A Studio for Houses

A private brokerage founded in 2009 by two people who believed houses deserved better representation.

Marlowe & Vane was founded in a small office on Greene Street in Manhattan, with the conviction that the sale of a significant home is a careful, considered act — closer to estate planning than to commerce. Sixteen years later, that conviction has not changed. The firm has grown to eleven offices, but its register remains small and the directors who founded it still represent its most important properties personally.

We have, by intention, never become a brand. The firm is named after its founders; the work is named after the houses; the houses are named — when they are named at all — by the families who live in them.

A signature representation — modernist hilltop estate at dusk

Principles

Four operating ideas.

Counsel before commerce.

Most of our work begins long before a sale. We advise clients on holding strategy, capital improvements, and the slow stewardship of significant property.

Discretion as a default.

We do not publish what we are not asked to publish. A significant share of our representations close privately, to a buyer register held in confidence.

Architectural literacy.

Several of our directors trained as architects, designers, or land planners. We read drawings and conservation easements with the same fluency as a contract.

Generational time horizons.

A house should outlast a transaction. We work with clients on timelines that measure in decades, not quarters, and we represent properties to buyers who think the same way.

02The Directors

The people who will represent you.

Eleanor Marlowe

Founding Partner · New York

Eleanor Marlowe founded the firm in 2009 after a decade leading the private-clients desk at one of New York's most established brokerages. Her work is defined by discretion and a deep relationship with the architecture and design community — most of her business arrives by introduction, and a significant portion of her listings transact privately. Eleanor is recognised annually in the Wall Street Journal Real Trends list and serves on the board of the Institute for Classical Architecture & Art.

Waterfront estatesHistoric restorationsPrivate off-market

+1 (212) 555 0141Email

Rafael Vane

Founding Partner · New York

Rafael Vane represents the city's most considered apartment buildings and full-floor penthouses. Before founding the firm with Eleanor, he led acquisitions at a single-family office focused on Manhattan trophy real estate. His clients trust him with the long view: which buildings will hold, which floors will appreciate, which interiors are worth the inheritance. He is a regular advisor to architects, developers, and family offices on the disposition of significant residences.

Manhattan penthousesPrewar condominiumsArchitect-developer advisory

+1 (212) 555 0144Email

Cordelia Ashworth

Senior Director, West · Los Angeles

Cordelia Ashworth leads Marlowe & Vane's West Coast practice from the firm's Sunset office. A former architectural editor, she brings an unusually fluent eye to commissions by Lautner, Neutra, and the working generation of design-led architects — Faulkner, Kundig, Standard Architecture. She represents both contemporary architectural homes and the kind of restored mid-century properties whose owners care, above all, about who lives there next.

Architectural homesMid-century restorationsCarmel & Big Sur

+1 (310) 555 0167Email

Henrik Östberg

Director, Country & Wine · Aspen

Henrik Östberg covers the firm's country, vineyard, and mountain practice from Aspen, with active books in Sonoma, Napa, the Hamptons' agricultural corridor, and the Hudson Valley. A trained land planner, he advises on assemblage, conservation easements, and the slow work of stewarding rural estates — the kind of representation that often begins years before a sale.

Vineyard estatesMountain & skiConservation assemblage

+1 (970) 555 0119Email

03Press & Accolades

Selected coverage.

The firm has been featured in the publications listed below. We are particularly careful about which homes we make available for press, and which we keep private.

Wall Street Journal
Architectural Digest
Robb Report
Financial Times — How to Spend It
The New York Times
Galerie
Cultured
Town & Country