I don't understand how anyone would want to live in a high rise. Rational or not, if feels dangerous to live high up in a narrow bottlenecked artificial construct.
High rises usually have spectacular shared amenities: grand pools, exercise rooms, party rooms, theaters, etc. One of mine had outdoor grilling areas that you didn't even have to clean up: the apartment had cleaning staff who would scour the grills every day.
High rises usually have 24/7 door staff to sign for & lock up packages, get taxis, handle dry cleaning, store grocery deliveries in a fridge, and let you into your unit if you get locked out. The sheer number of units makes this cost-effective for them because the costs are shared across all tenants.
High rises usually have maintenance staff during business hours and on call after hours to fix issues. Sometimes you can also hire them for handyman duties, too - I've had them install TVs, hang green screens, or paint a wall.
High rises are often the only cost-effective way to live in the core of a really vibrant city like Chicago: we couldn't have afforded a town home, let alone a single family home.
Not saying that they’re close to arcologies, just that they’re the closest.
The elevator stack in high rise buildings is predicated on almost all the trips terminating at the entrance. That is is why the NYT building has the cafeteria on the 2nd floor.
Thus a highrise is mostly a place where you live and leave or work and leave. If it had the kind of N*(N-1) scaling of interactions a city had there would be no room for apartments and offices between the shafts.
Having said that, the elevators at the NYT are a nightmare with exceptionally long wait times and very little throughput.
(it's possible a few nice ones were built here at there, but those are the exception - people here value houses and gardens, and nobody builds high rises with large floorspace.)
C.f. the fallout from the Grenfell Tower fire. Most of our tower blocks are like that, and all the flats are currently impossible to sell because they all have the wrong, dangerously flammable cladding on.
* https://www.mansionglobal.com/articles/living-the-high-life-...
Modern building practices mean that it's not that easy for a fire to spread, and evacuating the entire building is a last resort.
Every apartment has fire rated doors with a spring forcing them closed (so even if you leave in a panic the door will close behind you)
The interior doors also seem pretty heavy to me, they don't have a fire rating placard but I wouldn't be surprised if they were picked with fire resistance in mind.
I'm lowest worry is fire, highest is easily elevators.
One day at my last building I hears a very loud crashing sound, look in the hallway and FDNY was cutting a hole in a wall to access a stuck elevator on a separate elevator bank...
On one hand, the fact the failed elevator stopped is good, on the other whoever was inside probably had a truly awful time. M