Right at the top in New York, London and Berlin

They were created in the middle of the world’s metropolises, and there they still fetch top prices today. Especially when well-known architects, designers and outfitters can be won over to the design.

Here they are in their natural habitat: Even if penthouses have become popular outside of the major urban centers (see I5–6), their traditional place of work is of course right in the middle of the action in the capital cities. This is where you will find the really big developments that continue to attract big names from the architecture and design scene.

NYC: mother of all penthouses

This is particularly true of the mother of all penthouses, Manhattan, where the first two copies of breakfast cereal heiress Marjorie Merriweather Post Hutton and publisher Condé Nast once founded the rise of this new form of living. That was in the 1920s. Even 50 years later, this type of living had lost none of its appeal, including to the architect and Yale professor Paul Rudolph. In the mid-1970s he bought a 100-year-old townhouse on the elite Beekman Place – a quiet cul-de-sac in East Manhattan – and built a penthouse for it. Its beauty may lie in the eye of the beholder from the outside, but inside it leaves little to be desired: The tower, which Rudolph used as his residence and design laboratory, extends over four floors and five terraces, with a spectacular view over the Hudson River. Inside there are three bedrooms, as well as many bathrooms, designed by the current residents, architects Jared Della Valle and Andrew

Bernheimer, have been so skillfully restored in the spirit of Paul Rudolph that they have won an award from the American Institute of Architects. The penthouse with the five floors below will be sold for almost 17 million euros, and it will be brokered through Sotheby’s International Realty.

Big names can also be won for the penthouses in new buildings: The designer Sophie Ashby took on the design of the top unit of the Floral Court in London. The project by Kohn Pedersen Fox Architects in the upscale Covent Garden district is one of the most prestigious in the British capital. It is designed around a green inner courtyard with top gastronomy. At the top, Ashby’s studio designed every room in the 465-square-meter penthouse around art. A picture specifies the color palette, the materials and the opulent material. For example, the dining room table itself is a work of art that was designed in collaboration with florist Mary Lennox and, with dried flowers under a glass plate, is intended as an homage to the flower markets in Covent Garden. A canopy made of leaves and metal flowers stretches over it. Real leaves and flowers can be found on the more than 100 square meters of terrace. The price for the artistic living space is the equivalent of around 22.26 million euros and is brokered through Christie’s International Real Estate.

Art and design in Berlin

In Berlin the prices are still relatively occasional, but here too there are penthouses that impress with their spectacular interior and exterior views. One of these copies is on the Metropolenhaus. It has 480 square meters of living space with six rooms and three bathrooms that are draped with loads of art and design.

One of the dominant pieces is the six-meter-long “Silver Shadow Crystal Rain” chandelier with over 4600 Swarovski stones. This stages the spiral staircase that leads from the entrance on the fourth floor of the house to the living and sleeping rooms on the fifth and sixth floors above. From the designer kitchen to the hammam bathroom, there are plenty of luxurious details, including a dining area with floor-to-ceiling windows that reveal a view in three directions. These are made of special glass, which is part of the security equipment, which also includes a panic room in the bedroom. The penthouse is brokered by Engel & Völkers Berlin Mitte for 6.95 million euros.