Farewell to the Traditional Balcony?

Many Architects Prefer Glass Walls and Enhanced Interiors for Luxury High-Rises

Units with balconies are still in demand in many markets. They tend to fetch 5 percent above asking price, said developer William Rosato. (By Seth Wenig -- Associated Press)

High above the urban landscape, in many of the newest luxury high-rises, something is missing: the conventional balcony. In its place are curtains of glass that promise picturesque views, brilliant sunlight and the feel of a year-round indoor-outdoor living space.

Many of today's architects -- world-class innovators such as Helmut Jahn, Richard Meier and Jean Nouvel -- are creating balcony-free towers, most with floor-to-ceiling glass windows and some with redesigned outdoor spaces that are tucked into the sides of structures to camouflage their appearance, make them cozier and provide protection against gusts. Some luxury buildings under construction tout an ultramodern, highly engineered floor-to-ceiling glass wall that slides away to open up your living room and bring in the outdoors.

"The word 'balcony' in itself is obsolete," said Hani Rashid, a principal of the New York architecture firm Asymptote.

He used the phrase "fly-away walls" to describe the retractable glass-curtain facade creating terrace-like space that his firm has designed for 166 Perry Street in New York. The 8-story residential conversion of a parking garage into 20 luxury apartments is near one of three glass condominium towers created by Meier in Manhattan's West Village.

"The balcony has always had great appeal," he said. "What's changed is that if you look around at all the older buildings with balconies, they end up being bike storage and planters."

Architects, developers and real estate marketers say that even though the balcony remains a strong selling point in many residential housing markets, home buyers and renters are making more sophisticated choices for elegant living space. As a result, the balcony is no longer necessarily a deciding factor for a buyer or renter.

"The taste level of our society has been moving up-market for about the past five years," said Tony Dennis, executive vice president of residential sales at CityCenter in Las Vegas, MGM Mirage's $7.4 billion mixed-use high-rise development on the legendary Strip.

"Taste no longer is the purview of the super-rich. It's nice to see architecture having that kind of impact," he said.

Increasingly, luxury properties such as CityCenter's Veer Towers, twin 37-story buildings designed by Jahn, are dropping the balcony to add value to the interior space of a condo or apartment.

"We've made more use of the balcony space in the closet and bathroom, which is more meaningful to the home buyer and gives the exterior face of the building a polished, unobstructed look," Dennis said. He pointed out that developer MGM Mirage chose not to put balconies on any of the four high-rise buildings, which are expected to house 2,049 condominium units.

"Balconies aren't part of the Strip aesthetic or traditional Las Vegas design, which plans for strong Santa Ana winds," Dennis said. "Balconies aren't places you're going to hang if you're living in Las Vegas."

The shift away from the balcony owes much to the pristine post-World War II glass-and-steel high-rises created by Chicago architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, the visionary behind the timeless twin towers on Chicago's Lake Shore Drive, built from 1949 to 1951.