A recent New York Times article called attention to the relationship between art and luxury condo developments:
In the world of high-end real estate, the importance of art is surfacing in more ways than one as a theme in new condo developments.
And why shouldn’t it? The wealthy often have an appreciation for art and instinctively bond with kindred spirits who appreciate such nuanced pursuits. Still, there is a fine line between the well-intentioned, and the well-conceived, marketing strategy.
Belgravia Group‘s Buzz Ruttenberg is well-known in real estate circles as a developer of luxury condominiums. Chicago’s arts community also knows him as a lover of art, a collector, and a long-standing patron of local artists.
Ruttenberg has made art a central element of several of his developments, most recently at 600 North Lake Shore Drive, where the above video was shot in June of 2009. The building has a 10th floor sculpture garden. Each floor of the building’s two towers has a display of original photography, and new residents of the building were given a book illustrating the art on each floor. Residents can tour the different levels of their home as if it were a museum.
Near the beginning of the video Ruttenberg talks about his father’s first major art purchase, a Jackson Pollock painting for which he paid $400 in 1952.
NOTE: Belgravia Group is one of our sponsors.