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Old Posted Sep 19, 2019, 11:09 PM
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MonkeyRonin MonkeyRonin is offline
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Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: Vancouver
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Quote:
Originally Posted by kool maudit View Post
But wasn't that always the case? Isn't that just what New York is?

Back in the day, there were those who found it absurd to see a replica of the Halicarnassus Mausoleum sitting on top of a giant tower built by a dime-store mogul (or whatever).

Sure, building as high as humanly possible on often tight sites is a classic Manhattanism - and the results are certainly an impressive structural feat, to be sure. But you still ultimately need to consider height:width ratio as an aesthetic judgement. And while I actually like skinny towers, there's a point at which they start to look like gawky, weirdly anorexic twigs teetering above the skyline.



Quote:
Originally Posted by Crawford View Post
In NYC, you're gonna get a lot-filling building. Building size is strictly a function of floor area ratio. You can't build bigger and no one builds less than the max allowed. So the question is whether you prefer shorter, wider towers, or taller thinner towers. I generally prefer the latter because it preserves street-level vitality and historic buildings. 57th Street still has delis and tiny historic buildings, in part because the new tower footprints are tiny.

The supertalls of West 57th aren't built to that height for economic viability under any usual circumstances though. The cost of construction relative to floorspace is extremely inefficient and is only made viable by being able to market them to the ultra-rich at a premium on the basis of being really, really tall.

Otherwise, if we're talking about more typical infill buildings I agree with you - better to go thin and tall(ish) than short and squat.
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