Converted Balconies - Condado

July 16, 2009



Conceived at first as a suburb of the main city of Old San Juan, El Condado was built around 1908 by the Behn Brothers, two American industrialists who had a greater passion for real estate than for urban planning. By the middle decades of the 20th century, El Condado had transformed from being just a wealthy suburb to an important pedestrian-oriented residential and tourist center in San Juan. To this day, El Condado is seen as a much desired area to own an apartment, since it offers all the benefits from living in an ocean side community that is well connected to many other important areas of the city such as Santurce and Hato Rey.

apartment for rent - online posting found for Condado del Mar

But after living a few weeks in my rented apartment in the area, I had noticed that all that surrounded me it is highly neglected zone, which after 100 years of its conception, was showing major signs of lack of urban planning. While newly constructed high-rise buildings try to compete for an ocean view, residents of the older buildings get fewer breeze, lots of traffic and minimal water pressure. While the older buildings get warmer with the rampant urban density that surrounds them, their residents try to look for strategies for thermal comfort in order to deal with the heat and the stagnant air. One of the most common approaches to confront the problem is to convert the balconies into air conditioned sun rooms or simply extending the living room to the space that once had this elevated outdoor room.

But I wondered - why do they convert into more and get less? For Malaysian architect, Ken Yeang, balconies are the connection to the outdoors, to the city, to nature. For him, the balcony or any elevated outdoor common space is where the architect has the opportunity to make a high rise building adaptable and relevant to the tropical climate. The balcony then becomes a “buffer” zone to condition and connect the apartment to its surroundings. In my opinion, if this space is eliminated, the apartment immediately feels as an impersonal floating box waiting to be cooled by artificial air conditioning.

Having this in my mind, I asked people who lived in the area about their reasons for converting their balconies or for keeping them. This is what I found: (listed in order of popularity)

Reason 1: The apartment rises in value when the balcony is converted into a closed space since the square footage that counts for the appraisal is the one that is “enclosed”.

Reason 2: The balcony was too hot or sunny and they preferred to have an extended living room with shade and air conditioning.

Reason 3: Their street was too noisy and they could not even talk in the living room before converting the balcony.

Reason 4: Could not convert the balcony (even if he wanted to) since the agreement in his building prohibited any changes to the façade.

Reason 5: Never used the balcony because it had the air conditioning box that occupies more than half of the space available.

Reason 6: Preferred to close the apartment completely since the salt from the sea was damaging all his furniture and electronics.

So after investigating a little further it turns out that there are many reasons for converting the balconies and that all these factors should be taken in considerations by designers when designing new buildings or retrofitting the old. Balconies should exist, especially during times when energy savings are essential for our planet and our pocketbooks. They should be even bigger, well ventilated and considered an asset to any apartment at the time of evaluating its market value.