If, as Coco Chanel once said, "Fashion is architecture," then architecture, by way of residential real estate, has become fashion. Apartments make as much of a statement about their owners as a bespoke Savile Row suit about its wearer. A person who buys in 165 Charles is visionary and exacting, uncompromising on details. Fifty Gramercy Park North: refined. The Urban Glass House: bold. Donald Trump's Riverside South: arriviste. We cloak ourselves in these spaces the way we do in designer clothes. If you live for Prada, chances are you'd like the Richard Meier towers in the West Village. (It could become a parlor game: Does Frank Gehry link to Giorgio Armani or Tom Ford?) Real estate has become another luxury good. "In a way, it's the ultimate luxury good," says public-relations guru Harriet Weintraub, whose client roster used to include Christian Dior and Burberry, and who now also reps high-profile buildings. Full Article
