How do you like them? How do they fare against low rise apartments (upto say 4 floors) or independent houses?
I personally wouldn’t like to live in one as I would feel a bit boxed in, which my Brazilian friend, who loves them, points out is ‘so typical’ of my culture, where everyone wants a house with a garden (UK).
She hates the idea of living in a house with a garden - far too close to nature/dirt/other people walking past for her liking. Different strokes and all that!
I prefer low-rise with a view. My flat is perfect that way: the third-and-top floor in a group of tenements of the same height, it happens to be the highest one on the slope, so I have great views from all windows but one (from my kitchen I see the roof of the next house over).
High-rise needs a lift, which in a low-rise is convenient but, for most people, optional. It usually involves more people in the neighbor’s association*, which means it’s even more of a pain to get a meeting organized or a proposal passed. For the highest rises, there may be safety issues (the local fire department’s ladders do not reach my mother’s 10th-floor balconies, but then, they can’t reach my grandmother’s 5th - in grandma’s case, because her flat looks over the center of the block and not over the street).
There are other things I look at much more when I’m seeking flats, tho (never, ever, ever a house if I can help it): size, distribution, views, energy sources used, how is it appointed if it is, etc.
Spain has had tenements since pre-Roman times. While the “house with a yard and a barn” model was common in dry rural areas, most of the country is so dry that gardens were pretty rare for anybody but the mega-rich or those living in a wet area (in many locations, people would have a garden but not at the house, near the river). There has been a rise in the amount of multi-level houses with a handkerchief-sized garden as part of the housing bubble: if I ever live in one of those, the pay better be damn good 
They’re terribly impractical, away from any stores, and even if I happened to like gardening the garden is just large enough to get bugs.
- I prefer not to call it “homeowner’s association” in these boards because an American HOA and what we’re required by law to have here are two completely-different animals.
It would be cool to live in a high rise on Wilshire Blvd in Los Angeles but it wouldnt be so cool to be thrown around during the next big earthquake.
SanVito is from the UK (as per his post), in British English “garden” is used roughly how “yard” is used in American English, so I think he just means that everybody wants a house with a back/front yard, not a vegetable/herb/fruit garden.
I don’t really have an opinion on high rise apartments, I do know that I don’t like being above people because I worry about bothering them with loud footclops/DDR (well… in principle, I don’t actually play DDR)/falling out of bed/whatever. Especially since I keep odd hours, but that’s about it.
I lived on the tenth and sixth floors of two high rises in New York. Both were pleasant enough, and while not exactly quiet, they did get me away from the noise of Second Ave/the Lincoln Tunnel a bit more than being on a lower floor would have. On the other hand, I decided to move back to Ohio, where I’m currently living in a low-rise apartment complex with a big ol’ lake, lots of shrubbery/trees, and a metric fuckton of spiders, and I’m thinking about a house. So you can see where my feelings are.
Yes…I came in to say that location makes a difference.
And yes, the high rises in LA are built to withstand strong earthquakes, but just because the building remains standing doesn’t mean you are going to be perky and fine after crap is being thrown back and forth through your apartment on the 28th floor during a 9.0 earthquake, and you are smashed to death by a flying fridge or flying flat screen TV or wooden desk, etc.
However, all high rises have risks…I recall a black out in NYC and a friend on the 24th floor invited people over to quickly eat the food thawing in the freezer. Do you know how much fun it ISN’T to walk up 24 floors - in the dark? Do you know that without electricity, there is no water up there, and thus no sewage? The place smelled rather ripe, to say the least. BTW, it was also summer so there was no air conditioning and no windows that opened up there…even more fun.
For the most part, high rises can be quite nice with great views…but there is most certainly a down side in case of any natural/man made disasters.
It depends on a lot of factors.
High rise in the middle of Kansas? Not much appeal there.
Lakeshore Drive? I lived on the 20th floor of The New York in Chicagoand it was fantastic. Beautiful views, close to Wrigley field, bars, restaurants, shopping, etc.
I really miss those days…
I lived in a medium rise [?] 13 floor Chesapeake House in Virginia Beach on the 6th floor oceanside, an end unit so I had a small window on one wall in addition to the full stretch of balconies across the living room and the 2 bedrooms. It had a lift, and a chute for bags of garbage [no sorting of recyclables back then, I don’t know what they do now.] I loved it. We were just renting, but it was a condominium so it had some sort of homeowners group that didn’t directly concern us and a concierge and little mail room. I would move into it again in a heartbeat. It is nice to not have to worry about dealing with building or yard maintenance though I do understand that if there is some really expensive repair that isn’t covered by insurance they do some sort of whip around of the unit owners to get the money for the repairs. [obviously the hurricane damage was paid for by the building insurance policy. I can remember having to stay home one afternoon to let the insurance inspector in after one hurricane.] As a renter the owner of the unit was responsible for any repairs inside to appliances or plumbing.
Don’t get me wrong, I do love living on our microfarm, but being handicapped my ability to get outside to deal with plantings or the animals is getting to be pretty limited, it is to the point where moving into something like the Chesapeake House is becoming more and more preferable.
Not sure what would be considered “high rise” in various cities, but lived on the 8th floor in a luxury apartment with a girlfriend a few years ago here in Indianapolis, Block Apartments. Also lived in a 20th floor apartment in the more basic Riley Towers in the same city, which are kind of anomaly, with no nearby highrises.
Beautiful apartments, nice views. The Block was just gorgeous, and despite all the complaints in this post, worth it. The apartments made certain amenities available that made mundane things like dropping off trash quite nice compared to low-level apartments. Like, garbage chutes a few doors down, rather than having to haul garbage across a big parking lot in the rain. Freight elevators for hauling large things up and down. Getting mail sucked (no going down the hall, it was all the way to ground floor, and better be dressed appropriately as everyone in the buildings could tune in to closed-circuit security cams), package and food delivery even worse. Half the time, deliveries were left/dumped at the front desk, even after hours, since the security systems or simple travel up stymied deliverers.
Noise problems were apparent in both places. Block was in the heart of downtown and surrounded by similarly tall buildings. Noises bounced around and up into the apartments, and any event downtown (worst was Moto GP festivities) or things like gunshots could be heard quite easily in our place. We’d hear gunshots, then discover the next day they occurred blocks away… the acoustics just made them sound close. Riley was a bit better; with no nearby tall buildings, sounds dissipated and were more tolerable.
The views out were nice, but the view in at Block was awkward. Across the street was an even taller hotel, and due to the Block’s history (high-ceiling department store converted to apartments), the windows were virtually impossible to curtain properly. We theorized on how to get the windows covered (I suggested a ladder ON a scissor lift, with the installer wearing construction stilts) but never managed it. More than a few nights ended with us realizing someone was possibly watching us from across the way, even if we were just spooning while watching TV. Nothing more frustrating than having other activities ended because one of us says “you see that guy in the window?” Even worse was when her parents would visit the city and stay in one of those neighboring hotels. 
Riley was free of that, but again that was more an anomaly for highrises.
Moving in/out was, surprisingly, easier than normal apartments. Roll the heavy stuff into a freight elevator, hit a button, then roll the stuff to the door. No staircases to deal with. Compare to my recent move from/to normal low-rise apartments… arcade games and furniture hauled up and down stairs by a couple of guys a few years past their physical primes. Bruises for weeks.
No easy way out for dog owners, can’t just step out of the door and let the dog go. Not a concern for us, but neighbors with dogs hated the walking/clean-up. No gardening, no other outdoor stuff beyond mingling on a small balcony. Block didn’t even have balconies (or at least our apartment didn’t), so no going outside to chill or smoke or whatever people do.
As stated, if something made elevators unavailable, basic tasks sucked. Just getting groceries upstairs at either place was a Sisyphean chore. Encouraged us to shop daily, but that has its own problems when highrises tend not to be near fairly-priced retail groceries or druggists. Evacuation in event of an emergency (with unexplained underground explosions all over downtown Indy at the time, unfortunately a regular occurrence) also sucked. Grand marble staircases from the high point of luxe retail: looks great until you’re hauling a bag of kitty litter and a couple gallons of milk up ALL of them. Then going downstairs to get the canned goods and stuff. Etc.
Parking was very awkward. Riley had fenced, gated surface lots, which were okay. Still took time to get to the car, get in/out, etc. Block had in-building parking floor-by-floor, retrofitted into a building not designed for car parking. Great for security, but bad for just heading in or out. No just pulling in, hopping out, and getting home (or in reverse, hopping in and heading off). Combined with downtown traffic and events, we many times spent half an hour or more trying to get home while a block or two away. Every floor had secured overhead garage doors, entrances and exits were narrow and often in use. We got in the habit of using her employer’s parking passes at a real parking garage located blocks away, then using skyways and tunnels to get home. Quicker than using the parking right in the building, but it sucked for hauling stuff home.
Our building is 36 floors, one of a cluster of four 36-story buildings. We’re on the 6th floor though, so not that high up. But we have a great view and enjoy it. And it’s great up on the roof, especially during occasions such as the stroke of midnight on New Year’s, when the entire city explodes in fireworks. Been in this location for 10 years this December.
This. I always thought it’d be great to live in a luxury high rise with a nice view, but during the aftermath of hurricane Sandy, where people were stranded for weeks without power in some places, my crappy 4th floor tenement walkup in NYC all of a sudden didn’t look so bad! 