Celebrity Life

Research has shown that office workers tend to be more efficient with plants by their desk.

But which ones should we choose? Let's start with three of the best potted plants to have: Jasmine has anxiety-lowering properties, aloe vera obstructs electromagnetic waves while the Snake Plant purifies the air.

Jasmine

[caption id="attachment_211705" align="alignnone" width="1024"] (Image: Avin CP/ Unsplash)[/caption]

This tropical plant covered with white flowers is not only aesthetically charming, it also allegedly lowers anxiety and stress. If you haven't finished setting up your home office yet, you may want to invest in this exotic tree.

Scientific research published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry showed that the jasmine fragrance could affect nerve cells and stimulate rest. Frequently used in aromatherapy, jasmine essential oil is recommended for promoting sleep and relaxation. Other potted plants that may help lower your stress levels include lavender, basil, mint, and Areca palm trees for larger offices.

Aloe Vera

[caption id="attachment_211707" align="alignnone" width="768"] Aloe vera. (Image: Dario/ Unsplash)[/caption]

Adopting an aloe vera plant could help counter the harmful effects of electromagnetic waves from computers, televisions and smartphones. Note that this tropical species loves light and sunshine, so make sure your office space is suitable. Moreover, aloe is a depolluting plant, reportedly absorbing 90% of formaldehyde in the air. Some people choose to grow aloe in their bedroom to help prevent insomnia.

Snake Plant

[caption id="attachment_211706" align="alignnone" width="683"] Snake plant. (Image: iStock/ Crystal Bolin Photography)[/caption]

The Snake Plant, also known as mother-in-law's tongue or sansevieria, is an easy-to-look after house plant from Africa. It is liked for its air-purifying qualities, filtering chemicals, helping to remove benzene, formaldehyde, trichloroethylene, and xylene from your house and office. Generally speaking, perennial plants are good choices for removing air pollutants and thus helping reduce headaches. Sansevieria does well in both bright and low-light areas.

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Imagine having a luxury villa to call home.

Award-winning development company Selo Group announced its latest project: Precrafted designer villas that are sustainable and cost-effective yet spare no luxury. Where? Anywhere in Indonesia you please.

For the realists, a dream home in an exotic location sounds almost too good to be true, especially when the idea is literally built from scratch. “Managing the process of building a property can be daunting with the number of factors to consider, from hiring builders and contractors to dealing with delays,” says Andrew Corkery, CEO of Selo Group.

The prefabricated aspect of Selo Group’s villas takes the stress off your big plans. “We take care of all the essentials and offer a seamless path to owning a luxury villa in Indonesia, an incredible destination.”

[caption id="attachment_211641" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Selo Group's precrafted designer villa, which is essentially a prefabricated property, is sustainable and cost-effective without stinging on luxury.[/caption]

Head of Design Nino Osljanac leads the design team with more than 15 years of experience in architecture, interior design and master planning. Osljanac proves himself as the man for the job with a specialisation in designing luxury hotels, resorts and bespoke villas. His portfolio, is a masterpiece of award-winning hospitality properties across Asia.

Each villa is an invitation for panoramic views with floor-to-ceiling windows, an open layout with a private pool and deck, kitchenette and expansive living spaces. Designs have themes in mind, from Southern California-like charm to surf cabins. And, you can choose to have built a studio, one-bedroom or two-bedroom villa.

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Sustainability is highly prioritised from the get go of Selo Group’s precrafted villas. The villas are built off-site inside a custom facility eliminates exposure to the elements and minimised construction waste. With materials manufactured in advance, the villas take a shorter time to build than other traditional villas. This is also how the project is able to save costs, where extended labour services and unforeseen charges are avoided. Any excess materials are then recycled in-house.

It could take a couple of weeks onwards to have the prefabricated villa fully set up in its home address.

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Keen? The next step is to head to Selo Group’s website where the buying process begins with choosing your preferred villa type, manufacturing upgrades and add-ons, and then an assembly option. Once complete, you can add the villa to shopping cart and submit the order — like how you would for your usual online shopping. A Selo Group team member will then reach out to you (because you know, it’s a pretty massive purchase) and get your dream home on its way to becoming a reality.

Selo Group’s precrafted villas are available from $650 USD per square metre. More information here.

This story first appeared on Prestige Malaysia

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You can’t get much more isolated than if you buy your own village, which is precisely what Christie’s International Real Estate is offering. Sätra Brunn is around an hour-and-a-half drive from Stockholm and is a wellness destination in itself. First established in the 1700s, the village has over 70 structures including a hotel, spa and... View Article

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In one of London’s most coveted neighborhoods, this four-bedroom apartment is located within a new development — the first development of this scale on London’s north bank in Chelsea for 100 years. The 2,237-sq-ft apartment is on the 19th floor of the tower with far-reaching views of the River Thames and the city. Floor-to-ceiling windows... View Article

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Welcome to one of the most coveted penthouses in Los Angeles, located in the sought-after Doheny Plaza. This stunning penthouse unit is designed by renowned interior architect Helene Hennie and features two bedrooms and two-and-a-half bathrooms, plus mesmerizing panoramic views. From the imported wood floors to the exquisite wall coverings, no detail has been spared.... View Article

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Currently operating as a charming boutique hotel, this property has unbeatable amenities in an exquisite setting. Situated on 37 waterfront acres on the banks of Lake Connewarre in Victoria, southeast Australia, it has sweeping views of the Bellarine Peninsula and is just an hour’s drive from Melbourne (or a 15-minute helicopter ride; the estate has... View Article

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This secluded shingle-style home is set on two acres with over 200 ft of serene ocean frontage. The nine-bedroom home covers 10,500 sq ft and has nine-and-a-half bathrooms. The Atlantic Ocean and Kiawah’s enchanting seascapes are a pivotal feature: As you enter the home, ascend the front stairway and step into the foyer, you’re greeted... View Article

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Located just an hour from New York City, this exceptional estate is set on 740 acres of rolling hills, apple orchards, woodlands and ponds, and is the largest privately-owned property in the county. For the past four decades, the land has been dedicated to raising championship thoroughbred racehorses, so it comes as no surprise that... View Article

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Soaring over 800 ft into the sky, 181 Fremont has an exoskeleton designed in a sawtooth pattern by Heller Manus Architects and engineered by ARUP group, and has won six global awards for innovative engineering, seismic safety and sustainability — more than any other building of its kind in the US. Sitting atop this building... View Article

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New York City in the 1920s was already a melting pot of peoples and ideas from every corner of the globe.

With the urban centre besting London to become the most populous metropolis in the world, which was home to 7 million industrious new citizens by the early 1930s, profound social change was under way in the Big Apple.

For those with the cash, it was an exciting time of swaggering ambition, of pink gins and jazz. Fortunes were being made and New Yorkers were swept along on a tide of rampant consumerism. Noisy streets filled with cars and wild speculation in real estate fostered a foot-to-floor building boom never seen before.

To reflect the toe-tapping, finger-clicking zeitgeist, fashion-conscious Manhattan society fell head over its high heels for art deco, the in-vogue design style emphasising clean, simplified lines to express the dynamism and sophistication of the modern age.

Soon art deco was generously applied to everything from cigarette lighters to cinemas, from cufflinks and cutlery to saltshakers, as well as to the sky-scraping new hotels and office blocks springing up across the city.

Today, London, Paris, Miami, Shanghai, Chicago and Melbourne brag of their art deco architectural gems, but only New York City has the cloud-busting Empire State, the shimmering Chrysler Building, the distinctive 1929 Fuller Building that has housed some of the city’s leading art galleries, and several imposing, Gotham-esque edifices on Wall Street – potent symbols of the most go-getting metropolitan powerhouse on the planet. And at the end of long days spent wheeling and dealing in the trading houses and advertising agencies within those stone and concrete temples of Mammon, Manhattan’s young urbanites would return home to art deco apartment buildings, there to kick back with their gramophone records and their whiskey sours.

[caption id="attachment_211155" align="alignnone" width="1024"] The majestic building on New York's Central Park West. (Image: Shutterstock)[/caption]

The height of chic NYC living in their day, such structures remain some of the most exclusive Manhattan addresses in the 21st century. Running north-south along the western edge of Central Park and forming the eastern boundary of Manhattan's Upper West Side, Central Park West is a landmark avenue running 50 blocks from Columbus to Frederick Dourglass circles. It's also home to some of the most dramatic art deco architecture in the city.

One of Manhattan’s most coveted avant-garde residences in the 1930s was the Majestic at 115 Central Park West. The twin-towered housing cooperative, completed in 1931, was designed by pioneering art deco architect Irwin Chanin, whose developer family championed the “streamline moderne” geometric style and was also behind six Broadway theatres.

The Majestic was designated a “New York City Landmark” by the city’s preservation commission in 1988. Notable residents down the years have included actor Milton Berle and fashion guru Marc Jacobs, who lived there as a teenager in the 1980s with his grandmother, as well as members of the Luciano crime family, including the notorious Charles “Lucky” Luciano. TV host Conan O’Brien sold his space in the building in 2010.

A luxurious four-bedroom apartment with three and a half bathrooms on the 24th floor of the Majestic is currently offered for sale by Douglas Elliman at US$12.4 million. Its height delivers exceptional unbroken views of Central Park and the Manhattan skyline, and allows the interior to be flooded with natural light.

The apartment, which extends over more than 3,000 square feet, opens into a formal gallery, making it an ideal space for the art lover with a collection to display. The huge master bedroom also delivers unrivalled views of the park. Another room, originally planned as staff lodgings with an adjacent full bathroom, makes for a study or home office. All residents at the Majestic enjoy 24-hour, white-glove service, as well as full use of the fitness centre with an adjacent children’s playroom, bicycle storage and a landscaped roof terrace with solarium.

A lazy stroll north along Central Park West brings you to the Eldorado (at 300 Central Park West). Also sporting twin spires, the massive, 30-storey structure fills the entire block between West 90th and West 91st streets and overlooks Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir.

[caption id="attachment_211156" align="aligncenter" width="682"] The Eldorado Building. (Image: Shutterstock)[/caption]

Initially financially troubled due to the Wall Street crash of 1929, it was completed in 1931 to the design of revered Hungarian-American architect Emery Roth and supporting practice Margon & Holder, the Eldorado – which is elaborately decorated with futuristic sculptural details and geometric patterns – is today judged to be one of the finest art deco structures in the city, with the lobby having been restored to its original opulence and elegance.

Early tenants of the Eldorado included Barney Pressman, boisterous founder of luxury department store Barneys New York, and New York senator and homeopathy pioneer Royal Copeland. Owners in recent years have included celebs such as actors Faye Dunaway, Bruce Willis, Carrie Fisher and Michael J Fox, as well as musos Bono and Moby.

A five-bed, five-bath duplex with park frontage, currently on the market by the Corcoran Group (corcoran.com) at a fraction under US$14 million, extends over 5,400 square feet on the 18th and 19th floors. With an exceptionally high window-to-wall ratio, the grand space is frequently filled with light, which is notable on arrival.

Entering from a semi-private landing, the visitor is greeted by a 15-metre-wide vista of Central Park that fills the eastern side of the living room. The adjacent library opens on to a magnificent terrace overlooking the reservoir. The floor is completed with spacious formal dining room, an eat-in kitchen, two staff accommodations and an additional northwest facing terrace.

A grand staircase leads to the bedroom floor, which has a generous master suite with sweeping park views from oversized windows and a large dressing room, as well as four further bedrooms. Additional amenities include a powder room and multiple walk-in closets. All Eldorado residents enjoy unlimited access to a top-flight gym, bike room, half basketball court, children’s playroom, laundry room, garage and impeccable white-glove service dispensed by a concierge, doormen and hall operatives.

[caption id="attachment_211154" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Rooftop at 55 Central Park West.[/caption]

To the south of both the Eldorado and the Majestic, 55 Central Park West holds special significance in American popular culture for its starring role in the much-loved 1984 comedy movie Ghostbusters. In the film, “550 Central Park West” (also known as “the Shandor Building”) is home to the bumbling spook-chasers’ first client, a possessed cellist played by Sigourney Weaver.

After many spooky shenanigans, the Ghostbusters learn that the building had been designed by bonkers architect Ivo Shandor as a magnet for the world’s ghouls and demons. To this day 55 Central Park West is referred to locally as “Spook Central”.

Opened in 1930 and the first art deco structure on Central Park West, 55 was actually conceived by local architects Schwartz & Gross and was considered “second tier” by the city’s snobbier socialites. That didn’t stop the building pulling in a who’s who of prominent occupants, including Ginger Rogers during her 1930s Broadway years, and society milliner Lilly Dache and husband Jean Despres of Coty Perfume. Later came Donna Karan, Calvin Klein, David Geffen and other VIPs.

A two-bed, three-bath, 1,500-square-foot apartment at 55 Central Park West, currently on the market by Warburg Realty at US$3.75 million, is entered via an entry foyer that leads to a huge, step-down living room with eye-popping views of the park. With attached gallery, library and dining room and well-appointed kitchen, this well-kept 10th-floor home also features a large, light-filled master bedroom and ample space for guests.

Not all Manhattan’s art deco apartments are on Central Park, however, and Greenwich Village’s desirable One Fifth Avenue is a prestigious pre-war landmark built in 1927 by architect Harvey Wiley Corbett, a native of San Francisco best known for his advocacy of tall buildings and modernism, with notable projects in both New York and London.

Dubbed “a thing of rare beauty” by Variety magazine on completion, One Fifth Avenue’s flat exterior incorporates bricks of different colours to create the illusion of depth. Its magnificent two-story lobby, full-time doormen and convenient location make it perfect for those embracing the 24-hour lifestyle of a city that never sleeps.

Perched on the 18th floor and formed by the merging of two smaller apartments, a two-bed, two-bath penthouse residence of more than 1,000 square feet is on sale by Ann Weintraub for just under US$7 million and is currently available for viewing.

The one-of-a-kind space benefits from two deep-set private terraces – one eight metres in length, with amazing views from the Hudson River to the Empire State Building. A formal dining room makes the space ideal for entertaining, the huge master bedroom boasts a walk-in closet and attached bath, while the second bedroom offers access to the smaller terrace.

[caption id="attachment_211157" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Walker Tower living room.[/caption]

One of the most sought-after art deco addresses in Manhattan in 2020 actually started its life as a call centre for the New York Telephone Company. Completed in 1929 at 212 West 18th Street in the heart of Chelsea, and designed by Ralph Thomas Walker (hailed in 1957 by the American Institute of Architects as “the architect of the century”), Walker Tower was reconfigured into 50 luxury condominium residences in 2010 with the promise that the building’s original design would be complemented by the conveniences of modern residential living.

Consequently, the building’s elaborate brick façade was painstakingly restored, as was the art deco ornamentation that Walker also employed at One Wall Street and at the Barclay-Vesey Building in Lower Manhattan.

All units now feature radiant floor heating, French herringbone oak flooring, Smallbone of Devizes kitchens, marble bathrooms with Waterworks fixtures and steam showers, and Crestron home automation systems. White-glove service at Walker Tower also includes a 24-hour doorman, lounge, playroom, gym, sauna and a roof deck.

Since the renovation, Walker Tower has reportedly become home to A-listers such as Cameron Diaz, Hollywood power couple Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds, and former Barnes & Noble boss Leonard Riggio.

[caption id="attachment_211158" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Bedroom at Walker Tower.[/caption]

On the 15th and 16th floors of Walker Tower, a 4,700-square-foot, four-bed, 4.5-bath duplex apartment, which is currently on sale by Compass Real Estate at US$27.8 million, features a huge, light-filled double-width living room with views of the Hudson River, Freedom Tower and Statue of Liberty that leads to a private terrace with a further 686 square feet. The corner dining area has southern and western exposures and also has access to the terrace.

The kitchen boasts a wine cooler, induction cooktop, two wall ovens by Viking, speed oven and a built-in coffee maker by Miele and a Franke water filtration system. The second floor, however, is where the apartment truly becomes a home, with three beautifully designed bedrooms and a central media area. The master suite has a massive walk-in closet and a custom marble bathroom with separate vanity, double sinks, a large steam shower and a cast iron bathtub.

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The iconic Waldorf Astoria on Park Avenue has been a beacon of timeless glamour for nearly a century—home to Hollywood’s elite, host to countless world leaders, and the site of famed cultural events and historic galas. Now offering the first-ever opportunity to own a residence in one of the world’s most coveted addresses, The Towers... View Article

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The iconic Waldorf Astoria on Park Avenue has been a beacon of timeless glamour for nearly a century—home to Hollywood’s elite, host to countless world leaders, and the site of famed cultural events and historic galas. Now offering the first-ever opportunity to own a residence in one of the world’s most coveted addresses, The Towers... View Article

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