Other word for residential skyscraper

[Jan]

"residential skyscraper" is too long, we need something a bit more compact. What about lifescraper or homescraper or something else?

[joshsam]

Domorise/Domoscraper Domo=esperanto for house/home

[auzdafluff]

Towerblock or tower, or high rise. Granted, those bring in visions of grotty, poorly maintained 60s council high rises.

[Jan]

Originally Posted by joshsam

Domorise/Domoscraper Domo=esperanto for house/home

Nice. Altodomo is grammatically incorrect for "high house" but I like the gist of it.

Otherwise Metrodomo is an option.

[joshsam]

Sounds good aswell

[AsianDragons]

Originally Posted by Jan

"residential skyscraper" is too long, we need something a bit more compact. What about lifescraper or homescraper or something else?

isnt there already one, "condo"?????

[joshsam]

but a condo might as well be a 3 story building... overhere we don't use condo. We use 'appartment' or 'woontoren'. The last one traslates as 'living tower'. i don't know for The Netherlands but in Belgium an appartment building or tower is ofthen called 'residentie' wich translates as 'residence'

[AsianDragons]

i dont know the word much because in australia that word does not exist we use apartment, i first heard it in cambodia

[joshsam]

Condo pretty much is the same as apartment although I had the feeling the word condo in the US is used for bigger upscale apartments and the word apartment is used for lower class living spaces. can someone confirm?

[tpe]

Originally Posted by joshsam

Condo pretty much is the same as apartment although I had the feeling the word condo in the US is used for bigger upscale apartments and the word apartment is used for lower class living spaces. can someone confirm?

The term "condo" or condominium is in contradistinction with "co-op" or cooperative.

In a co-op, you don't own the unit you live in. You own shares of the building you live in. Hence, you can only make structural modifications and any changes to your unit with approval of the powerful co-op board.

When you "sell" your unit (i.e., sell your shares), you must get the approval of the board. Also, if you are buying a co-op unit, you will be interviewed by the board, and they can decide whether you can actually buy into the building.

In a condo, you actually OWN the unit you live in. You can make changes to it, and you typically do not require board approval to buy or sell a condo. The shared areas of the condo building (halls, lobbies, elevators, etc) are owned jointly by the condo owners who pay for the upkeep. But your unit is entirely your responsibility.

Hence, you can see that a co-op is a powerful tool of exclusivity. A board can bar someone from owning shares of a building, even though it is OK for the owner to sell it to the said person. Many co-op boards have been accused of unfairness or discrimination. But there are many legal ways of keeping undesirables out of a co-op.

By way of example, for most of the early part of the 20th century, there was only one co-op building in Chicago's Gold Coast that actually accepted Jews. In every other co-op in that part of the City, Jews were barred from ownership.

As a more recent example, a friend of mine in Chicago who wanted to buy into one of the few exclusve co-ops in that city was told that his cash reserve was not large enough. He was told that if he couldn't cough up say 100 thousand USD at a drop of a hat for "quick" or unplanned repairs/assessments, then he had no right being in that building as an owner.

As can be guessed, Manhattan has traditionally been more co-op than condo. In Chicago, it is the opposite. In Manhattan, many are attracted to the ease of owning a condo, but the lure of co-op exclusivity is great indeed. Condos are making inroads in Manhattan, but not in the best residential addresses. The Parnassus of the Manhattan real estate market are all co-ops. To hell with the hoi-polloi.

[Jan]

^ good info, thanks. I think people overuse the word condo because it's short, so it became somewhat synonymous with apartment. Although in general either condo or apartment can be referred to as a pad especially the more cosy units, no?

[tpe]

Originally Posted by Jan

^ good info, thanks. I think people overuse the word condo because it's short, so it became somewhat synonymous with apartment. Although in general either condo or apartment can be referred to as a pad especially the more cosy units, no?

I think that in Chicago and other cities, where condominium units predomiate, the word is used a lot to refer to apartments that you own, as opposed to apartments that you rent. Condos are highly regarded in these cities because most people think that price already guarantees some degree of exclusivity, and that the ability to modify your condo without asking permission from anybody is very desirable.

In a lot of co-ops in Manhattan, wealth doesn't always guarantee that you will be approved by the board. Many of the finest establishments are very picky/snotty. But I think in the very high end market (typically in the 10s of millions of usd) wealth can help you a lot, because the pool of buyers is very small. Still, you have many examples where very rich foreigners have been denied, for some odd reason or other -- such as wanting to ask for drastic changes to the spaces they want to buy into.

[joshsam]

Thanks a lot tpe for your explanation!

[Singidunum]

There already is a word in Serbian, I think that our word for a residential tower is pretty nice - soliter.

It comes from the French word solitaire, but this word in French never had the meaning of the paronym in Serbian. In Serbian it's a metaphor meaning "building that does not belong to a series of buildings that make a classical city street, but one that is separately rearing in height, looking lonely". It could have been created from French colonne solitaire but it is just one of the guesses. It is largely used for residential towers while the words such as cloudscraper (oblakoder), skyscraper (neboder) or tower (kula) are used for tall office buildings.

[musiccity]

Highres, lifescraper, accomorise

[essendon bombers]

Heavenbound..

[UNIXX]

Skyhome, Homeheaven

[Xtartrex]

Skycastle since its excusivity is only for those with enough cash to afford living in such places, I was gonna say Skypalace but since Airbus took that tittle for their A380 Prestige, it would be confusing...my two cents.

[sursena]

I thought that towerblocks were "residential skyscrapers"

[kaanguler]

My idea is the grand residence skyscraper