Quote:
Originally Posted by LouisVanDerWright
I know you are hoping for something else, but the government was even less involved with the construction of these buildings than it is today. Sears and JHC we're built before there was any height or significant zoning regulation in the downtown area. They were basically as-of-right, NIMBYs go to hell, developments because back then developers and companies could basically build whatever they wanted downtown as long as the city issued permits for the design.
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Yeah, i read up on it a bit and it seems like the city had very little to do with it. That said, it does seem that there was a stronger view to the long-term potential of a site, so risk assessment was different back then. However, banking on Sears seeing strong growth after construction turned out to be a disaster, and the building sat half vacant for a decade. JHT on the other hand was a big success owing to its mixed-use advantage.
In the end, I like your idea about requiring relative heights for special sites rather than a specific number. Also, using JHT as a an example, you could encourage people to build taller by requiring mixed use in some cases. Other than that, the only really specific requirements I am in favor of are at street level.
Another interesting thing about Sears - it was the largest retailer in the world during construction, with 350,000 employees worldwide! so it was a very special case indeed.