Toronto The One | 328.4m | 91s | Mizrahi Developments | Foster + Partners

I love balconies but if it's not big enough to use as an outdoor room, it becomes borderline useless. One of the reasons I bought in my building was that the condo came with a usable balcony. I've got 21 plants out there, a table for 4 at one end, a table for 2 at the other end, and they'd still be room for another 8 people. And with solid concrete walls, you never feel like you're dangling off the side of the building. It's a proper outdoor room. In a city with a dearth of clean safe green space, living in a high-rise with a usable balcony is invaluable. I spend a couple hours out there every day, 7-8 months/year.

If they're going to bother building balconies, design them so they're usable space.
Toronto only does balconies at all is because investors buying units off plans think they need them. Very few want to stand on a windy diving board 230m in the air...
 
I think if you asked a lot of renters, a balcony is pretty high on their wish list. And a balcony is definitely nice to have, if you conceive of it as an "extra". If you think of it as indoor space that you're giving up to instead have a balcony, probably wouldn't be so popular...

Despite the focus of this forum, there aren't that many apartments in Toronto high enough that wind is a big issue on a balcony. I'm not sure how high you have to get, but my last building had a rooftop at 21 floors, and it was usually sort of windy up there, but not to an extent that it was annoying.
 
Useful, livable outdoor space is reason 57103495390543 Vancouver / Lower Mainland condos are far superior to our own local garbage:
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Very nice! Maybe create a common terrace like these on a number of floors with different orientations and all season window/doors.

I’m sure the top floor of The One tower and the ceiling to floor views will be very popular.

Common outdoor terraces are a much more efficient use of space and great for a community feel but no dogs allowed!

Would this thread have 17,780 posts if there were balconies? I think not. Okay, maybe it would have more complaints.

We enjoy our floor to ceiling windows from our 8760 den. We can see down to street level and beyond without any balcony restrictions and noise. Upper level operable windows provide no outdoor ventilation or dust due to stack effect but they do provide noise if desired.

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That's a really nice outdoor space, but that apartment would be a whole lot better if it was all inside space! The difference between a 1168 sf apartment and a 1900 sf apartment is the difference between being able to have one kid, or have 2-3 kids.
It's actually both on Metrotown. It features folding glass to enclose the outdoor space as semi-indoor. You can see it all accordion-ed up on the right side of the image.
 
I prefer to have a balcony & use mine quite a bit. I think it comes down to personal preference.
It also comes down to the design. We had two spacious balconies, however, there was one fatal flaw, every other persons balcony was above us and in a dangerous way. One time I was just in my room when I see a shadow. I look out the window, when a blanket or mattress had fallen onto our balcony. The next day, another one had fallen on a balcony below us. Also, balcony design was not private at all. Everyone could just watch each other. What building am I talking about? Monde. Man that condo sucked. I have such bad experiences with that condo. Dude the sauna had collapsed a couple years after the building had opened. The ceiling in the sauna collapsed… the pool was also closed for 2 years after just 1 year of it being open due to leakages. So much more I’ll probably post on the Monde thread. If you want to live there please don’t. Quality is overall bad and cheap. It may look good on the outside, but surely not on the inside.
 

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