| VERTICAL
UPDATE
High-Rise News & Updates
for Las Vegas
| High-Rise, High Style |
by: Brenda Calvin,
The Calvin Group, LLC
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 The
look and feel of one’s home is as intimate as it gets.
Your personal space is a reflection of who you are and a glimpse
into your soul. Beautiful furnishings, décor and artwork
in any home are key components.
Working with someone to design
their personal space is very… well, personal. Designers
have the opportunity to gently reach into a client’s
psyche and bring forth a look that enhances their environment
and lifestyle. A great designer will design slightly above
your present “knowing” so that you will have a
home to “grow into” instead of “outgrow.”
Most of the time, this unique look cannot be accomplished
by simply going to the local furniture store and buying the
latest bedroom suite; matching headboard, nightstands and
dresser. A high-rise home, with its expansive windows and
relatively fewer walls adds an additional challenge for those
with large armoires and other large furniture. This month,
I had the opportunity to chat with an interior designer who
has faced these and many more challenges of designing high-rise
homes for almost 30 years.
Interior designer Thomas
Burger of Zen Interiors is no stranger to designing high-rise
condominiums. Formerly a resident of New York City, he has
built a thriving design business, designing many high-rise
homes and living in a number of New York’s posh penthouses.
In fact, he has designed over 1,000 high-rise homes in New
York and around the world, including major work in Trump Tower
on 5th Avenue and numerous public spaces for high-rise buildings,
including prestigious lobbies of 100 United Nations Plaza
Tower, The Savoy, Lincoln Towers, and many others. I had a
chance to catch up with Thomas, who now calls Las Vegas his
home, to ask him a few questions about designing residential
high-rises and how this differs from single-family homes.
 “I
actually love working in vertical properties because suddenly
there is a new and unique dimension with which to work; a
view. This is an addition to your interior space. It is a
totally different perspective than being on the ground. If
you are fortunate enough to have a home on a high floor, you
actually experience a different quality of light—a different
angle or perspective of sunrises and sunsets. As a dweller
of high-rises, I loved witnessing the miracle of nature—such
as electrical storms, rain moving across the sky like a wall,
blanketing the city, or a large snow storm moving in for a
stay. You don’t get that same perspective from the ground
most of the time. So, as a designer, you have to be aware
of all of these special facets and design with this in mind.
There are very specific ways of designing around this magnificent
performance of nature.”
However, Thomas confirmed
that compared to a single-family home, it takes a little more
planning to get materials and furnishings into a high-rise
building and up to the unit. Most buildings require that you
schedule the elevator well in advance. Expect preset work
hours in the building as well, usually Monday through Friday,
8 a.m. to 5 p.m. This is to limit the inconvenience to other
homeowners living in the building. Building management will
generally have certain insurance requirements for any contractor
working in the building, in case there is damage to the building’s
common area. A knowledgeable designer versed in high-rise
will know all the ins and outs of working with the building
management. “Equally as important is to know and understand
high-rise etiquette. I could write a book on this,”
Thomas proclaims.
 As
far as making major changes to a unit, an owner must submit
their proposed changes for Homeowner’s Association approval.
This is to protect the Association and the building, but also
to protect the individual owner. If a contractor has never
worked in a residential high-rise, he or she may not realize
what is potentially behind the drywall—vertical chases
(hosting the building’s plumbing pipes, electrical,
A/C chilled water pipes, etc.), concrete sheer walls, structural
concrete, and let’s not forget the all-important fire
sprinkler pipes that run throughout the building. You might
initially think it’s a simple task to open a wall to
enlarge the master bedroom, but maybe not. You can see the
importance of hiring a designer and a contractor experienced
in residential high-rise.
“Living in a high-rise
is a change in terms of privacy compared to a single-family
home,” says Thomas. “Not only from exposure through
the large windows, but remember, a few inches away through
a common wall is your neighbor. Good planning and clever tricks
can solve these potential issues without covering your expensive
views or pumping sound barriers into the common wall.”
When asked to provide a few
helpful hints for designing a high-rise, Thomas says, “I
tend to use simpler, more singular pieces. For example, I
would use a sofa sectional in a high-rise home versus a sofa
and love seat combo. This way I eliminate a few free-standing
pieces, such as a table that would be necessary between two
singular sofas. The fewer legs in a room, the more pleasing
it is to the eye. And remember, you want all eyes on the view.
“Secondly, I always think it is more interesting to
“float” furniture in a room versus having everything
around the perimeter; however in high-rise dwellings this
may not always work as well with existing traffic flow. One
must be a bit more creative in high-rise design to not create
the expected each and every time.
“Lastly, great lighting
is imperative. This is completely different than a single-family
home because the sun is viewed from a different level in a
high-rise and is reflected differently into the home. Your
interior lighting must also allow for the reflective light
of other buildings at night which is not a consideration on
ground-level homes. If your interior lighting is in the wrong
place or has the wrong intensity—or even the wrong tonality—you
will ‘haze over’ your spectacular view. Too ‘cool’
of a color tone lighting scheme versus a ‘warm’
color tone will drastically affect your nighttime views.”
A very special thank you to
Thomas Burger for sharing with us this unique niche of high-rise
interior design. We are quite fortunate to have such a talented
high-rise designer in Las Vegas.
Until next time,
here’s wishing you “elevated” sales!
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Brenda
Calvin is the Broker of The Calvin Group, LLC, and has
a 20-year successful track record of selling high-rise
and mid-rise condominiums in multiple states. The Calvin
Group is a boutique brokerage specializing the innovative
sales, marketing and developer consulting of residential
high-rise properties. To contact Brenda, you may phone
(702) 939-5638 or e-mail Brenda@TheCalvinGroup.com.
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