Be bold, be creative. That’s the only way to approach the design of immersive rooftop amenities and outdoor living experiences. This is especially true when your multifamily real estate development needs that wow factor to set it apart from the rest.

You don’t start with small ideas if you want to be on the cutting edge. And you can never pull ahead if you keep doing what everyone else is doing.

That’s why it’s always good to be ambitious and different.

But, as any properly grounded multifamily developer knows, any design that stands a chance at getting built needs to be based in reality. There are limits to what is possible, after all.

It can be tough to strike the right balance between being fearless and bold while staying pragmatic and realistic. But each has their place in the design process. Too often, though, design and development teams lean too far to one side or the other. The key to designing successful spaces is knowing when to hold back and when to go all out.

Everything But the Kitchen Sink

If there ever is a time to hold back, it is definitely not at the beginning of the design process. We approach design with the mindset of offering our clients a vision that includes our biggest and best ideas – we throw everything but the proverbial kitchen sink your way.

We know that in order to make your project a standout, our rooftop amenity design needs to be different and unique. It’s true. Our concepts could be judged as elaborate and over-the-top. But this is intentional and strategic. Urban multifamily developments need to have exciting features and offer wow experiences in order to attract the best tenants.

If an idea doesn’t land, or it needs finessing, the design process is working exactly as it should. We should fearlessly pursue the unique and unexpected at the onset of a project, knowing how we will work together to refine the design. It’s good to make room for big ideas during the early stages when ideas are fluid and just on paper. The only risk is not being creative enough.

On the Cutting Edge

Multifamily developers working on the cutting edge of the industry are intentional about not just doing what everyone else is doing. You can’t innovate if you’re constantly looking backward instead of forward.

Embrace the design process as a method for arriving at a fully differentiated product. Throughout the development process, your vision will invariably be challenged by constraints. If you start with ideas based on past projects, you run the risk of your vision being diluted until it becomes more of a letdown than anything. But, if you begin with more forward-thinking ideas, the obstacles you face will back your vision into a place where you actually want to be.

This is how you strike the right balance: start out with the biggest ideas and back into something that is more doable, but still exciting.

How to Stay Competitive with Your Outdoor and Rooftop Amenities

In order to stay competitive you need your amenities to resonate with occupants. Too often developers shy away from the very things that would make the difference to their future tenants. Leading developers:

1. Focus on encouraging amenity use over limiting amenity maintenance.
2. Embrace design-informed budgeting over budget-driven design.
3. Target a specific market segment rather than trying to be all things to all people.
4. Consult specialists early on in the process rather than attempting to reverse engineer their outdoor spaces.
5. Consider amenities to be a highlight of their development, rather than an after-thought.
6. Tailor their amenities for tenant use, retention, and community-building, instead of solely for marketing and sales.

If you know your project needs the highest quality rooftop and outdoor amenities in order to be competitive, it’s a good time to go all out. More and more multifamily developers are seeing the advantages these spaces bring to their amenity lineup as well as the marketability and financial success of their development projects.

Consumers are demanding more from these spaces and few properties are keeping up with the demand. Will you reap the benefits of being on the cutting edge?