Quote:
Originally Posted by wwmiv
Very few American cities ever had buildings from this era at this scale to begin with.
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If my memory serves me correctly, only Chicago (some of the best architecture in all of world history; of course, that is purely subjective), New York, and San Antonio, have these types of buildings. What really bugs people in San Antonio (and anyone that visits and/or knows of San Antonio's history) is the very fact that San Antonio started off so strong, the likes of the former two cities previously mentioned. When it came to highrises, San Anotnio just stopped for some reason. One of the biggest excuses was that San Antonio was small, more cohesive, in which any new architectural inspirations would have overshadow existing structures. Yet that was never the case for Chicago or New York.
A lot of things are changing now. Unfortunately, it is not at the macro level (i.e., taller buildings, larger overall projects). On the one hand, San Antonio is finally addressing areas of downtown often architecturally overlooked (e.g., 601 N. St. Mary's Street) and areas that have been visablity dilapidated or abandoned for decades (e.g., the Solo Serve building on Solodad Street). On the other hand, San Antonio has yet to address the small town feel vs the big town feel that flows throughout not only downtown but other parts as well, frequently demonstrated in its short-term demands of business and residential buildings. It is no surprise that many developers of previously built structures in downtown wish they could have done things differently, often cited by a desire to add more floors to previously finished buildings and by adding more (or less) commercial space (see,
https://saheron.com/the-vistana-apar...ng-to-be-sold/) and/or parking.
- CDM
*some references are missing; will add them with time.