Many luxury condos in West Chelsea are multiple floors, ten or more floors is very common. In many of the finest condos the top floor is dedicated to the penthouse. A penthouse is considered as luxurious real estate, they are often very costly and they take up the entire floor of the building. The history of the penthouse illustrates the way architecture trends change.
From an architectural viewpoint a penthouse is a structure that sits on the roof of a building, taking up no more than half the area. This structure is used to house apparatus used in the building such as the heating and ventilating equipment and the elevator mechanics. These structures certainly were not considered as prime real-estate.
During the roaring 20s in the US there were many wealthy people who were looking for ways to display their wealth; one way was to create luxury condos on the top floors of buildings. It did not take long until luxury penthouses became a defining feature on the new high rise buildings that were being constructed. In several cases, the top floor was not enough, the architects and builders dedicated two or three floors as the luxury condo. The penthouse rapidly shed its original its undesirability and rapidly became the most desirable and expensive of all real estate.
There is good reason for the desirability of luxury condos in West Chelsea. As they are very lavish in size, many of them being multiple stories, they can take advantage of the space to have luxurious gardens, patios or terraces; many have roof top swimming pools. The interior appointments are unabashed luxury, the design is meticulous, the fittings and appliances are selected from the worlds best and most expensive. Ownership of a penthouse condo is typically reserved for society’s wealthiest members.
Access to these luxury condos is usually by means of a private elevator and the residents are often able to take full advantage of the building concierge to provide services such as arranging for pickup and delivery of dry cleaning and getting tickets for the most recent theatrical productions on Broadway.
Many real estate firms will not show luxury condos in West Chelsea to potential buyers unless that can show evidence that they can afford this piece of high end real estate.
