Terraces on buildings are expensive luxuries. Do people really have “terrace envy”? (Not yet as famous a psychological term as “penis envy.”) Do people who have terraces suffer “terrace guilt” for not using them enough?
 
The terms “terrace envy’ and “terrace guilt” were both used in a Sunday New York Times article on April 27, 2008. Prior use of “terrace envy” had been sparse, although some New York real estate ads had used the term. There had been no prior use of the term “terrace guilt.”
 
   
Wikipedia: Terrace (building)
A terrace can be defined as an outdoor, occupiable extension of a building above ground level. Although its physical characteristics may vary to a great degree, a terrace will generally be larger than a balcony and will have an “open-top” facing the sky. Terraces are highly versatile in terms of functionality and can be used for a variety of activities including, but not limited to: gardening, relaxation, entertaining guests, sunbathing, and barbecuing.
   
Wikipedia: Penis envy
Penis envy in Freudian psychoanalysis refers to the theorized reaction of a girl during her psychosexual development to the realisation that she does not have a penis. Freud considered this realisation a defining moment in the development of gender and sexual identity for women. According to Freud, the parallel reaction in boys to the realisation that girls do not have a penis is Castration anxiety.
 
In contemporary culture, the term is sometimes used inexactly or metaphorically to refer to the idea that women wish they had a penis, or to refer to anxieties between men about the size of their genitals.
 
Corcoran
HAVE TERRACE ENVY? Well have it no more in this triple mint alcove studio professionally designed to reveal a modern, open and lofty home. Stunning south facing city and river views from your large private terrace.
   
StreetEasy.com
TERRACE ENVY
Every New Yorkers fantasy…Enormous 1300SF set-back terrace wraps the entire apartment in this stunning full-floor residence in Soho’s most sophisticated new development.! 
 
Halstead Property Portfolio - Spring 2008
TERRACE ENVY…
Tribeca Exclusive
 
New York Observer (November 14, 1999)
TERRACE ENVY. A man lived alone in a one-bedroom apartment in this building before he got married. As a newlywed, he bought a studio apartment next door and combined the two. Then he learned that he was being transferred to Europe and he and his wife would have to leave one of the Upper West Side’s oldest prewar buildings (25 floors high, built in 1929), which is undergoing major restoration work. They’re leaving behind a sunny 19th-floor apartment with a wrap-around terrace.
 
This is London
Do you have roof terrace envy?
By Nick Curtis Last updated at 00:00am on 22.04.02
You could call it an edifice complex, but the roof terrace has become the new battleground in the war of one-upmanship all Londoners wage on their neighbours.
 
The signs that roof envy was on the increase were there even before the fenced-in wooden deck and shower cubicle that Stella McCartney installed on top of her Notting Hill home drew complaints from her neighbours and the attention of planning officials.
 
Devine Limited
Terrace envy hits Queensland
Friday 7 September 2007
Within a frenetic 60 minute period, buyers rushed Devine’s ‘SeaGreen’ estate at Coomera and snapped up all 20 terraces off-the-plan.
 
The two-storey, two and three-bedroom terraces were designed in rows of three and four. Each strata-title terrace has two bathrooms, a lounge, living area, kitchen, internal laundry, balcony, lock-up garage and a low-maintenance backyard.
 
New York (NY) Times
The High Life
By SARAH KERSHAW
Published: April 27, 2008
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But in the same complex, his neighbor Vera Sampson has absolutely no desire for a terrace because she sees it as a magnet for dust and dirt. Although she initially had fierce terrace envy when she moved into the building 30 years ago and could not get an apartment with one, she quickly realized that they were places that not only need constant cleaning but are also potentially hazardous to the pets who shared her two-bedroom apartment.
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This can lead to what Karen DeMasco, who has a 250-square-foot terrace off her apartment in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn, calls “terrace guilt.” During the first few years she lived in her building, she never used the terrace. But once her daughter was old enough to play out there, she set out a playhouse and other toys. Now her neighbors without terraces stop by to enjoy hers.
     
Gothamist.com
April 26, 2008
New Yorkers Suffer Terrace Envy and Guilt
Do New Yorkers have a love-hate relationship with their outdoor spaces? Believe it or not, it seems they do. While many would put themselves in a compromising position for a few square-feet of greenery, The NY Times reports on a few who find their outdoor space a burden.
 
Many patio-privelaged (sic) are allegedly “turning their backs on their balconies”—blasphemy! One Chelsea resident, Vera Sampson, sees her open space as “a magnet for dust and dirt.” Others find the process of fixing up an urban outdoor space a costly and timely matter, with apparently little payback.
 
It is difficult to give an average dollar value of outdoor space, because if it is a terrace, which is open to the sky and occupies a building’s setback, it’s worth more than a balcony, which is typically smaller and projects outward from the facade. But outdoor space is generally agreed to be worth about half as much per square foot as the square footage inside an apartment.
 
So what’s a tenant to do with their high maintainance outdoor space? Senior VP of Corcoran, Sherry Matays, bolted her terrace up 30 years ago and never returned! Others quietly suffer what has been dubbed “terrace guilt.” And you thought you had problems.
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COMMENTS
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“Terrace guilt”
A new neurosis fad for therapists to cash in on.
By Think twice
[2] | 04/26/08 07:25PM
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“Post-Terrace Stress Disorder”: coming to a couch near you.
By sonyactivision
[3] | 04/26/08 08:05PM