward.

I love it here so much.

Man: I’m so happy you feel this way, Gabriella.

I know how it is.

Just tell your husband every morning and every evening

that this is really where you want to be.

He loves you, and he wants you to be happy.

I’m sure he will not say no to you if you let him know

this is really your first choice.

AS: Thank you, Edward.

(On stage) AS: That woman on the video is me

viewing that 85-million-dollar apartment in Manhattan.

Well, she’s sort of me.

She’s a persona I created, called “Gabriella,”

which is my actual middle name.

But let me tell you how did I get there.

I’m not actually a billionaire.

I'm an artist and an architect,

and my whole story really started with the biggest cliché.

I was in New York for three months in 2016 on an artist residency program,

and like anyone who goes there,

I went up to the top of the Empire State Building.

And I was really amazed with the views.

And so, as soon as my gaze was going up

from the tiny cars and the tiny people to things at my eye level,

I started to notice

that there are buildings which are higher or at least as high

as the Empire State Building.

So I started to think that someone might be also standing there,

and maybe that someone has the privilege of standing there every single day,

unlike me or other tourists around me

who has this experience only a couple of times in a lifetime.

So I started to have this big desire to go up to all of those places

and see the city from all these different perspectives.

So I started to draw a map for myself.

I started to walk the city, and I picked out 25 specific buildings

that I really wanted to go to.

And it was very quick to realize that all of these buildings

are newly built - in the last decade -

ultra-luxury residential skyscrapers,

which is a very secluded, untold and secretive universe

really only available to the very, very few who belong there.

So I realized I have absolutely no way of getting into those places,

but because I was in New York for three months,

I really immersed myself in this obsession.

So I had two options:

I forget about it, or I become someone who’s granted the access.

And thinking about it further,

my only real choice seemed to be

to pretend to be an apartment-hunting Hungarian billionaire.

(Laughter)

This way, I even could pick which floor in which building I wanted to go to,

at least from the options that were available on the market,

either for rent or for sale.

And the access was instant.

So I started to check real-estate advertisements online.

I created a fake personal assistant for myself, named “Coco.”

(Laughter)

And she would call up the agencies to make appointments for me.

And the first question Coco always would get

is, “Who is Gabriella’s husband?”

So I also needed a husband.

(Laughter)

Zoltán, my good friend from Budapest, volunteered to be this person.

(Laughter)

He’s not exactly a billionaire,

but he has a few attractive businesses which, when agents googled him,

were kind of fine, and they let me in.

So before the viewings,

I, of course, had to wear new clothes, shoes, all those things.

From my bag,

a journal titled “Luxury Listings” was sticking out very visibly.

(Laughter)

It felt a bit like a caricature of a rich woman, but it somehow worked.

And so in full makeup like this,

I emerged from my dark, basement, short-term rental, Brooklyn apartment.

(Laughter)

And I went to the subway all the way on the first viewing to Chamber Street,

from where the apartment was about 100 meters away.

But I really wanted the agent to see that I’m getting out of a cab.

So I took a cab for this distance.

(Laughter)

Of course, no one saw it, but at least, it put me in the mood.

And so, some of the apartment viewings started at specialized sales galleries

where they would show you a fancy video of the property;

they would give you dried mangoes and any drink you wanted,

and then, they would take you up.

In other cases, they just directly took you up.

They also handed in my hand a great deal of marketing material,

which then became a bit frustrating for me

because my initial goal was to take pictures of these places,

and the only way these places lived in my mind

is in a perfect, sunny, summer afternoon.

But that’s not how they always are, obviously.

So, very often, when I went up to the apartments,

(Laughter)

you could see, maybe, the next building.

But in some of the penthouses,

which were higher than anything in the area,

sometimes I was in the middle of a cloud,

so the views were just this.

So because of that, in quite a few places,

I had to go back more than one, sometimes more than two times

to see what I wanted to see.

And so during all these viewings,

Gabriella’s persona evolved quite organically,

guided by all the questions the agents posed to me.

If they would ask me, “Do you have a chef?”

And I would spontaneously answer, “Yes, of course.” (Laughter)

So from that point on, Gabriella had a chef.

Or they would ask me who is the designer of my clothes.

My answer would always be, “A Hungarian designer.”

(Laughter)

And so, guided by all these questions

and some of reality -

for example, Gabriella was also an architect,

and very often, I said my real opinion about the properties -

came out this persona.

But quickly, I realized that actually, even if I showed up in my pajamas,

it would be just fine.

And it’s not only about the clothing.

Any strange behavior you might exhibit in this context, it’s just seen as normal.

For example, a few of the agents noticed

that the camera that I was supposedly taking pictures for my husband with

was an old film camera.

But by simply saying that I got it from my grandfather,

who urged me to document all the special moments in life,

I more than got away with it.

It made Gabriella an “artsy billionaire,”

and the agents immediately started to talk with me

about the new permanent collection at MoMA.

(Laughter)

So, as I was going through deeper and deeper this whole universe

of the ultra-luxury real estate,

the more and more problematic things I found.

One of the striking things, for example,

was the difference between communication between me and my husband.

So, when I would go alone to the viewing,

all the communication about business was somehow directed at him through me.

They would instruct me of what should I tell him when I go home

about the particular apartment.

So I oftentimes felt more like a messenger rather than a buyer.

And it even more so came out when he was, in fact, present.

To him, they would always say how great investment this apartment is.

I got the attention in the kitchen,

in the kids’ room, (Laughter)

in the huge walk-in closets,

where all the agents would make the same joke,

telling me that they really hoped

my huge clothing collection would fit in here.

So it really felt like they are trying to convince me

through the lifestyle and through emotions

whereas they try to convince him purely through the money.

And after not that much research, it became very obvious why.

Currently, 90% of the world’s billionaires are men,

and 85% of the so-called ultra-high-net-worth individuals -

people with a net worth of over 30 million US dollars - are men.

But this convincing tactic even came back when talking about the views.

So to me, they would say

that I should imagine waking up with these views every morning;

I should imagine myself emerging from the free-standing soaking tub

while seeing the city.

Whereas to him, they purely described how, thanks to these marvelous views,

the real estate will keep its monetary value.

But there were other things that they were trying to convince you with.

This one, this view,

which is one of the last ones I photographed early 2020,

is the private residential club in the Central Park Tower,

which is currently the tallest residential tower on the planet.

It’s roughly 100 meters taller than the Empire State Building,

and this will be the tallest viewing point of New York,

of course, only for its residents.

And this is the same space from the other side,

overlooking at the actual Empire State Building -

but from a bit above.

And so, in every single apartment, there were unique things

that they made you feel that this is what you really need to buy.

And it’s really like a race of how it’s going up.

I remember, in 2016, in one of the developments, they would tell me

that the private residential restaurant has a Michelin-star chef.

In 2020, in another development,

they told me that the private residential restaurant has, every two months,

a different Michelin-star chef.

(Laughter)

So, after seeing a few of these apartments,

let alone hundreds of them,

you really realize that they are all the same.

In all of them, as you enter, it’s straight into the living room,

where you get the best view of the particular apartment.

The second best view is always from the master bedroom,

which is very often the corner view.

You always have high ceilings; you always have glass facades;

you always have huge, white-wall spaces for your art collection,

which you, of course, have. (Laughter)

There’s also sculpture corridors

and very specific type of kitchen layouts with a breakfast bar in the middle.

And the only thing that was a bit different in all of these apartments

is the type of marble they used as a backsplash

of your free-standing soaking tub.

(Laughter)

Sometimes, it was Calacatta Tucci, other times Grigio Orobico -

but really no other differences.

And another thing I will never forget is the surprise on the face of the agents

when they asked me

if I will live in this apartment if we decide to purchase it,

and I said yes.

They always went out of their way to let me know

that almost no one lives in that building,

and most of the service will be only for us.

But of course, these apartments are not really made for living.

These apartments are made to keep their buyers’ money safe.

Not surprisingly, this phenomena of this mode of development

came in the last decade when after the 2008 financial crisis,

people, wealthy people, realized that they really need to keep

at least some of their wealth in safe places,

such as ultra-luxury real estate in safe economic areas like New York.

So as a result of that, they estimate

that 70% of the actually sold apartments are empty at any given moment.

Also, there’s the data that shows

that people who own one of these apartments,

on average, own five of them - globally.

So they are at least not in four of them at the same time.

But the problem with this mode of development,

at least in my view, is quite essential.

While historically, it’s been churches, offices

and other forms of communal existence

that shaped our skylines, broke the engineering records,

today, it is these buildings.

They are the ones you can see

from every single hidden corner of the city.

They are the ones that’s going to stay here for the future

and talk about us as a society.

And they are not only disturbing visually or psychologically,

giving the message to the rest of the citizens

that this is what you’re never going to see,

but you really have to look at them.

But they are also casting huge shadows over the cities

or to other people’s up until then sunny living rooms.

For example, in the south side of Central Park,

completely changed the flora and the fauna since these buildings got there

because of the lack of light -

not to even mention the human experience.

And so as a result of this project, I invited architects, artists, curators,

sociologists to write texts about this phenomena.

And together with all my photographs

and the conversations I had between real estate agents,

I published this fancy album

titled “Private Views: A High Rise Panorama of Manhattan.”

And so, what I would like to leave you with

is that an ideal city cannot be dominated by high-rises

that only serve to symbolize private surplus wealth,

at least in my view.

Thank you.

(Applause)