Louise Sunshine prides herself on an ability to mix art and design, so it’s fitting that the offices of her company, the Sunshine Group, boast an in-house gallery featuring architectural models juxtaposed against Frank Stella paintings. The firm’s slogan, “Great homes and great art live together,” emblazoned in gray italic near the front door, is apt for a real-estate broker in the gallery-filled Fuller Building on Madison Avenue.

“We are into creating value through great architecture and great art,” Ms. Sunshine said, running late after meeting with a photographer, Todd Eberle. Principally a fashion photographer, Mr. Eberle shifted gears to collaborate with Ms. Sunshine and is shooting her advertising campaign for the third Richard Meier tower going up at 165 Charles St. in the West Village.

The concept for the ads is not surprising: architecture portrayed as art, with bedrooms, bathrooms, and kitchens encased in glass frames, as if they were sculptures.

To take her strategy one step further, Ms. Sunshine pays fees to galleries to copy their artworks in the renderings of the apartments and developments she sells. When marketing the glass towers designed by Mr. Meier, for example, the Sunshine Group commissioned a drawing of the penthouse with a Calder mobile dangling in the window.

“People who own art need a home to put it in, and there is great synergy when someone who owns great art wants to put it in a signature building,” Ms. Sunshine said.

Ms. Sunshine, a 63-year-old grandmother and former executive of the Trump Organization, has spent her career courting beautiful properties – another project in her current portfolio is the Mandarin Hotel at the AOL Time Warner Center at Columbus Circle. Despite her affiliation with high profile properties, however, Ms. Sunshine and her husband, hospital executive turned political consultant Martin Begun, spend much of their time in Florida when not at home in Litchfield County, Conn., with their daughter and two sons.

She has set herself apart in a cutthroat business, not only by tying her brand to precious objects such as Stellas or Calders, but by creating savvy partnerships – she straddles the disparate worlds of brokers and builders during the earliest stages of a new building’s development.

“We specialize in pre-development planning and positioning, and can spend as many as five years working with developers to position the brand, determine the unit mix, and the right amenities,” Ms. Sunshine said.

Getting in on the ground floor gives her some sway, so that buildings are sure to suit her exclusive buyers’ strict demands. It’s a niche Ms. Sunshine has created, and one that she dominates.

Another distinction is its avoidance of the resale market. The Sunshine Group sells units only in new developments that the firm has helped to design and market – and then, the brokers sell that building’s apartments only the first time around. The approach, Ms. Sunshine said, benefits developers, who are most interested in selling units as fast as possible.

Ms. Sunshine did not begin her career in real estate. Rather, she worked for Governor Carey before joining city government. She found her calling while working for the New York State Thruway, where she met Donald Trump.

“I worked with Donald for 15 years, and I started his residential division, building his first residential project with the Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue. He is a great teacher,” Ms. Sunshine said.

When Ms. Sunshine founded the Sunshine Group in 1986, she had a 75% stake and Jerry Speyer of Tishman Speyer held the remaining 25%. She later bought out his position, and in 2002 she sold to one of the largest residential-real-estate conglomerates, NRT, a subsidiary of Cendant.

“The advantage the Sunshine Group has by being a part of NRT is that we are the only nationwide marketing company in a network of resale brokers,” Ms. Sunshine said. Many of the larger brokerage firms have been trying to build up their presence in the new-development sector of the real-estate market by working with developers on new buildings – but with little success.

“This is our main business, and they are only just now trying to break into it, so we are far more successful and have very little competition,” Ms. Sunshine said.

Despite the NRT buyout, Ms. Sunshine remains president at her eponymous enterprise.

The company continues to dominate the luxury real-estate market: It oversaw the Philippe Stark-designed 15 Broad St., which created a feeding frenzy among potential bidders who wanted into the former J.P. Morgan bank building across from the Stock Exchange, and the firm is often at the center of the most celebrity-happy addresses.

As an interview with The New York Sun wound down, Ms. Sunshine gathered her two lieutenants: Anne Young, who recently left Brown Harris Stevens to run the Sunshine Group’s brokerage team, and Charles Reiss, the firm’s new chief operating officer, who had been a senior vice president of development for Mr. Trump.

The three are preparing for a flood of work in the coming months, including a conversion of three floors of the St. Regis Hotel into condominium suites that boast private butlers, among other amenities; the conversion of the Intercontinental Hotel into apartments at 110 Central Park West; family-style luxury homes at 170 East End Ave., near Gracie Mansion, and Ian Schrager’s latest project, at 50 Gramercy Park North.

Meanwhile, the glass apartment houses designed by Mr. Meier have been plagued by reports of plumbing problems and construction chaos while heralding in a veritable who’s-who of tenants, including Martha Stewart and Nicole Kidman.

Ms. Sunshine expressed the hope that the third tower will prove the charm.

“The other towers were unfinished buildings, which is when you run into problems,” she said. “This time, it’s pure Richard Meier. He has finished every detail himself, including the handles on the cabinets, the types of faucets, there is a screening room, even an infinity pool and a luxurious lobby.”

Despite the ups and downs, Ms. Sunshine maintained that her firm’s narrow focus, ensures that a fickle market will not dictate the future of the Sunshine Group.

“We are here to ensure that an artist’s dream comes alive,” she said, “and that architecture is inspiring. And this does not change.”