Statue of Liberty is reimagined as New York City’s next hot condo

New York’s next hot condo conversion is … the Statue of Liberty?

Well, no, obviously not—but a hilarious new parody imagines what could happen if a developer wanted to turn Lady Liberty into “impeccable residences” offering “the latest in luxury living spaces.” (h/t Gothamist)

“We've already sanitized so much history and character from this city,” says Evan Krumholz, the comedian responsible for imagining the Statue’s condo-ified future. “This is the logical conclusion of that.”

Anyone who follows New York real estate closely—so basically anyone reading this right now—will recognize all of the hallmarks of the current wave of über-fancy developments on the teaser site for what’s been dubbed One Liberty:

• A laundry list of ostentatious amenities that no one really needs: a “one-of-a-kind freshwater pool, sourced directly from pristine Hudson”; a “crowntop terrace”; and “a hot dog cart concept by David Chang”
• A brand-name starchitect—in this case, Rafael Viñoly
• Overly effusive praise for a neighborhood—LiBi, lol—that doesn’t actually exist (“the up-and-coming neighborhood of Liberty Island, nestled within the historic Ellis District”)
• Glossy renderings (populated with a very non-diverse cast of scalies) that depict all of the above

And the list goes on. There’s even a short video depicting two new One Liberty (excuse us—ONE|LIBERTY™) residents on their journey to “the hippest ‘hood to pursue the new American Dream.”

“It’s time… to immigrate to luxury,” goes the tagline. And look, while this is clearly a parody, part of what makes it so funny is that we’ve definitely seen everything here before—and frankly, it doesn’t seem so outrageous. (It’s not like New York City landmarks haven’t been eyed by developers for pricey condo conversions before.)

“Plenty of developers spend their day staring at things that aren't luxury condos and think, ‘Hey, this can be a luxury condo,’” says Krumholz. “To be quite honest, I'd rather it happen to the Statue of Liberty than Katz's. That place is way more New York to me.”