Re: Re: More Changes on Broadway
Dan: Setbacks don’t “suck.” In fact, in most cities - including Vancouver, B.C., the model we’re supposedly striving for - they’re required. You would never see a building like this in Vancouver, because Vancouver requires wide, pedestrian-friendly sidewalks and narrower buildings that don’t take up entire lots. (So, by the way, does Portland.) Vancouver, which has no height limits, nonetheless requires buildings to be shorter on the side that faces the street, in keeping with the principle that tall buildings feel oppressive and monolithic when they’re jammed right against heavily traveled sidewalks. Too many people who talk about wanting a city full of “tall and skinny” buildings forget that tall and skinny aren’t the same thing. For a building to be thin, it has to be set back from the street. I’m talking about sidewalks, Dan, not parking-lot-sized courtyards for the homeless. Look at Hawthorne Street in Portland, where buildings that aren’t set back from the street seem totally out of scale with the surrounding developments - even when they’re exactly the same size.
goddamn I wish I could see some images of this presumed monstrosity. Is it as ugly as the new aerial rebuild?