Even service elevators are now being enlarged so that they can be used to transport bulky artworks easily into an apartment. Roy Kim, creative director of Douglas Elliman, cites how Rafal Viñoly engineered the super-skyscraper 432 Park Avenue. “It was designed, very intentionally, with an oversize elevator at its core expressly for the move-ins of large items of art,” he says by phone from his Manhattan office.
This emphasis on prepackaging buildings as art friendly, whether by adding more walls or expanding the elevator, is a concrete manifestation of the close relationship between art collecting and real estate. Of course, there’s an element of smart marketing, too: Art world affiliation offers built-in cachet, while such thoughtful amenities as a simple picture rail can act as sweeteners to help justify skyrocketing prices in New York—10 years ago, Elliman’s Kim says, the “entry point for luxury in 2006 was $1,200 per sq. ft. and has now jumped to $3,000.” Perhaps the most compelling factor behind this trend, though, is that many major developers are also powerful art collectors themselves. Aby Rosen might be the best known, but Steve Witkoff, Edward Minkskoff, and even Ian Schrager are art world aficionados too.
As for Wendy Maitland’s buyer, the Oscar-winning director did finally make a decision between those two newly built apartments—one on the Upper East Side, the other in SoHo. He chose the downtown space after his art consultant pointed out the larger freight elevator and museum-like ceiling heights there, as well as the reinforced floors. There was one piece in particular, she knew, that would need to be drilled into the wall and the floor for display. “The neighborhood was less essential than the wall space for art, and the ability to exhibit his art collection,” Maitland marvels, “That’s a big statement.”