Pros and Cons of Juliet Balconies in NYC Apartments
Photo-illustration: brake
In our time, tilted ball and theater seats, while Brooklyn Pantes overflows with Wegmans Bulk and Cybertrucks Tear Through Tribeca, a characteristic of the urban landscape was lowered: the balcony. Barely wide enough to stand up, sometimes as thin as a telephone case, adolescent balconies have exceeded the facades of new multifamilial buildings through Brooklyn and Queens at a rate inversely proportional to their usefulness. In my Brooklyn section, a Six floors rental which increased in 2023 features 11 balconies without more than 18 inches – of which only one watch a sign of life, a single metal chair, tight as tight as my stomach in pre-baby jeans. At the bottom of the street, another building of the same year so light balconies that the folding camp chair of a tenant cannot deploy his arms. Some houses of houses in the East, in another new development where condos start at $ 925,000, A glassy rectangle has barely a usable space foot.
The neighbors used lean balconies with a camp chair with folded arms (left) and a vacation setting (right). Adriane Quinlan.
The neighbors used lean balconies with a camp chair with folded arms (left) and a vacation setting (right). Adriane Quinlan.
In real estate jargon, these are “Juliet balconies” – an extremely misleading term, if you ask me. Shakespeare describes Romeo by looking at Juliet with “the cheek on her hand” – an image that evokes a balcony where we would have room to look. (The globe recently staged the scene with a platform deep enough to organize a dinner. However, the name has meaning for the broker Andrea Saturno-Sanjanaat least poetically. “It’s no longer a romantic gesture,” she says. “It is designed to generate hopes and dreams”, by evaluator Jonathan Miller, who prefers the term “decorative balcony” because that is what they are: a balcony that you cannot use. “They allow the developer say They have an outdoor space, when they don’t really do it. “The designers Simon Doonan and Jonathan Adler made fun of their Juliet Balconies as” Balconies Evita ” In a 2013 play in New York TimesWhere they described using them to throw the keys or send smokers. This is how my aunt, Eileen Quinlan, used hers since she bought a Williamsburg condo in 2008. Eleven years later, with two adolescents, he doubles with a soda refrigerator in winter and A summer respite for family, butter and cookie pigs. “I think it’s good for them to make fresh air,” she says, even if it has long been bored by the fact that the balcony is not big enough for her To look fresh: “I feel resentment.”
The deeper balconies can clutter bikes and strollers, but balconies that are too thin to use remain as attractive – and as useless – as the day they mounted. Adriane Quinlan.
The deeper balconies can clutter bikes and strollers, but balconies that are too thin to use remain as attractive – and as useless – like the day as …
The deeper balconies can clutter bikes and strollers, but balconies that are too thin to use remain as attractive – and as useless – as the day they mounted. Adriane Quinlan.
However, she bought the place. There is often a considerable distance between what buyers to want In the outdoor space and what they are ready to pay for this – or abandon. Go more than two feet and six inches above the sidewalk, or around the width of a classic fire getaway, means cutting in the interior space. “During the pandemic, everyone said They wanted outdoor space, ”explains Saturno-Sanjana. “But unless there is a truly fundamental and non -negotiable reason, they will abandon the outdoor space for more interior Space. “This is what the closing files show, even during COVID, adds Miller.” The mantra at the time was that people paid more for the outdoor space – than they demanded, “said Il. It was not a dollar bonus as much as it was a Synchronization bonus, “said Miller.” They had a sale argument. ” Or like Patrick Smith, another broker, The said: “No one has ever come to me and said to me:” My search criteria include a Juliette balcony. “But everyone was very open and happy to have a house with A Juliette balcony. And that changes the situation for developers who are currently in an “arms race”, according to John Walkup, real estate data analyst. “Whenever someone tries a new concept like a pet spa or a golf simulator – and it works – everyone copies it.”
The thin balconies began to catch up in the 2000s, but made the tenants and buyers are looking for an outdoor space. Adriane Quinlan.
The thin balconies began to catch up in the 2000s, but made the tenants and buyers are looking for an outdoor space. Adriane Quinlan …
The thin balconies began to catch up in the 2000s, but made the tenants and buyers are looking for an outdoor space. Adriane Quinlan.
Since buyers pay less per square foot outside, developers do not throw money on prolonged balconies. The deeper balconies require more insulation to maintain the heat, and they are more expensive to build, because they may need to be in acknowledgment. These costs are not enormous, explains Walter Marin, architect and zoning expert. “But remember, the developers don’t look at A balcony; They look 50 balconies. The economy is the reason why they are so small. The owners can also like a small balcony for other reasons: the greatest balconies can encourage people to grill (illegal) or to sit on (dangerous) edges.
Photo: Adriane Quinlan
Like New Yorkers who regret entry into places with backyards, many others who thought they wanted the outdoor space, even a ribbon of it, find that there are drawbacks Life of the balcony. The streets of New York are noisy. And our air is furious. “Even for people who thought they were going to sit on this balcony, they have to wash the furniture all the time,” explains Saturno-Sanjana. “So how much will you really use it?” (Balconies can become bicycle storage or stroller storage, she adds, but the soot problem is also applied to it.)
This is perhaps the reason why so many ozempic balconies become underused-and remain empty, giving them the kind of innate glamor to many unnecessary things. Marin, the architect, worked on the renovation of the 685 FIFTH avenue, which transformed the former headquarters of Gucci into Oriental residences of Mandarin. To add a feeling of luxury, he deepened the existing windows, transforming them into Juliet balconies with doors that open inwards and glass leaves protecting residents from the stumbles in the street. The maximum of the essential of the developer was not even in the sailor’s head; The units sell for more than $ 3,000 per square foot. Instead, he thought of the buyer. Imagine the tiny balcony as an analogous to a cold dive – you do not persist, you are just looking for this moment of Ahh. “Just be able to open the door, go out for a second and say,” I’m outside “. It makes people feel better.
