[smohnot]

I've been there a few times & spoken to people who live there. It's beautiful but requires a LOT of maintenance. There are 20,000 bushes and 800 trees. Just maintaining the gardens costs $200,000 per month! There are 113 units, so maintenance itself comes to $1,800 per month per unit.

It's a luxury building in a luxury area.

[cbolton]

I'm not questioning the numbers but still find them absurd. How can it be a full time (or maybe 70%) job to take care of the plants of a single unit?

[akiselev]

I’m no expert and I don’t know the specifics of this vertical garden but trees and shrubs of that size usually have deep and wide root systems that give them incredible resilience. Without that root system and huge volumes of dirt to support it, the plants probably require a ton more monitoring by actual botanists instead of just landscapers.

I don’t think the problem is just the amount or cost of maintenance but how slow it is: the maintenance staff work on the outside of the building hanging from the top. Safety procedures alone would eat a lot into that work time.

[geodel]

Wow, $1800 per month sounds unbelievable. How much an apartment cost in these buildings?

[occamrazor]

About 10k EUR/sq.m.

[casta]

Ah, Isola. When I was living in Milan 30 years ago that is where you'd look for your bike/moped if they stole it. They did a good job there if you now consider it a luxury area.

[toyg]

Città della Moda was the turning point.

I lived in Isola for a year around 2001 (piazza Minniti), and the direction of travel was already well-understood. Even the centro sociale squatters knew they were fighting a lost cause. I was back a couple of years ago and it's largely unrecognisable, with art galleries and real-estate agencies in place of cheap bakeries and northafrican takeaways. I got lost, and felt so depressed that I've never been back since.

[nine_k]

If maintenance can be somehow written off the taxes, there is an incentive to overestimate its cost.

Since this thing is unique, there's no statistics, and the cost can be declared ridiculously high. (Also an additional display of conspicuous consumption.)

[yohannparis]

That make sense, it is a giant private garden.