Aye.......I've been arguing that for years, Squirm.
Plus the fact that trees often hide the architectural features of shorter buildings.
Hate trees? I LOVE trees. I love them in parks, along parkways, in yards. One of my favorite cities in LA County is Pasadena, precisely because there ARE so many trees.
In a downtown urban core? Not so much.
And as to New York - my least favorite part of town is along 6th Avenue in Midtown....precisely because it's filled with more modern buildings and their silly plazas and setbacks. It certainly doesn't "feel" New York.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Those Who Squirm
The 150' height limitation wouldn't have been able to handle the demand for space as the population grew, or for that matter the weekday population of workers in downtown L.A. Requiring property owners to design large setbacks bedecked with lawns and fountains and the like imposes a suburban aesthetic on a city, and moreover, greenspace on private commercial property does nothing to alleviate a dearth of usable parks and public spaces.
From the point of view of meeting people's actual needs, I'd rather have a Manhattan-style urban plan any day, by which I mean that larger commercial or multi-family structures should be built out to the sidewalks, but there should also be adequate public parks and other spaces for the residents to use.
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