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Old Posted May 22, 2015, 1:46 AM
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philatonian philatonian is offline
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Join Date: May 2008
Location: Philadelphia
Posts: 596
Quote:
Originally Posted by apetrella802 View Post
The requirement that buildings in DC not exceed about 10 stories so that the Capital dome is visible from all over town means there is very little opportunity to shape a building to create inspired architecture.

on the side: did you know that about 45% of the art in the National Gallery of Art is from the Widener collection, a Philadelphia industrialist and 45% is from the Mellon collection a Pittsburg banker. So they owe just about all the art in the NGA to Pennsylvania entrepreneurship. Since DC produces nothing but just takes from other productive parts of the economy I guess this is not surprising. It's 4am and I'm having trouble getting to sleep so this came into my head, I don't know why.
No one's ever really been able to explain the DC height restrictions to me. I think it has something to do with the ratio between the width of the street and the height of the building, kind of like Manhattan's stepped rule, but much shorter. I know it came to be after the Cairo was built, but I'm not sure it has to do with Capitol sight lines. Someone on a DC thread might be able to explain it.

I never had a problem with DC's lack of skyscrapers when I lived there. What irked me was its layout and lack of a core. It's easy to get around, but there is no Center City or Midtown. It's more like a bunch of Passyunk Squares spread throughout the city.

I'm surprised Arlington's never gotten into the height game. They could certainly afford to and I don't think they have any restrictions. As it is, I think the tallest building in Virginia is in VA beach and it's downright ugly. Being from Virginia it always bugged me that such a wealthy state (at least NOVA and parts of Hampton Rhodes) don't seem to get skyscrapers. All VA ever seems focused on is more roads.

I know I've gotten insanely off topic. Back to the CITC.
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