If you had wads of dough and fancied buying a pad in a new-construction high-rise what lifestyle would you lead? Would you stump up for a condominium in a neo-historic European-influenced tower like Ten East Delaware, The Ritz-Carlton Residences or The Elysian Hotel and Private Residences or is a glassy modern high-rise like The Legacy at Millennium Park (or PlayStation 2, as it’s known by some at Yo), Canyon Ranch Living, the re-cast Fordham Spire or the Mandarin Oriental Tower more your speed? There seems to be demand for both types out there in the market. Some architects tell us that the seriously wealthy like their architecture to be formal, to support a formal style of entertaining. This from Ten East Delaware architect My-Nga Lam: “At the very high end of the market buyers have classical tastes and want stone rather than a lot of glass.”
But here’s some food for thought from LR Development Company’s Laura Sherman, who is promoting Canyon Ranch Living: “The luxury paradigm is shifting. It’s no longer defined by formality and elegance, it’s defined by exactly what you want, where you want and when you want it. For a lot of people that’s your own private chef cooking dinner and serving it to you on a terrace overlooking the ocean and you’re in your shorts.
“I think the up-and-coming generation is a blue-jeans generation and wants choice.”
I put that to Lam, who agreed that freedom of choice was the predominant trend in the ultra-luxury market.
Sherman’s undoubtedly on to something. As far as the design component – the trend favors modern, clean-lined design even more going forward. Why? Because there is such a huge difference in tastes between the WWII generation and the baby boomers, who will be the new purchasers of the super-luxury units over the next 15-20 years. The boomers don’t want formality and queene anne furniture – they want comfort, flexibility, open spaces, natural light and airiness. And yes, of course, they want to be pampered with spa treatments and and all they other mumbo-jumbo…
Sam, I think you hit the nail on the head. That quote from Lam is a load of crap. People eat what they are given, and if they are told that a faux historic highrise is the in thing, they buy into it. Fortunately, there are those with money that are not buying into Lam’s unfortunate excuse for architecture. They are instead buying into the Legacy, 340 on the Park, Jahn’s 600 N Fairbanks, etc… These buildings wouldn’t be going up if there weren’t buyers for their units.