Highrise Report - Elevator gooooing up!

On the 51st floor, in the gleaming corridors...

Oops sorry, for some reason I started channelling The Clash there. Must be one of those middle age flash backs.

It's time make a brief excursion on the theme of this blog, that is high rise living.

Let's start with the features of highrise living:

1) Living in a highrise involves having an apartment, or flat as the British call it. "Flat" is of course apt since one's living space is generally horizontally layed out on one floor. My apartment is a one bedroom affair laid out flat with no stairs or other complications. This works well especially for getting from the bedroom to the kitchen when necessary.

2) Highrises offer a wide range of high rise altitude options. My apartment is on the fourth floor of a 20 storey building, so I feel connected to the human-scale world of streets, sidewalks, and trees. In fact tree tops can be seen just outside my balcony. I like this feeling. However, the views are sometimes pretty spectacular from higher floors, and help the resident to feel "above it all," or "above everyone else" as his or her personality dictates.

3) Highrise living requires no yard work.

4) High rise living is environmentally friendly. Heating and other services costs are kept low per capita. Also urban sprawl is curtailed by highrise apartments. I am in favour of the tall-thin philosophy of apartment buildings - coupled with a street-level friendly design of units facing onto the street or some such design. This leaves more of the air space open for views and for sunlight to reach the ground, something the neighbouring residents usually appreciate.

5) High rise living creates many opportunities for cooperative and neighbourly interaction. My building, a condo, has several features built in at the direction of the condo organizers. There is a message board in the mail room, weekly social events like bridge club, a library where residents borrow donated books and magazines, and a much visited garbage room where gently used items are left on shelves for others to peruse. There is even a corner devoted to collecting items "for Neighbourhood Services Pickup Only!" where residents can give back to the commmunity without even leaving the building.

6) Privacy is high in a high rise. No one can tell if you are home or not simply by looking your drive way. No one can peer in your windows unless you're on the ground floor (Speaking of ground floors, I did live in two basement apartments in the past. There are no advantages to living in a basement apartment unless you are a hobbit and enjoy feeling surrounded by earth). Door to door sales are completely non-existent.

These are just some of the features I like about apartment high rise living.

Next installment: how to live in 450 square feet, or, the joys of having no place to put junk.