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How Skyscrapers Can Save the City
- Thread starter threnody
- Start date
grey
Senior Member
Oversimplified.
Lansdude
Active Member
I'm surprised this wasn't Richard Florida...
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adma
Superstar
He wouldn't brush off preservationists so.
ganjavih
Senior Member
One could easily write an article entitled "How Skyscrapers Can Destroy the City". Note that the vibrant thriving neighbourhoods of New York, Paris, and Mumbai are generally skyscraper free.
Bogtrotter
Senior Member
I wouldn't say St. James town is greener or has fostered creativity.
freshcutgrass
Senior Member
Right. So what we are talking about here is density...not really skyscrapers. Skyscrapers are simply one method of achieving density. And without proper urban planning and land use policies, not effective at all. And Toronto is full of good and band examples of it.
Well, it's definitely greener than sprawl. It's a case of good density but not so great urban design (but still fixable). When a city screws up on a couple of square blocks, it doesn't wreck the whole city. But when you build an entire 905 the way they did, the effects are catastrophic.
I recently went through Milton, and when I got home I immediately turned on the tv to see if Charlie's Angels was on. Due to the horrifying number of tract homes going up there, I swear I had been transported back to the 70's. What are they thinking???????
wyliepoon
Senior Member
The Demographia International Housing Affordability Survey recently showed that Hong Kong was the least affordable city in terms of housing compared to 324 housing markets in English speaking countries (including Canada). Wendell Cox was probably sending some sort of message putting Hong Kong at the top of his list, but the survey was widely reported in the media in Hong Kong where a debate is raging not about urban density, but whether the government should build more public housing to make housing more affordable again.
Whether tall buildings "foster social capital and creativity" really depends on the context in which the buildings are built. The typical public housing "superblock" in North America is traditionally seen as crime-infested neighbourhoods, but the same built form put in various cities in Asia actually creates a nice sense of community (I think we do see some of that sense of community here in Toronto with East Asians and South Asians moving into places like St. James Town).
adma
Superstar
Pretty sophomoric statement. Esp. as the truer 70s-flashback expression wouldn't be tract homes, but rather townhouses/cluster housing/stratas a la Three's Company et al...
freshcutgrass
Senior Member
In the 905? It appears the detached, single family home in large, single use zoned areas was the predominant housing form at the time?
I won't bet the farm on it, as I was living in Otterville, Ontario through the 70's, and don't make a habit of exploring the 905 that much.
I also didn't watch Three's Company either...comedy too sub-mental even for my teenaged mentality.
The un-intended comedic value and blatant gratuitous sex of Charlie's Angels...now that was right up my alley!!
I suddenly have the urge to splash on some Paco Rabanne, attend a key party, and down some Singapore Slings.
adma
Superstar
Yeah, as a holdover from the 50s and 60s. Though even then, by the 70s, the stronger trend was t/w "densifying" the suburbs--whether through those dreaded commie-block highrises or through clusters of townhouses a la those you find peppering the original parts of Erin Mills/Meadowvale, Bramalea, etc. (And which, these days, may often even border upon having recent-past heritage landmark value, believe it or not.)
Danielinthecity
Active Member
Good obervations
Forget the mostly irrelevent comments made about your reference to Milton/70's...your preceding statements hit the nail on the head...it's density AND design together that make a city livable.
Forget the mostly irrelevent comments made about your reference to Milton/70's...your preceding statements hit the nail on the head...it's density AND design together that make a city livable.
TrickyRicky
Senior Member
Actually what makes a city livable is people. Design and density do have some tertiary influence.
Dan416
Senior Member
Everyone knows Milton is just a suburb of Mississauga these days, especially since Mississauga ran out of land for new subdivisions, the developers ran to Milton.
neubilder
Banned
Wrong.