Perfect summer days in Brooklyn can begin and end with the city at your feet. When you gaze out from your private terrace or the rooftop garden at your Brooklyn Heights home at The Standish, you’ll be taking in panoramic views of the river, the harbor, Downtown Manhattan, Governors Island, and the neighboring rooftops of the quaint townhouses that make Brooklyn Heights one of the most charming and elegant neighborhoods in all of New York City. Head to the roof to soak in the sunset and watch the pink light reflect off the skyline.

While the views are striking for their beauty, they are equally exciting for the possibilities they contain. Just steps from The Standish you will find charming gardens and playgrounds, the Brooklyn Heights promenade, and a giant waterfront park that is changing the landscape and the way denizens of Brooklyn Heights inhabit the city. Brooklyn Bridge Park is an 85-acre space that has been years in the making. The design by the landscape architects at Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates includes a salt march, a river beach with tide pools, playgrounds, sports fields, a greenway, and multiple venues for some of the best ice cream in the city.

The park is so popular, that it’s no surprise it was recently featured on the cover of The New Yorker, crowning it as a relative newcomer that has won the hearts of the locals and become an extension of their lives. According to Jorge Colombo, the artist responsible for that cover, the park is “one of my favorite places to hang out. I live down the street, in Brooklyn Heights, so I go there all the time, either to take the East River Ferry or just to relax by the water. It is a magnet — people come from all of Brooklyn’s many neighborhoods just to take a selfie by the waterfront or picnic by the water.”

Steps from the condominiums at The Standish is Pier 5, where you can spend the afternoon playing soccer, lacrosse, rugby, flag football, and ultimate frisbee on the sports fields. The pier is also the place to catch fish at a fishing station, host a picnic on “Picnic Peninsula,” which is equipped with hibachi-style grills, or grab a cone of Butter Pecan Brittle at the latest outpost of Ample Hills Creamery.

If that doesn’t already sound like the stay-cation of your dreams, there is a new marina with a sailing club, slips for boat owners, and public programs for newbies, so that you can get out on the water whenever you choose. “We are developing this marina as a learning club,” Tim O’Brien, the marina manager told The Wall Street Journal, “so people who don’t know anything about sailing can come enjoy the water.” There’s nothing like coming home to a rooftop terrace with expansive views across the river, and the one thing that makes it that much sweeter is taking it in after you’ve sailed across it.