More important, the building was close to work. Studio prices were in the high $2,000s a month.

When Ms. Turner visited, she encountered noisy construction directly outside. The studio she saw had a small window and a big kitchen.

“I thought, ‘How often am I going to be in this kitchen, entertaining me, myself and I?’” she said. “How important is that compared to more than one window?”

She almost signed at the Dylan, a 10-year-old tower on Fifth Avenue near West 32nd Street.

At $3,350 a month, the studio she looked at was over her budget. And she was unhappy about the additional fee of $45 a month to use the gym and the basketball court, but she decided to go for it.