The Lure of Living Above It All
It is a fine feeling to step into the elevator of an apartment building, press the button marked “PH” and take a ride to the top — or at least near the top. And at a time when the wealthiest New Yorkers are getting even wealthier, there are more buildings in Manhattan with many more of these elevator buttons that bespeak the privileges of penthouse living.
Christine Harris, a 34-year-old director at UBS Global Asset Management in Manhattan, expects to experience that feeling when she and her boyfriend move into their $2.5 million 11th-floor penthouse on the northern edges of Chelsea when the apartment is completed next summer.
Speaking by telephone over the clatter of the UBS trading floor, Ms. Harris calmly envisioned opening her apartment to friends for French feasts and glasses of pinot, and unwinding after work on her private 700-square-foot terrace.