Private Views: A High-Rise Panorama of Manhattan

All of us want to see Manhattan from above, but very few can do it from their own living room.

Private Views is here to satisfy our incessant curiosity about a hidden elite world that we can only observe from outside, or occasionally, from an overpriced viewing point crowded with tourists. While posing as an apartment-hunting Hungarian billionaire, Andi Schmied accessed and documented Manhattan's most exclusive high-rise properties. For the duration of the project, she inhabited a fictional persona: Gabriella, a mother of one whose husband is an antique dealer.

Dressing as Gabriella and acting as Gabriella, she prepared for the family's upcoming move to Manhattan. Complemented by essays, and fragments of the real estate conversations, the book guides its readers through the sunset from the Trump Tower and dawn over Central Park from the private ballroom of the tallest residential tower on the planet, showcasing samples of the world's most luxurious materials, such as the Calacatta Tucci marble used in bathrooms overlooking the Empire State Building.