What is an “Immersive” Rooftop Living Experience?

So many multi-family and apartment developments here in Salt Lake City and other large cities across the country are utilizing and leveraging their naturally existing rooftop spaces for their communal outdoor amenities.

How do you design rooftop amenities that can attract the right tenants and residents and make you stand out amongst your competition? 

By creating an immersive rooftop and outdoor living experience.

*An immersive rooftop living experience is one that, without the context, is difficult to identify as being on a rooftop. 

What this means is that it is not just a rooftop that happens to have a collection of the latest trends (outdoor furnishings, fire pits, bbq's, etc.) but rather, a fully designed and experiential amenity space that happens to be located on a rooftop.

It can't look like the rooftop space was an afterthought of randomly strewn seating and sparse plantings with no thought of making it compelling for the tenants.

*Rather it must be meticulously planned, budgeted, prioritized and designed by an expert design firm with a keen sense of how people use space. It has to be an immersive series of experiences that end-users will feel compelled to enjoy. And, oh, by the way, it just happens to be on a rooftop.

An immersive rooftop amenity space should be just as carefully organized and curated as the interior amenities of the clubhouse.  They should be cohesive and share and leverage the magic of the indoor/outdoor relationship.

If you skimp on the details, the overall impression is going to fall flat and you'll be left wondering...What do we stand to lose if we get these spaces wrong?