Quote:
Originally Posted by Prometheus
Let us hear your argument then. How precisely have they "served the city very well"? What precisely have they achieved and why is it best? Let us evaluate the soundness of your argument.
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(This probably belongs in some other thread)
Thanks for pressing me on this. Honestly, it's always been a gut feeling of mine and I've never given deep thought to the exact reasons why. Isn't that awful? I know I'm just not the hard core skyscraper geek that I should be... hehe. BTW, I never said that [the viewcones] were the best. I just think they've served us well.
I can see JLo has articulated some reasons which seem quite good reasons, but those reason are a little different than mine.
Well for starters, I just think that the viewcones basically helped shape a very dense skyline. Vancouver is a small and young city and if we built without height restrictions we'd have gone down the Seattle clone path, with a cluster of talls that fall off very quickly into low density.
The way the viewcones spray across the downtown peninsula from the south, it forces buildings with smaller floorplates. Without big fat buildings, the city is able to build more buildings, and more per block. Developers would want that too.
Add all this up, without the forced shorter and narrower buildings, we'd probably still have large tracts of industrial waste land in False Creek North, Coal Harbour would not be what it is today, if at all.
I'm not educated on the history and origins of the view cones in Vancouver. But I suspect that originally at least in part it was a case of NIMBYism, where ppl in the affluent areas of Vancouver didn't want the views of the mountains and the water blocked by hideous buildings. Ok, if that was the case that's pretty damn selfish, but somehow the City over time was able to take those view cone guidelines and turn it on it's ear and make something positive out of it.
Yes view cones are arbitrary and restrictive, but they have shaped the aesthetic quality of the city and at the very least has made it somewhat unique among North American cities. The aesthetic has been exported, so there must be some objective beauty in it.
We really are blessed that Expo 86 and Li Ka-shing came around when they did. Without those two key events, view cones would have been a very disgusting thing indeed.
All this being said, I will depart from JLo's stance as it pertains to viewcones and today. I think viewcones are still relevant, but we need to revise them. There's a point when they become overly-restrictive, especially since the downtown peninsula is effectively built out now.
Things I really like about the city's built form is the graded height increases as you move away from the waterfront. Shorter buildings near the water is something I really appreciate. And JLo pointed out [sic] that there's alot of light and air that permeate the city, even in the densest areas.
I know I'm all over the place... sorry. I feel like a guy that is holding up a sign with scribbled ramblings on a cardboard box with a black marker and standing on the sidewalk.
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