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Artist faked being a billionaire to photograph New York City’s best views

architecturaldigest.com

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Re: Artist faked being a billionaire to photograph New York City’s best views

#171

Post by MathYouF »

dmurray wrote: post #170
hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #8

> They’re investments, not really meant for living in. They cast these huge shadows and block views—really change the skyline—just so they can stand empty. That is definitely one of the saddest parts for me. These billionaires (many of whom got their wealth in shady circumstances) are just using these condos to park their money. I may think NFTs are insane but at least when people with too much money park their wealt…

I don't get the "billionaires buy property and leave it vacant, because it's more valuable as an investment" trope. Billionaires like to make money with their money. Sure, property prices increase, but rents are significant. If you can make 5% a year from your real estate appreciating, you can make 10% by renting it out. That's the difference between a mediocre yearly return and a fantastic one. Maybe at the absolute…

Why don't you rent out your car on Turo when you're not using it, or resell your items when you're done with them rather than throw them away? I suspect, for the car example at least, it's for similar reasons. The liability of damage and hassle of managing a tenant is greater than the potential upside of rent for them.

Re: Artist faked being a billionaire to photograph New York City’s best views

#172

Post by rocqua »

leejo wrote: post #110

> Only 1000 editions of Private Views were published For context this is towards the higher end of a standard print run in the photobook world. Most niche art/photo books will be printed in runs of only 50, 100, perhaps a few hundred, or at most 1,000 so "Only 1000 editions" is actually at the upper end and this is in no way "limited-edition". Unless the project goes viral it's unlikely the book itself will ever be s…

Interesting, my first thought uppon reading this was "huh guess I can't buy this limited edition book" weird to see hoe wrong that was. I wonder how many lost sales thoughts like mine cause in the end

Re: Artist faked being a billionaire to photograph New York City’s best views

#173

Post by tekkk »

dmurray wrote: post #170
hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #8

> They’re investments, not really meant for living in. They cast these huge shadows and block views—really change the skyline—just so they can stand empty. That is definitely one of the saddest parts for me. These billionaires (many of whom got their wealth in shady circumstances) are just using these condos to park their money. I may think NFTs are insane but at least when people with too much money park their wealt…

I don't get the "billionaires buy property and leave it vacant, because it's more valuable as an investment" trope. Billionaires like to make money with their money. Sure, property prices increase, but rents are significant. If you can make 5% a year from your real estate appreciating, you can make 10% by renting it out. That's the difference between a mediocre yearly return and a fantastic one. Maybe at the absolute…

When you have billions of money, do you have really have that much drive to optimize your properties which might be nice to keep as occasional holiday homes? Sure you'd think that "ooh, 5% more income on my properties" would motivate them to rent their properties out but they might be perfectly happy just living off their other investments and not giving a damn about such tedious optimizations.

Re: Artist faked being a billionaire to photograph New York City’s best views

#174

Post by Broken_Hippo »

knocte wrote: post #61
zadler wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> NFTs are insane With any luck, NFTs and crypto in general might reduce this kind of investment in property. They might turn out to be a better place to park excess cash.

I think NFTs are great because they move money from the hands of the stupid&rich to the hands of artists.

No, not really.

Most artists aren't going to sell, in no small part because there are a LOT of artists out there in the world and because selling art is Hard. I've met plenty of folks that spend more time selling art and being social enough to sell art than they spend actually making that art. And this is just the average seller: Few can actually make it a career.

Money, connections, luck, and a lot of social labor are pretty well required to get your art selling at higher prices, and might get rich folks to buy your stuff.

Re: Artist faked being a billionaire to photograph New York City’s best views

#175

Post by throwaway210222 »

271828182846 wrote: post #168
jimmyed wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nothing wrong with being third world mate. Thailand is very much third world though.

Well, Thailand isn't more of a third world country than the US ... http://hdr.undp.org/en/dashboard-human-development-anthropoc... Highlight Thailand and US and you'll find both in the same section above or below the median.

> Well, Thailand isn't more of a third world country than the US

The USA is flying a helicopter on another planet right now.

SMH.

Re: Artist faked being a billionaire to photograph New York City’s best views

#176

Post by majewsky »

tekkk wrote: post #173
dmurray wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't get the "billionaires buy property and leave it vacant, because it's more valuable as an investment" trope. Billionaires like to make money with their money. Sure, property prices increase, but rents are significant. If you can make 5% a year from your real estate appreciating, you can make 10% by renting it out. That's the difference between a mediocre yearly return and a fantastic one. Maybe at the absolute…

When you have billions of money, do you have really have that much drive to optimize your properties which might be nice to keep as occasional holiday homes? Sure you'd think that "ooh, 5% more income on my properties" would motivate them to rent their properties out but they might be perfectly happy just living off their other investments and not giving a damn about such tedious optimizations.

When you're a billionaire, you can employ dozens, if not hundreds of people, to do tedious optimizations for you all day. And if that's the difference between 5% and 10% RoI, those people even pay for themselves (and then some).

Re: Artist faked being a billionaire to photograph New York City’s best views

#177

Post by biztos »

BelenusMordred wrote: post #165
tarsinge wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

12 floors is huge. Nearly every building in Paris is 6 floors and it is already at near the maximum density humanly acceptable in my opinion. There will never be enough supply in some place, especially with speculation and foreign investors. The situation in NYC and these cities is nothing like SF.

> 12 floors is huge. I live 40 stories up, surrounded by a lot of green spaces because the city doesn't need to mow down natural habitats for population growth. 6 floors seems quaint and archaic, all it's going to cause is endless depressing urban sprawl. > There will never be enough supply in some place We can always build higher, construction techniques are only getting better. I don't see why 60 floor buildings ca…

I’m also on 40 (out of 76) and while we’ll probably all die if there’s an earthquake, that’s true in a lot of NIMBYtowns too.

I could see whole cities of mostly >50 stories, but then unblockable views start to get immensely valuable right?

So as the city fills up and you discover which locations have more durable views, you need to start tearing down those skyscrapers to replace them with more luxurious ones.

Not sure if that’s dystopian, but I do quite like the view from up here.

Re: Artist faked being a billionaire to photograph New York City’s best views

#178

Post by prox »

mod wrote: post #153
prox wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it also allows for talking and doing business deals at the same time. Other sports don’t have that, unless it’s a board game.

Bowling, billiards, shuffleboard, darts, disc golf seem suitable off the top of my head. I'm sure there's many more.

But bowling and billiards, darts have a more “pleb” air about them, something business folks seem keen on avoiding often.

Re: Artist faked being a billionaire to photograph New York City’s best views

#179

Post by [deleted] »

ClumsyPilot wrote: post #115
paxys wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While not good for the local housing market for sure, the country does gain from a ton of foreign illicit income being converted to its own currency and an easily seizable asset conveniently parked within its borders. Cities and counties can also implement vacancy taxes and such to somewhat lessen this problem.

How does it benefit uk to launder proceeds of crime and squeeze productive citizens out, forcing them to travel further and pollute more?

[deleted]

Re: Artist faked being a billionaire to photograph New York City’s best views

#180

Post by Broken_Hippo »

Aunche wrote: post #15

> But despite the breathtaking views, Schmied says the multi-million-dollar condos were dishearteningly dull How many new apartments aren't dull? If you're spending $90 million on an apartment, the last thing you would want is for it to be in the style of some architect's avant-garde idea of beauty. If you want to add personality, you hire your own interior designers to find your own aesthetic.

Put another way: Compare a newish construction to equally staged houses from yesteryear. Something built in 1918 will probably have wood paned windows and wide trim - and keep these sorts of details around the house. Art nouveau and art deco have their details, even when you stage them to as much of a blank slate as possible. Something from the 70's has some details from them in the construction. Folks still apply their own aesthetic to these places.

These "luxury" apartments do not seem to have things like this. They are missing built-in character, that realistically has nothing to do with the color of the walls or the furniture in the place.

And honestly, even a plain place shows the architect's sense of beauty (or lack thereof).

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