- Hardcover: 320 pages
- Publisher: Little, Brown & Company; illustrated edition edition (May 2005)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0316608513
- ISBN-13: 978-0316608510
- Product Dimensions: 23.6 x 15.5 x 2.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
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Amazon Bestsellers Rank:
888,275 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #9 in Books > Business, Finance & Law > Personal Finance > Property & Real Estate > Sales
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More About the Author
Product Description
Review
"Philistines at the Hedgerow "deftly fashions the biographies of the purveyors and owners of the Hamptons' choicest real estate into a narrative of surprising unity and velocity. Such a cast of eccentrics hasn't been seen since Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil."
Product Description
Steven Gaines trains his sharp eye on rich people behaving badly. The arena is Manhattan luxury property and the outlandish displays of ego, outrageous behaviour, blood feuds, status hunger and conspicuous consumption that dominate that world. THE SKY'S THE LIMIT reveals the apartment-swapping adventures of many celebrities - from Jerry Seinfeld to Barbra Streisand, from Tommy Hilfiger to Gloria Vanderbilt - whose adventures in promiscuous apartment swapping and renovating are told with typical Gaines verve and style. And Gaines digs much deeper to tell us the fascinating story of how boxes stacked on boxes came to be seen as the ultimate in status for the rich. He explores the development of the cooperative apartment, originally conceived as a way to house the poor. He introduces us to a fascinating, diverse cast of carriage trade brokers, whose most important task is to get their anxious clients past the dreaded co-op board. And he gives us finely etched portraits of a few of the discreet, elderly society ladies who are the real arbiters of who gets into the so-called Good Buildings.
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This gossipy account of the comings and goings of the rarefied world of Fifth Avenue, Park Avenue and Central Park West exposes the amazing lengths to which some people will go to live in the right zip code. Its about a superficial world where wealth is to be used to 'buy' social standing and to 'announce' your arrival in the covetous temple of the rich and important.
The Author's narrative allows readers past the threshold of some of Manhattan's restricted addresses and dishes out great dollops of high-society tittle-tattle and outrageously large servings of name dropping.
If you enjoy the spectacle of unrestricted expenditure, blatant social-climbing and pretension then this is the book for you.
The Author's narrative allows readers past the threshold of some of Manhattan's restricted addresses and dishes out great dollops of high-society tittle-tattle and outrageously large servings of name dropping.
If you enjoy the spectacle of unrestricted expenditure, blatant social-climbing and pretension then this is the book for you.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
28 reviews
34 of 36 people found the following review helpful
Get comfortable + move into this book for an engrossing read
19 Jun 2005
Format:Hardcover
I approached this book with indifference. But by page three, I was a convert, and engrossed in this vuyeuristic story of opulence and property on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, an area the contains the greatest concentration of personal wealth on Earth. I never knew the names behind these social register families, the newly-rich strivers, the surnames who raise most of the funds for New York's cultural institutions, and the re-branded real estate brokers who serve these super rich co-op owners. Gaines throws in the juicy stories of how Nixon was rejected by buildings, how Vanderbilt sued for entry into a GB (Good Building), how Streisand got stuck with her place for years, and how the powerful and wealthy are brought low by dictatorial co-op boards. There are stories of well positioned board packages, the mistakes of wearing the wrong clothes or being a pretty divorcee at board interviews, and how one should say that they love dogs if the board president is the largest funder of the ASPCA. Gaines uses the story of Tommy Hilfiger and his "board package" to show the evolution of upper east side real estate - namely the acceptance of some "garmentos" in to the best good buildings. Of course, when Hilfiger finally got a place, his divorce forced the apartment to be flipped (and flipped again.) When people say a book a juicy, this is the sort of book they mean. It is hard to put down, and it illuminates a world few of us will ever experiences.
21 of 22 people found the following review helpful
How the Super Rich Buy Manhattan Real Estate
18 July 2005
Format:Hardcover
Real estate seems to be the number one topic at dinner and cocktail parties. Everyone has a story about how incredibly real estate prices have risen and how someone has made a killing. Nowhere is this phenomenon more over the top than in Manhattan.
Steven Gaines is an investigative journalist who, in a previous work has examined the mansions and millionaires of the Hamptons, now focuses on the exclusive world of Manhattan co-ops.
According to Gaines, the "good buildings" and the "best addresses" run along Fifth and Park Avenues. One such good building is located at 820 Fifth Avenue. Gaines tells us that everyone was shocked when the board of the co-op approved Tommy Hilfiger. Its not that he didn't have the $100 million liquid assets needed to qualify, but the fact that he designed baggy gansta rap clothing.
Gaines gossipy anecodotes are told mainly from the point of view of some of the carriage trade brokers that do the deals. Many of the brokers are very hard-working and much more sensible than their clients.
Dolly Lenz, for example, was the highest earning broker for Prudential out of a sales force of 58,000 nationwide. Not only does she work in the rarified atmosphere of Manhattan co-ops, she also has the distinction of having sold the most expensive house in the New York.(Burnt Point in the Hamptons was sold to the CEO of Kinray for $45 million.) Working seven days a week and the ability to thumb-type 80 words per minute on her Blackberrry, she still finds time to have dinner with, say, Bruce Willis or Barbara Streisand.
Another good story, had to do with the San Remo building, possibly one of the most exclusive buildings in Manhattan. Steven Jobs of Apple Computer bought the top two floors of the North Tower and spent five years and $15 million renovating it. The other tenants were so frustrated by the renovation that they brought action limiting the amount of time renovations could take. Jobs lost interest in the building and offered it to Bono of U2 for the cost of the renovation. Bono, smelling a bargain, snapped it up.
Gaines is very good at analyzing the social distinctions between the different buildings and neighborhoods and the people who inhabit them. Although it may not add much to the sum total of human knowledge, it does entertain and give insight into the otherworldly ordeals of the super rich.
Steven Gaines is an investigative journalist who, in a previous work has examined the mansions and millionaires of the Hamptons, now focuses on the exclusive world of Manhattan co-ops.
According to Gaines, the "good buildings" and the "best addresses" run along Fifth and Park Avenues. One such good building is located at 820 Fifth Avenue. Gaines tells us that everyone was shocked when the board of the co-op approved Tommy Hilfiger. Its not that he didn't have the $100 million liquid assets needed to qualify, but the fact that he designed baggy gansta rap clothing.
Gaines gossipy anecodotes are told mainly from the point of view of some of the carriage trade brokers that do the deals. Many of the brokers are very hard-working and much more sensible than their clients.
Dolly Lenz, for example, was the highest earning broker for Prudential out of a sales force of 58,000 nationwide. Not only does she work in the rarified atmosphere of Manhattan co-ops, she also has the distinction of having sold the most expensive house in the New York.(Burnt Point in the Hamptons was sold to the CEO of Kinray for $45 million.) Working seven days a week and the ability to thumb-type 80 words per minute on her Blackberrry, she still finds time to have dinner with, say, Bruce Willis or Barbara Streisand.
Another good story, had to do with the San Remo building, possibly one of the most exclusive buildings in Manhattan. Steven Jobs of Apple Computer bought the top two floors of the North Tower and spent five years and $15 million renovating it. The other tenants were so frustrated by the renovation that they brought action limiting the amount of time renovations could take. Jobs lost interest in the building and offered it to Bono of U2 for the cost of the renovation. Bono, smelling a bargain, snapped it up.
Gaines is very good at analyzing the social distinctions between the different buildings and neighborhoods and the people who inhabit them. Although it may not add much to the sum total of human knowledge, it does entertain and give insight into the otherworldly ordeals of the super rich.
13 of 13 people found the following review helpful
Buying in a Manhattan 'Good Building'
28 Jun 2005
Format:Hardcover
Among the many excesses that New York City can claim is one of the most rediculous real estate systems in the world. The sub-title of this book says a lot, there is a passion in the real estate business in Manhattan. In a space of only a few square miles the rich (sometimes famous, sometimes not) have created a strange sub-culture that exists just like others around the city.
The difference here is that these people are the people you would expect to be secure in their lives, not filled with petty gossip and rivalries. But that's not the case. A good bit of the book is about the co-op board who has the right to accept or reject a new prospective purchaser. For instance no attractive divorced women need apply, the wives of the existing tennants don't want their husbands riding in the elevators with them. Likewise, no single men, we, after all, don't want gays in our building. I was surprised to read a lot of this. I would have thought that the civil rights legislation would have prevented such actions. But perhaps that was only to be applied in the South.
Very interesing side of the housing market.
The difference here is that these people are the people you would expect to be secure in their lives, not filled with petty gossip and rivalries. But that's not the case. A good bit of the book is about the co-op board who has the right to accept or reject a new prospective purchaser. For instance no attractive divorced women need apply, the wives of the existing tennants don't want their husbands riding in the elevators with them. Likewise, no single men, we, after all, don't want gays in our building. I was surprised to read a lot of this. I would have thought that the civil rights legislation would have prevented such actions. But perhaps that was only to be applied in the South.
Very interesing side of the housing market.
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