Quote:
Originally Posted by Klazu
I find Atlanta interesting as it so opposite to Vancouver, but what Vancouver could have become if freeway plans would have materialized.
I wonder why do cities like Atlanta have even ended up building skyscrapers in their Downtowns? Land cannot be of much value since there are empty ground parking lots everywhere and half of the buildings seem to be parkades.  So why build tall skyscrapers which are expensive to build, when you could easily fit the same amount of employees in 3-4 adjacent buildings? Did they over-estimate the demand in the late 80s when most of them were built or is it just that corporations like having huge landmark offices?
Actually even Vancouver seems to have looked similar to Atlanta before our condo boom that began in the 90s. So I guess there is a possibility to fix even a cityscape as broken as in Atlanta. I walked around the Midtown area today and there seems to be lots of condo towers going up in there. Not the same street vibe as we have in Vancouver, but compared to Downtown I found the Midtown much more pleasing. |
As an American I'll say this........our urban planners seem to be also driven a lot by ego and the desire to have the tallest buildings possible in their respective CBD's. In short, this country (in being the so called center of global capitalism) is a big/wasteful economic behemoth!!!!