Quote:
Originally Posted by ardecila
Eh, Chicago could learn a lot from Hong Kong. Not a lot of Good Architecture(TM) but it's a far more vibrant, diverse, and transit-oriented city.
Also, most of the buildings in Lakeshore East are pretty generic/mediocre anyway (Lancaster, Shoreham, Tides, etc) - might as well be HK.
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Most of the architecture in Hong Kong is terrible. I can always tell who has actually been to HK and actually got around to multiple areas by how they talk about its architecture. They have some interesting buildings but thr vast majority of buildings there are concrete monoliths. The "blah" architecture in downtown Chicago is still much better than the "blah" architecture of Hong Kong. There is only a few small areas.of nice architecture there. Don't be fooled by the great night time pictures along the bay. Those are nice but not indicative of how the city actually is. There's only so much you can do when there's storms like typhoons every year. You'll find this reality through SE Asia. There are nice buildings and then theres a lot more not nice at all buildings.
Yeah, the vibrancy of the city is a lot higher but there is also a lot of unhealthy density (i.e. tons of apartments no more than 120 sq ft). It really depends on where you are but be careful what you wish for. I've been to 7 cities in Mainland China and Hong Kong, and some areas of Hong Kong were unlike anything I've seen almost anywhere in the world. I'm all for healthy density and street vibrancy but some of what Ive experienced in HK was not a good level of vibrancy and even worse than anywhere in Manhattan and certainly much worse than anything I've experienced in mainland China. Chicago is more similar to certain areas of cities like Shanghai (believe it or not) which is crowded, but doesn't feel (at least the 3 times I've been there) crazy annoying like HK. In my own opinion, a city like Shanghai is something to strive more for ...central Shanghai i mean..than Hong Kong. But thats just based on my own experience in these cities as well as my own preferences.