Texans treasure their wide open spaces. In a state where flat, subdivision-friendly land seems to stretch from Galveston Bay to Oklahoma, it’s hardly a surprise that the word “home” has become synonymous with single-family houses set atop big yards.

Lately, though, sleek new towers rising around Houston have challenged the prevailing attitude that apartments are fit only for those too old, too young or too broke to buy a house.

Hyped at the height of the housing boom as bold experiments in urban living, high-end high rises like the Cosmopolitan, 2727 Kirby, One Park Place and a klatch of others have since evolved into vertical neighborhoods filled with families, empty nesters and a growing number of suburbanites who no longer spend their weekends thinking about lawn care.

“There’s certainly a lot more choices now,” says Dr. Fabian Worthing III.

The plastic surgeon traded his house for an apartment in One Park Place eight months ago. He’d lived a couple blocks away at the Four Seasons condos 15 years ago, but a lot has changed downtown since then. His new, 1,900-square-foot perch 22 floors up overlooks Discovery Green, features extensive soundproofing and comes with a community pool modeled after the waters of the Ritz-Carlton in Maui.

“It faces east, so I watch the sun rise,” Worthing says. Afterward he makes a relatively fast 30-minute commute in the opposite direction of rush hour traffic to his office outside the Beltway.

“I just decided that at this point in my life, I’m 60 now, I kind of wanted to simplify my life,” Worthing says.

Walking on up to the River Oaks side

These days, magnolia trees bloom right outside the "home" of Shannon Hall at Regency House, where he simplified his life in similar fashion 10 years ago. The co-owner of Sloan/Hall walks to his shop every day and lives within a quick stroll of Chuy’s, Whole Foods, the Red Room and any number of other River Oaks enclaves.

Built in 1962, his building long-ago established the sort of community and lifestyle that’s recently drawn greater numbers of Houston families into high rises.

“It really is a neighborhood, and I’ve enjoyed that component of it,” Hall says, “having kids in the building, but also older people and young people that are remodeling the apartments and kind of re-inventing the building.”

Even downtown, where the nightlife might make one expect new buildings to fill with childless hipsters, residents have been surprised by the variety of people moving in.

Kathleen Hayes says her neighbors include expectant mothers, downtown workers with houses elsewhere, empty nesters and young professionals alike. She sold her house in Tanglewood to rent at One Park Place — a move she says actually saves money after she factors in taxes and maintenance — and she hasn’t looked back.

“Being able to walk to work and walk home for lunch is just priceless for me,” says Hayes, a longtime financial advisor at a downtown firm.

Beyond work, she and her husband never have to hunt for parking when they frequent the theater, Rockets games or nearby restaurants. She often bumps into neighbors on the street, and she feels much safer wandering around downtown than she would have a few years ago. Plus, she says, walking everywhere even caused her to lose weight.

While pleased with her new digs, Hayes notes that it is a different lifestyle and won’t suit everybody. Most families still prefer a yard to a balcony.

Also, living in closer quarters makes it crucial to have a good sense of the community living in a building and wherever a homeowners’ association is functional, should you decide to go condo. For a growing contingent of Houstonians, though, living the high life has never made more sense.

“I would imagine five years from now people won’t even wonder why we did what we did,” Hayes says.

Watch the high-rise life: