Billionaire celebrates new marriage with huge sign
The billionaire owner of the tallest residential building in the world has celebrated his new marriage by displaying a 42-foot tall poster of him and his wife on the building’s façade.
Monday, 11 Mar 2019 12:15 GMT
423 Park Avenue, where the sign is displayed, stands 1,396-feet tall
Harry Macklowe, 81, is a real estate developer who owns 423 Park Avenue in New York City, which surpassed The Princess Tower in Dubai in 2015 as the world’s tallest residential building.
Having recently finalised his $2bn divorce to ex-wife Linda of almost 60 years, Macklowe decided to celebrate his marriage to new wife Patricia Landeau by displaying a 24-foot wide by 42-foot high image of the couple on the side of the Manhattan building.
According to the New York Times, a sign company printed the photographs on polyester mesh and placed them on the lower level of the building known as the Park Avenue Cube – a retail building that sits adjacent and attached to the luxury residential building.
I thought: ‘I own a building. Why don’t I just hang a banner from my own building?’”
Macklowe tells the New York Times: “Since I wasn’t getting married during the summer in the Hamptons, I wasn’t able to hire an airplane with a banner to go up and down the shoreline. I thought: ‘I own a building. Why don’t I just hang a banner from my own building?’”
The divorce trial had gone on for 14 weeks until it ended in December 2018, when a judge ruled the couple’s $2bn fortune be split between them. The first Ms Macklowe had a contract to buy an apartment in 432 Park Avenue, but another court allowed her to exit the deal.
The “proclamation of love” as Macklowe called it, garnered mixed reviews from passers-by in Manhattan, with most citing the amount of money Macklowe could have spent on such a gesture. It is unknown how long the banner is likely to remain on the building.
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