Communal Balconies as Urban Verandas

Balconies are a common feature of many Manhattan apartment buildings, but communal balconies, which are popular in Europe, are quite rare here in New York.

While regular balconies have a staccato visual effect, communal balconies are urban verandas and prominent architectural features that can tie together separate buildings and even provide an escape to other apartments in emergencies.

The most attractive example in Manhattan is the English Terrace Row, designed by the architect of St. Patrick's Cathedral, James Renwick Jr., at Grace Church on Broadway at 10th Street. The English Terrace Row was built between 1856 and 1858 and consists of nine brownstones at 20-38 W. 10th St. Neighbors often festoon the ornate cast-iron communal balcony on the second floor with lights at Christmastime.

Communal balconies also can be found at 1261 Madison Ave., an elegant French Beaux-Arts-style apartment building completed in 1900 and designed by Buchman & Fox. Also impressive is the communal balcony at the 12-story, 27-unit apartment house at 521 Park Ave., designed by William Boring and completed in 1911.

Less elegant, but quite important, communal balconies can be found at Riverbend Houses at 2289-2333 Fifth Ave., between 138th and 142nd streets and the Harlem River Drive. Built between 1962 and 1966, the buildings were designed by Davis, Brody & Associates.

Riverbend's balconies "served as private 'streets' that not only provided access to the project's duplex dwelling units but also acted as 'frontyards,'" Robert A.M. Stern, Thomas Mellins, and David Fishman observed in their superb book, "New York 1960: Architecture and Urbanism Between the Second World War and the Bicentennial." They added: "This sophisticated organization of external passage ways, while expressing an optimistic social vision, was also a cost-saving method of complying with municipal fire code."

In London, communal balconies have been in the news as Sir Norman Foster, Richard Rogers, and other architects protest the planned demolition of the Robin Hood Gardens council housing complex, built in 1972 and designed by Alison and Peter Smithson.

Perhaps the most interesting communal balconies were designed by Jean Nouvel in 1987 in Nîmes, France. The wide "walkways" of the low-rise, industrial-style housing complex known as Némausus have angled walls and provide, among other things, convenient and safe play areas for children.

Mr. Horsley is the editor of CityRealty.com.