The Bramford, old, black, and elephantine, is a warren of high-ceilinged apartments prized for their fireplaces and Victorian detail.

Like many of the city's affluent newcomers, she envies the people living in older buildings, in spacious, high-ceilinged, rent-controlled apartments five times the size of hers.

Leasing at Riverside, with features like high-ceilinged apartments and a concierge, is to begin late this spring, Mr. LeFrak said.

"We ran out of time," Mr. Blades said, contemplating the harbor through the bay windows of his airy, high-ceilinged new apartment.

One camel ended up guarding the Schwarz escalator, waiting for a child with a high-ceilinged prewar apartment.

Designed to be one of the city's most luxurious residences, it has huge, high-ceilinged apartments and surrounds a half-acre courtyard.

They borrowed from their families - modest earners during the Communist era - some of the $40,000 for their high-ceilinged apartment near the Danube.

Chinese immigrants had opened discount shops and fast-food bars, and young Czech professionals were edging out Gypsies and impoverished pensioners from high-ceilinged old apartments.

Timpani-boom, timpani-boom, the explosion echoed back and forth through the high-ceilinged apartment.

Well-represented also are the city's "permanently unemployed prodigies," passing their lives "in drafty, high-ceilinged apartments, making the best of chipped china and threadbare linens."