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.