Send us a text Episode #24 Hall Willkie and Mary Rutherford: He's running the premium agency in New York. She sells the biggest apartments. This week 2 of the biggest names in New York Real Estate reflect on 5th Avenue, Park Avenue & Central Park West, the iconic buildings, and how these neighborhoods are changing. We'll ask them to talk about the market and peer into their crystal balls and give us their best predictions Mary Rutherford recently sold the penthouse at the Pierre for $44 million. She sold Princess Lee Radziwill's apartment in 2019, David Rockefeller's apartment in 2017 for $32 million and in 2014 she sold Edgar Bronfman Sr.'s penthouse for $70 million. Brown Harris Stevens has been famous for selling the really, really fabulous apartments of New York for the last 150 years. Hall Willkie and Mary Rutherford have been major reasons for that success for the last 38 years. Mary started in the business in 1983 and is an example of the super-agent who sells the very best. Hall has been the President of Brown Harris Stevens for 32 years. He manages 1100 agents and has built the largest privately held firm in the New York tri-state market, selling more than $9 billion in real estate in 2019. Therefore, as New York undergoes massive changes as a result of the pandemic and shifting political winds we decided to catch up with these two icons of New York Real Estate and ask them to reflect and to predict. Some of what we were wondering when considering 5th Avenue, Park Avenue & Central Park West: What was the perception of the major buildings back in the day? How have those perceptions evolved? Talk to us about the great architects and how they impact value. Emery Roth & Rosaria Candela? Is there anything that is unique to either? What were their differences? Who were other prominent architects? How important was ceiling height then and now? As ceiling heights descended, they reflect a timeline that led us straight into the 1960s at 8 feet. Who thought that was a good idea? Why did that happen? Was it considered chic? Let's talk about the 14 feet ceilings of The Dakota to the 8 feet "white elephants". Staff quarters were very important and an essential part of every large apartment and in the largest apartments there were multiple staff quarters (see 640 Park below). Today it would be rare to see a staff room (or live-in nanny room) in new condo construction design. You are more likely see a completely separate staff apartment and if so, it would only be one apartment, and would only happen at the super luxury level. Will that ever come back into the floorplans of the future? Take 640 Park Avenue – full floor units – 18 rooms 6 baths 4/5 Master Bathrooms 7 servants rooms (yes 7) made up of: - 4 “servant’s rooms” - 1 “butler room” - 1 “second man” room - And a “servant’s hall” Why is 740 Park so iconic? How have the past 10 years had an effect on these properties? Lets talk about the restrictive (no) financing policy. Is that still necessary? Will it disappear? These are just some topics which I think would be fun and interesting to incorporate, but we'll follow this conversation wherever it naturally leads.

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“What did the council decide on item 42?” — answered with the speaker and the moment.

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