90° Corner Enclosure: The Luxury Standard for NYC Showers

A 90° corner enclosure is two glass walls meeting at a right angle — typically a door panel on one side and a fixed panel on the other, joined by a glass-to-glass hinge or clamp at the corner. It's the configuration that looks the most like a "glass room" and it's what most people picture when they think of a high-end frameless shower.

Two glass walls at 90° — the luxury standard

This configuration is what you see in hotel bathrooms, luxury condo model units, and high-end renovation features. The reason it reads as premium is simple: there are no walls hiding behind the glass. Two full sides of the shower are transparent, which floods the bathroom with light and makes the space feel dramatically larger.

The 90° corner requires a shower niche — meaning two walls of tile or stone form the back and one side of the shower, and the glass forms the front and the other side. This is the standard layout for built-in showers in NYC bathrooms, which is why this enclosure works so well here.

The glass-to-glass connection at the 90° corner is the engineering centerpiece. A precision clamp — like the one shown above in satin brass — holds two panels of heavy tempered glass at exactly 90°, with no frame, no channel, just glass meeting glass. It's one of the cleanest looks in residential glass work.

Why corners work in tight NYC bathrooms

You might think a corner enclosure needs a big bathroom. It doesn't. In fact, it's one of the best solutions for NYC's compact layouts:

• It uses the corner efficiently. Showers in NYC apartments are almost always in a corner. A 90° enclosure follows the natural geometry of the room rather than fighting it.
• The glass disappears visually. Unlike a shower curtain or framed enclosure, frameless glass doesn't create a visual barrier. The bathroom looks and feels larger because your eye travels through the glass.
• The door can be sized to the space. The door panel is typically 24–30" and the fixed panel extends to fill the remaining opening. This flexibility means we can fit corner enclosures in showers as small as 36"×36".

Cost premium — and why it's worth it

A 90° corner enclosure typically runs $1,800–$3,000+ installed in NYC. That's more than a single swing door ($800–$1,500) because you're getting significantly more glass and more hardware:

• Two large panels of tempered glass instead of one
• Glass-to-glass clamps at the 90° joint
• Wall-mount hinges for the door
• Wall clamps or U-channel for the fixed side
• Possibly a support bar for the fixed panel
• Handle and towel bar

The cost premium is real — but so is the visual impact. A 90° corner enclosure transforms a bathroom more than almost any other single upgrade. For NYC co-op and condo owners thinking about resale, it's also one of the upgrades that buyers notice immediately.