Are skyscraper cities becoming---bleh?

[the urban politician]

They used to be unique and novel--New York, Hong Kong, Chicago--innovative and different. A sign of commerce and bustle, of a sense of place.

Now, every damn city is having highrise booms. Skyscraper construction has truly become commoditized. Asia, the Middle East, South America, Canada. Ho hum towers, and the skyscraper district is no longer synonymous with wealth, power, and commerce. It's just where stacks of people live.

There doesn't seem to be the same glory in it that, say, there was even as recently as 20 years ago!

Thoughts?

[photoLith]

The more skyscrapers the better.

[The North One]

Generally, I say yes but I don't think Chicago has reached an oversaturated point yet although New York certainly has. Also, the height of skyscrapers have gotten ridiculous, there's a point where projects just start looking like awful sci-fi movie rejects. It's easy to build skyscrapers so we make lots of them, but the best kind of urban areas are usually midrise and human-scaled but that's harder to achieve and developers prefer larger projects with much higher payoffs. I still love skyscrapers and skyscraper filled downtowns, especially the old American ones, but everything is only good in moderation and we're not building 20's masterpieces anymore.

But in regards to your question, I say yes. A Vienna/Paris is a thousand times better than a Manhattan/Shanghai.

[pico44]

Originally Posted by The North One

But in regards to your question, I say yes. A Vienna/Paris is a thousand times better than a Manhattan/Shanghai.

What the hell does that even mean? Vienna is a thousand times better than Manhattan? You have said A LOT of idiotic things on this forum, so this might seem like an outrageous comment, but that has to be the stupidest thing you have ever written here.

[pico44]

That comment was so stupid, I forgot to address the craziness of saying "skyscrapers are bleh" on skyscraperpage. If you think skyscrapers are "bleh" nowadays, maybe you should check out some of the New York projects in the works. Some pretty cool stuff...

[SpireGuy]

Originally Posted by pico44

That comment was so stupid, I forgot to address the craziness of saying "skyscrapers are bleh" on skyscraperpage. If you think skyscrapers are "bleh" nowadays, maybe you should check out some of the New York projects in the works. Some pretty cool stuff...

Everything going up near Highline and the SHoP Towers going up are awesome. So bored of the Chicago stuff going up. We don't push the envelope anymore... Everything is just blue and it looks like everything that goes up everywhere else in the world.

[Pedestrian]

Originally Posted by pico44

that has to be the stupidest thing you have ever written here.

Wow. There’s a LOT of competition for that honor.

Frankly, this thread is pure trolling.

[Doady]

In Canada, most skyscrapers were built in 50s/60s/70s, and they mostly look like this:



And this:



Stop living the past, try to live in the present a little more.

[jd3189]

I enjoy skyscrapers in every major city. It saves space and provides something to look at or from in the city in question.

[the urban politician]

Originally Posted by Pedestrian

Wow. There’s a LOT of competition for that honor.

Frankly, this thread is pure trolling.

Screw your attitude. This thread is not trolling. I love skyscrapers for what they historically have been. But in many places in the world they have turned into just a ho hum people storage cylinder that can easily go up in bulk because of modern construction techniques and easy credit.

If you can't value this discussion then comment no further here.

[the urban politician]

Originally Posted by Pedestrian

Wow. There’s a LOT of competition for that honor.

Frankly, this thread is pure trolling.

Originally Posted by pico44

That comment was so stupid, I forgot to address the craziness of saying "skyscrapers are bleh" on skyscraperpage. If you think skyscrapers are "bleh" nowadays, maybe you should check out some of the New York projects in the works. Some pretty cool stuff...

Yes, there is "cool" stuff going on in many places. That's kind of obvious and has little to do with my point or the entire point of this thread.

I guess I'm saying that as time passes, the proportion of skyscrapers going up that are shit versus those that are stunners continues to go up.

[the urban politician]

Originally Posted by photoLith

The more skyscrapers the better.

I agree from an urbanity and density/land use standpoint.

But aesthetically, I feel there are far too many skyscraper jungle cities now. I liked it better when they were more unique.

A world full of Vancouvers comes to mind

[the urban politician]

Originally Posted by SpireGuy

Everything going up near Highline and the SHoP Towers going up are awesome. So bored of the Chicago stuff going up. We don't push the envelope anymore... Everything is just blue and it looks like everything that goes up everywhere else in the world.

Give me a break. You're the guy who praises One Bennett Park, probably because it looks so "New York"

[dubu]

This thread reminds me of kinos journey. all the episodes with cities the cities are like Venezia and Prague. There’s one episode that is in Chicago and it was very different. I’d post pics but I’m on my phone. But it would be very different to live in a city like Chicago

[Steely Dan]

Yeah, skyscrapers are pretty fucking played out.

I'm all about strip malls and stand alone drive-thru fast food restaurants these days.

Also, little caesars makes really yummy pizza!

[dubu]

The only big city I’ve been to is San Francisco so I don’t know. I sorta thought all cities are the same just like suburbs are always the same.

Soon I’m going to Chicago hopefully though. I have family and friends there

[The Chemist]

Originally Posted by The North One

But in regards to your question, I say yes. A Vienna/Paris is a thousand times better than a Manhattan/Shanghai.

I've been to Paris, and I live in Shanghai. Both are very different cities, but both are amazing in their own ways.

[SpireGuy]

Originally Posted by the urban politician

Give me a break. You're the guy who praises One Bennett Park, probably because it looks so "New York"

I never praised One Bennett Park. The proportions are nice enough, but the curtain wall is cheap and dull, just precast concrete. They didn’t even bother to include the copper along some of the windows. It’s no NBC Tower, which is a true gem.

[Crawford]

Originally Posted by The North One

But in regards to your question, I say yes. A Vienna/Paris is a thousand times better than a Manhattan/Shanghai.

Vienna doesn't look much like Paris, and is mostly commieblocks. 60% of Viennese live in public housing. Manhattan and Shanghai are pretty radically different too.

I doubt you understand the nuances of any of these cities.

[toddguy]

Columbus is very generic-it is known for being generic and "bleh"-test city USA and all. So why not add some more "bleh"? Yes, I say bring on the "bleh". Much more "bleh". We will take ANY SHoP tower, and will give a hearty welcome to even a precast limited copper One Bennett Park too. Just not the Dubai or Pudong,etc craziness though-we are too "bleh" for that.

*we will also happily take that new circular tower proposed for Vancouver too!
*And nobody really likes Little Caesar's...but it is five bucks and you can pull up and get it via drive through window....

And given the likelihood of any of this happening, can we get Amazon too(to give a reason for the skyscraper influx? especially since Atlanta/Georgia just shot itself in the foot(no pun intended)?