The Most Expensive Apartment In America

$100 million – that is how much it will cost you to live in what is being touted as the most expensive apartment in America. This most expensive luxury home is located in New York City, that popular hub of pricey real estate. The apartment in question is a wraparound triplex penthouse located on W. 56th Street at the very top of the landmark City Spire condo building. The three-storied apartment offers magnificent views of Midtown Manhattan and Central Park from its terraces; being located on the 73rd floor (that is where the entrance is) of a building certainly has its advantages. The home holds another distinction – that of being the highest terraced apartment in the Big  Apple.

The home is large, and not just by New York standards; it is spread across 11,000 square feet and houses six bedrooms and nine bathrooms. Thus, large families and the occasional guests are hardly a problem if you happen to be living in this lovely property, Moreover, the terraces that offer 360-degree views of the city, take up 3,000 square feet of the total space. What that also means is that there is plenty of natural light streaming in to the home.

Medals Made for London 2012 are the Most Expensive Olympic Medalsost

The soaring prices of gold and silver have made the medals on offer at London 2012 the most expensive Olympic medals ever. The Olympic committee has worked diligently to make the medals one of the best in the Olympic history. A total of 4,700 Olympic and Paralympic medals have been produced weighing eight tons. The gold, silver and copper used to make the medals were mined in Mongolia and Utah and the rigorously made medals are now under guard at the Tower of London. The medals have been stored in the Tower since July 2 and are under the same tight security that guards Britain’s crown jewels. Tracey Sands, spokeswoman for Historic Royal Palaces, confirmed the fact and said that the medals will remain in the Tower till they are taken away to be presented at the podium. Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London concurred that the medals were the most precious possession for any athlete and the Tower of London is the best sanctuary for the 2012 medals as it has a history of protecting some of the greatest treasures of the country. They have done their job remarkably well for centuries and the Olympic duty will add a feather to their cap.

The Medals at Beijing Olympics Were Much Lighter

Every Olympic has its own design and style of making the medals. However the proportion of gold in the medals is normally very tiny. For the 2012 Olympic Games the Gold Medal that has been produced weighs 410 grams approximately and contains only six grams of gold. It constitutes only 1.34% of its weight and the balance is made up of silver compound and copper. The medals are 85 mm in diameter and 7mm thick and are one of the heaviest ever made the Summer Olympics. With the boom in prices of precious metals and the size and weight of the London medals they have become the most expensive in Olympic history. The medals at the last Olympics in Beijing were much lighter at about 200 grams. However, the record for the heaviest medals is held by the Winter Games in Vancouver in 2010 where some of the medals presented weighed as much as 576 grams.

The London Medals have Been Designed by David Watkins

The London medals have been designed by the British artist David Watkins. The front of the medal features Nike, the Greek goddess of victory. The back of the medal has the London Games logo along with a radiating star motif and the River Thames. Produced at the 1,000 year old Royal Mint, pieces with the slightest blemish were rejected. The medals had to undergo 15 process in a huge hydraulic press to achieve its final finish. Anglo-Australian global mining giant Rio Tinto were responsible for supplying the materials like the gold, silver and copper. The metals came from their Oyu Tolgoi plant in Mongolia and the Kennecott mine in Utah in the United States. The athletes will be happy to know that the medals they are competing for are the most expensive Olympic medals and they are much superior to the last Games held in London in 1948. It was the first Olympic after the war and the post war austerity the organizers could come up with poor quality medals in a limited budget.

Most Expensive Mansion in Manhattan For Rent at $150,000 A Month

The most expensive Woolworth Mansion is one of the three mansions built in early 20th century on Manhattan’s opulent Upper East Side by dime store magnate Frank Winfield Woolworth for his daughters. The one in the middle which was built for his daughter Helena was once dubbed New York’s most expensive house. It was put up on the market for sale last year with a whopping price tag of $90 million. Since the mansion could not find a buyer at the price it has now been made available for rent at a stunning $150,000 a month. The rent may seem extraordinary to a lot of people but so is the property.

The French Gothic Mansion Designed by Charles Pierpont Henry Gilbert

The most expensive house is  truly a luxurious mansion that features ten bedrooms and eleven bathrooms. It’s a large home with a total of 18,000 sq ft of living space. The mansion boasts of three kitchens, a wood-paneled library, an elevator, a gym and a garden. There is much on offer at the mansion to keep the tenant entertained. It is ideal for hosting lavish dinner parties as the formal dining room can seat over 50 guests at a time. The French Gothic mansion was built in 1916 by the architect Charles Pierpont Henry Gilbert who was popular in his time amongst the elite for designing ornate city and country homes.

Most Expensive Manhattan Mansion Exemplifies Architecture as Art

The mansion had lost its grandeur and value and was purchased for a mere $6 million in 1995 the late gym magnate Lucille Roberts who used it as a men’s gym. The house was later restored and surprisingly they could recover much of the original detail intact. The details were restored and modern amenities and systems were incorporated in the mansion through a comprehensive renovation. The extensive renovation has brought back the original glory of the property. It is a fine example of what we call ‘architecture as art’. It adds value to the property and makes it more desirable. It is a grand mansion with a central foyer leading to an ornate and large entry hall featuring a massive fireplace, three closets, an elegant powder room and the wide landing of the grand master staircase.

Most Expensive Eyeshades

Virgin Atlantic Creates Most Expensive Eyeshades with Swarovski Crystals

Virgin Atlantic has had a long association with Swarovski crystal and they are collaborating again to create the most expensive sleeping masks worth $4,000. The new initiative is part of part of the company’s sustainability efforts. The new and most expensive sleeping masks are part of the airline’s new sustainable amenity kit for its economy and upper classes. Virgin Atlantic provides a free amenity kit to all the passengers irrespective of the class they are traveling in. Even the cheapest economy seats get a packet with eyeshades and other goodies. Five lucky Economy passengers on Virgin Atlantic flights will find the expensive crystal covered eye-shades in their kit.

The Lucky Passengers will Get the Eye-Shades in the Free Kit

The eyeshades are not covered in any crystal but precision cut crystals from Swarovski. A total of 3,000 crystals have been painstakingly hand-applied on the eyeshades. It is a long process and a skilled craftsman takes ten hours to set the crystals in the eyeshade and transform it into a dazzling accessory. You will really feel lucky if the $4,000 crystal eyeshade finds its way in your free amenity kit. You might even want to save it and keep it intact instead of wearing it on a long haul flight and making it dirty or smelly.

Saima Anwar Has Created Five Designs

The bespoke eyeshades have been created in five designs and Chris Rossi, senior vice president for Virgin Atlantic Airways in North America sees it as another innovation in the aviation industry. This initiative will help them position their Economy class as a more high-end flight option. It will also help Swarovski in strengthening its brand awareness. The design of the eyeshades has been created by artist Saima Anwar and crystals have been applied to create designs of different sunglasses including the shutter shade, Wayfarer, heart-shaped, ’80s retro and John Lennon-esque circular. The kit for the economy class comes in stylish charcoal gray pouches made from recycled plastic bottles with silk linings. The Upper Class amenity kits are bigger and can be reused to keep you tablet an e-readers.

Most Expensive Cardboard Jewelry

Zdenka Cuff is the Most Expensive Cardboard Jewelry at $20,000

Fashion is becoming eco-friendly but at a very high price. A bracelet crafted out of salvaged industrial cardboard has been priced at $20,000 making it the most expensive recycled item of cardboard jewelry. California designer Keariene Muizz finds the amount of trash America generates absurdly high at 251 million tons. She is doing her bit by upcycling some of it into beautiful jewelry that not only reuses the waste but adds tremendous value to it. She has been making salvaged cardboard jewelry for some time now and has now created her most expensive piece which she calls ‘Zdenka Cuff’. It is an exclusive creation and almost a work of art and that’s why it carries such a high price tag.

This is the First Piece by Muizz to be Priced This High

No one had imagined that a piece of cardboard jewelry could be positioned as luxury. But the Zdenka Cuff is a unique bracelet that features an eye catching glass gem that has a diameter of two inches. It gives the bracelet an opulent look and makes the $20,000 price tag justifiable. After all we have seen nail polish sell for $250,000 and T Shirts priced at $400,000 so a bracelet priced at 20k even if it is made from salvaged cardboard doesn’t seem out of place in the field of luxury. However the price tag has surprised many as Muizz has been making a range of jewelry from salvaged cardboard and the prices normally start at $60 and never go beyond $350.

It is a Work of Art That Can’t be Reproduced

Muizz justifies the price by saying that the bracelet is almost like a work of art. Her other creations so far can be reproduced easily but the Zdenka Cuff is never going to be reproduced. This is what makes the bracelet unique and valuable. It is not the material that makes it valuable but the creativity behind the creation and its exclusivity that pushes it to a different price band. There was an apprehension that the bracelet would be spoilt if it gets wet in rain or while washing your hands in a sink. But Muizz assures that all her cardboard accessories come with a high varnish gloss that makes them chip-resistant and waterproof. She has been experimenting with other waste material like old denim, oil-painting scraps and other unexpected media to create beautiful and wearable jewelry.