All of us want to see Manhattan from above, but very few can do it from their own living room. While posing as an apartmenthunting Hungarian billionaire, Andi Schmied accessed and documented Manhattan’s most exclusive highrise properties: for the duration of the project, she inhabited a fictional persona, Gabriella, a mother of one whose husband is an antique dealer. Complemented by fragments of the real estate conversations, the talk guides the audience through this elite world hidden up in the clouds, while highlighting its problematic nature. Andi Schmied is a visual artist and architect dealing with anomalies found in our contemporary cityscapes and problematic deadends of urban planning. In her most recent book, ‘Private Views: A HighRise Panorama of Manhattan’, she uncovers the domestic spaces of the New York elite. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx