2823 Providence Road 280 Charlotte, NC 28211

From this eighth-floor penthouse above the tree canopy at Rosewood, the day begins and ends with the sky. Morning light pours across the sunrise balcony while the coffee is still hot, and by evening the horizon beyond the living room has turned to embers, with a white church steeple standing in silhouette above a sea of oaks, a breathtaking show that never plays the same way twice. This is a true corner residence on the top floor, one of the rarest offerings in the building, and it feels less like a condominium than a house in the sky, with nearly 2,600 square feet on a single level beneath 12-foot ceilings, where tall French windows draw the light across site-finished hardwoods from two directions. Though the building opened in 2008, this residence was not completed until 2014, a later chapter in Rosewood's story, and its kitchen is fitted with Wolf and Sub-Zero.

Evenings gather in the great room around the gas fireplace while dinner comes together in the kitchen, and the dining area opens through French doors to a Juliet balcony above the treetops, eye level with the top of the steeple, where no one is in a hurry to leave the table. Beyond a second pair of French doors the bedroom wing keeps its own hush, and at the far end the primary suite waits with a private balcony, a large walk-in closet and a soaking tub set in a bay of windows. Two more bedrooms, three and a half baths and a full laundry room complete the home, and in the garage two generous parking spaces, set across from one another and each framed by columns for extra elbow room, come with a private storage unit.

Step off the elevator and Rosewood feels like a private resort, with eight and a half acres of gardens beneath mature oaks, a saltwater pool and its long brick terrace, tennis and pickleball, a fitness center, a coffee bar in the lobby where neighbors linger, and a paneled club room with a fireplace for the nights you host. A concierge who knows your name greets your guests and receives your packages, security keeps watch around the clock, and when you want to disappear for a month you simply lock the door and go. The $1,300 monthly dues include cable and high-speed internet and keep the building and grounds looking the way they do, with nearly 30 percent of the budget set aside in reserves and no special assessments pending. SouthPark is two miles away, Uptown four, and the shops and restaurants of Cotswold are just around the corner.