NYC Residential Design Problem -- a little help?

[darbyclarke]

I'd like to try and get a handle on the everyday specifics of the NYC urban culture. How often does one eat-in (alone or with friends)... how much time is spent watching TV or listening to records, etc... bicycles? What about fire escapes? The sort of thing I would never think of on my own... Are apartments just places where New Yorkers shower, meet, and sleep? How much time is actually spent in an apartment? What type of people can afford a $1mil apartment (a moderate if not modest price tag)... I'm a grad student studying architecture in Louisiana (LSU) and am starting a project to design a mid-rise residential building in NYC. I would appreciate any help you could offer, and thank you for your time.

[stache]

everyone is different. Speaking for myself, at one time I ate almost all of my meals out, now I tend to bring something home, but not always. Fire escapes are pretty much a thing of the past, especially with new construction. More than anything, people here expect service.

[Front_Porch]

Work backwards to think about the finances: a $1 mm apartment, by which I presume you mean a condo, means someone is taking maybe 90% financing. So their mortgage payments are going to be maybe $5500 a month, plus they'll pay some maintenance and a little insurance, so make that $6,500 a month.

That's $76K a year, so they'll want to have 3 to 4 times that in household (gross) income.

Who makes $228K-$304K a year?

Lots of young people in the legal and financial professions. Two mid-level people in management of almost anything, or two somewhat highly placed people in many professions (a reasonably senior PR person, say, married to a reasonably senior journalist). Dentist, anesthesiologists, lots of medical people . . .are you beginning to imagine your future residents now?

ali r.
{downtown broker}

[darbyclarke]

Thanks for the info. I had run similar calculations (without thought to the maintenance/fees), but was a little off also on the multiplier. I was using 2.5 instead of 3-4, which your number, I'm sure are closer to it. I'm actually starting up my last semester of grad school in architecture, and our design project is to design a mid-rise residential building in NYC. So I'm trying to establish a connection with actual New Yorkers, to find out what they are looking for in a apartment/condo/coop space, etc. Anyway, thanks again for your interest!