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asque interior designer Iaki Aliste Lizarralde has developed a second career illustrating the floor plans of popular films and television shows. After testing his skills on the fictional floor plan from Frasier five years ago, Mr. Lizarralde was asked by a friend to illustrate the floor plan of Carrie Bradshaws apartment from Sex & the City, and he hasnt looked back. His floor plans, which earlier this month became available for sale on Etsy, include those from Gossip Girl, Mad Men and Home Alone. It can take up to 40 hours, Mr. Lazarralde says, to develop the dimensions and space for each floor plan. His process includes using elements with standard sizes, such as tables and kitchen countertops, to calculate proportions and dimensions of each space. The Commercial Observer selected Mr. Lizarraldes Friends floor plan, featuring the apartments of Chandler and Joey, and Rachel and Monica, and spoke to real estate appraiser Jonathan Miller of Miller Samuel about what, hypothetically, each apartment would be worth, both in the current market and during the shows heyday.
3. The sizes of the apartments are outsized base on the Greenwich Village market, according to Mr. Miller. The average twobedroom tenement rental is 600 square feet, 200 feet smaller than the apartments on Friends. 4. The rental market in 1994, when Friends first aired, was part of the first wave of recovery following the collapse of the housing market in the late 1980s. There was a time, Mr. Miller noted, when financing terms for a 30-year mortgage were 11 percent, meaning rentals provided a better investment. 5. The balcony of Monica and Rachels apartment was perhaps most famous for its view of a tenant in a neighboring building named Ugly Naked Guy, who, though often commented on, was never fully seen. According to one writer, [Ugly Naked Guy] was pure conjecturebased on various ugly naked guys many of the writers had lived across from. However, we received a letter from a woman who grew up in the building you see in the stock footage shot of Monica, Rachel, Chandler and Joeys building, who said there was, in fact, an authentic Ugly Naked Guy living across from her and How did we know? Life is crazy, huh? 6. The most recognizable feature of Chandler and Joeys apartment was their foosball table, purchased after the roommates kitchen table broke. Rather than replace it, the two elected to keep the foosball table and eat over the sink.

Friends with Benefits

1. In todays market, the two-bedroom, 900-square-foot apartments at 90 Bedford Street would be available to rent for approximately $4,000 per month. During the shows early years, circa 1994, the same apartments would be available for $2,400 per month, still likely out of reach for young professionals, Mr. Miller noted. It seems like there would be more people living in the apartments, he said. 2. In 1994, sales value of the apartments would be approximately $250,000, though Monica and Rachels apartment, with a balcony and better exposure, would likely command more than the apartment occupied by Chandler and Joey, the latter a mostly out-of-work actor. Today, those same apartments would likely sell for $1.25 million and $1.1 million, respectively.

COMMERCIAL OBSERVER|SEPTEMBER 3, 2013|19

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