At Queens West, the sprawling multiuse riverfront complex in Long Island City, Queens, the developer TF Cornerstone built higher over fill, eliminated basements, installed mechanical systems on the first and second floors and added floodgates at the entrances of five residential buildings, said Jon McMillan, the firm’s director of planning. He said the firm was acting on advice from Architectonica, a Miami firm that is familiar with the ravages of hurricanes.

During Hurricane Sandy, Mr. McMillan said, the water did not reach the lobby doors of the five buildings, which are all occupied, so the protections were not tested.

Still, such provisions might have made a big difference at another TF Cornerstone property, the 52-story luxury high-rise at 2 Gold Street in Lower Manhattan, he said. The flooding there knocked out the building’s electrical and mechanical systems, and residents of its 850 apartments have been told they cannot return home until March because the equipment, which corrodes with saltwater, has to be reordered and built.

“This is in the center of Lower Manhattan on the East Side, so we were not thinking about sea-level rise,” Mr. McMillan said of the building, completed in 2005.

TF Cornerstone is now planning to create watertight, submarine-like enclosures for the electrical room and other equipment at 2 Gold, he said. And the firm is considering placing all mechanical equipment above ground in a new Midtown project it envisions building on the Hudson.

Some in the real estate industry predict a new appeal for midrise buildings. Thomas Guss, a broker who caters to an international wealthy clientele, said interest in smaller luxury residential buildings like the 19-floor Centurion, a condominium at 33 West 56th Street designed by I. M. Pei, had doubled since the storm. He said potential buyers had told him they feared being trapped in their apartments with no lights or water, or having to climb 50 flights of stairs.

“Suddenly, people who wanted the 50th floor now want the 15th,” he said. “People realize that when there’s no elevator, maybe the view is not as magical anymore.”