The luxury amenity race is on! For the last decade or so, developers of high-end condos and apartments have racked their brains for the most amazing and creative extras they can deliver to residents. Bragging rights include all kinds of features designed to make daily life more easy, convenient, and chill for the people lucky (and rich) enough to call these buildings home. And not just the owners: their children or grandchildren, their pets, even their cars are catered to with laundry lists of drool-worthy extras. Dirt scoured the country and found ten OTT amenities that will blow your mind. Buckle up!
Are you the sporting type? How about honing one’s corner kicking abilities on the first-ever outdoor soccer field in a high-rise residential building? Well, you’re in luck because the Paramount Miami World Center condo tower, located within the mixed-use Miami World Center complex, built a soccer field in the sky. That’s right, the faux-grass pitch (pictured above) is on the 9th floor of the tower, part a vast area reserved for outdoor sports.
And if soccer isn’t your thing, there’s also a state-of-the-art fitness center, a boxing studio, a half-court basketball, a yoga studio, a racquetball court, a Tai Chi deck, tennis courts, and a spa with outdoor bath gardens, steam showers and treatment rooms.
Porsche Design Tower Miami
If your customized luxury car ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy, right? That’s why the Porsche Design Tower, on Sunny Isles Beach in Miami, offers the “Dezervator,” a glass elevator designed by developer Gil Dezer that lifts cars up to a private, climate-controlled garage included with each apartment. It’s practical, in that the cars are safe, but it also gives residents a high level of privacy, allowing them to come and go without being seen by the prying eyes of neighbors.
Each apartment also has its own balcony with a private pool, while the building also offers a full-service spa, an on-site restaurant and bar, a car concierge, and a very realistic car racing simulator. Soccer legend Lionel Messi is a resident of the oceanfront building.
Lifestyle Production Group
Traffic? Ha! That’s for the hoi polloi, not for residents of the five-star Ritz-Carlton Residences in Miami Beach. First one takes one’s private jet to Miami, then Ritz-Carlton staff will whisk one away via helicopter to its floating helipad. From there, residents board a runabout for a five-minute boat ride to the building’s private marina. Less time, less traffic, less aggravation, less stress means happy residents.
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Image Credit: Nic Lehoux Don’t worry if you don’t happen to live in Miami, folks, amenity fever is spreading nationwide! To wit, the lovely Gardenhouse in Beverly Hills, designed by trendy MAD Architects, offers monthly spiritual experiences tied to lunar cycles. Also on the menu are shaman-lead healings that involve drinking bitter chocolate and intention setting. (“Please, make my next screenplay a hit!”) Not enough woo? How about a “full moon intention ceremony,” during which residents write down all the bugaboos they need to let go of. (Say, for example, all those crappy screenplays?) Crystals and smudging sage are extra.
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Image Credit: Jonathan Walgamott for Extell Less an L.A. mystic and more of a ridiculously rich New Yorker looking to impress co-coworkers and friends? Need to one-up that junior knowitall on the floor below you at Goldman? Invite them to the 100th floor of the Central Park Club at the stratopsherically tall Central Park Tower. Overseen by lifestyle director Colin Cowie, the sky lounge features 360-degree views, a wine cellar and a cigar humidor. Residents can also enjoy menus created by Michelin-starred chefs including Chefs Alfred Portale, Laurent Tourondel and Gabriel Kreuther.
Still think you know it all, Junior? Didn’t think so.
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Image Credit: Far Fetched NY But what about resident pets? In an era when dog owners often refer to themselves as “parents,” it shouldn’t come as a surprise that well-heeled pet owners are being enticed with an onslaught of amenities. Outdoor dog runs and indoor pet playrooms are only the tip of the pet pampering iceberg that includes doggy doulas and even summer camps with arts and crafts. (Nope, us neither!)
Far Fetched, available to residents of the New York Waterline Square development, offers all that along with on-site pedicures and dog enrichment programs. What’s next? Hiring a chess coach for one’s border collie?
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Image Credit: Courtesy BKSK Architects But what about human children? In a big city where public playgrounds are busy and loud, a building amenity geared to the rugrats is a huge plus. Plus, outdoor spaces may be too cold or too hot for tiny Sophie and Tarquin, so indoor spaces fashioned to cater to the little darlings are therefore in high demand. One of the nicest children’s playroom just might be at The Marlow, on Manhattan’s Upper West Side.
The boutique prewar conversion development boasts a beautiful, colorful kid’s playroom designed by BKSK Architects. Taking cues from the adjoining outdoor garden, developers extended the concept into the playroom via a camping theme that includes a wooden tree structure, a cute tent, a fake camp fire, and piles of plush fabric stones. There’s also an art corner, a play kitchen, and a secret hideout. (Does anyone else think it looks a lot like the dog playroom at Far Fetched? Shhhhhssss.)
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31.-FlowRider
Image Credit: Flowrider.com Of course, teens and tweens aren’t so interested in fake camp fires and stuffed animals. They will, however, adore the FlowRider surf simulator at the Estates at Acqualina in Miami. And, when they get bored with mock surfing, there’s also a bowling alley, a golf simulator and, hard as it may be to believe in South Florida, an ice skating rink!
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Image Credit: Courtesy CALLISONRTKL Enough about the kids and the pets. What do adults get? How does a private 18-seat IMAX theater work for you? The Four Seasons Residences in the world capital of entertainment, Los Angeles, offers the plush, state-of-the-art IMAX Private Theatre Palais and Lounge. Residents may reserve the theater and the adjoining lounge with bar and pool table for private events.
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Image Credit: Courtesy The Maverick, Chelsea Serenity now! Wellness options have become de rigueur in high-end develpments across the country and The Maverick, in New York’s artsy and expensive Chelsea nabe takes it to the max. The expansive complex, features a huge swimming pool, a living landscape feature wall, and massage and steam rooms. But it’s the meditation room appointed with Bianco Dolomiti honed marble walls, Grigio Olivo stone floor, and backlit Himalayan salt wall that will really get the relaxation flowing.
Calgon, take us away!