PROMOTING THE BENEFITS OF NEIGHBOURHOODS WITHOUT HIGH-RISES

All Blog Posts (11)

The Fish Building, Rental Agreement Forms, & The Real Estate Humor Blog

You mean you wouldn't want this building showing up in your home town?

I'm with ya, about manageable and attractive cities, but there's a price tag for limiting upward development: scarcer supply = higher prices. If you're in the rental scene, here are some good rental agreement forms, and if you have a funny bone here's a g… Continue

Added by Brian Gregory on October 12, 2009 at 5:30pm — No Comments

Santa Barbara residents organize to save their community character

In a world where making a quick buck is the only thing that most people care about, there is a group of residents in Santa Barbara, California that are making preserving their community character a priority. Save El Pueblo Viejo has been organized to preserve the historical and human-scale character of Santa Barbara, especially its downtown, in the face of new development that threatens it. Thank God there is one sane community on this planet that can serve as a beacon to the rest of us and show… Continue

Added by John Zeger on April 26, 2008 at 7:30am — No Comments

Highrises destroy human scale

Cut and past the following URL into your browser bar http://reversezone.blogdns.com/ and then scroll down to the entry for Jan 21, 2008 "Place to Grow -- Pictures tell the story". It will you a pictoral representation of how the addition of highrises to a city street destroys the human scale that it once had. Continue

Added by John Zeger on February 16, 2008 at 8:00am — No Comments

Highrises are a mistake of the 20th century -- James Howard Kunstler

James Howard Kunstler is a leading opponent of urban sprawl especially in regards to how much energy is wasted as a result of people commuting long distances to go to and from work. In that regard, one might think that Kunstler would favour the construction of highrises because to some they are the antithesis of sprawl. But here is what Kunstler actually says about highrises from an interview conducted by The Tyee website in 2006: "The Tyee: Urbanists say that Vancouver is outperforming America… Continue

Added by John Zeger on February 16, 2008 at 7:53am — No Comments

highrises threaten to ruin the character of London says Prince Charles

Prince Charles stated that new highrises that are being proposed for London threaten to ruin its historic character and diminish the value of heritage sites. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080201.wprincecharles0201/BNStory/International/ Continue

Added by John Zeger on February 4, 2008 at 2:18pm — 1 Comment

Carlsbad, CA city council defends 45 foot building height restriction

Compact development is a concept that I support, but it can be accomplished without compromising human-scale urban design. A case in point is the reaction of some members of Carlsbad, CA city council to a proposal to densify their downtown in order to promote transit-oriented development. http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2008/01/23/news/coastal/2_02_221_22_08.txt Continue

Added by John Zeger on January 23, 2008 at 8:53am — No Comments

Loreto Bay -- a human-scale resort development

Loreto Bay being build in Baja, California will be North America's largest sustainable resort development. It is being developed along human-scale principles and thus will have no highrises. Thereby the natural beauty of the surrounding mountains can be enjoyed by all while creating a more interactive social community.

http://www.terrain.org/unsprawl/

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Added by John Zeger on January 22, 2008 at 11:15am — No Comments

residents in Yonkers, New York reject high-rises

Residents in Yonkers, New York, immediately north of New York City along the Hudson River, rejected a developer proposal for 25 storey high-rises in their communities and instead promoted a concept of human scale development there. http://www.scenichudson.org/node/64 Continue

Added by John Zeger on December 12, 2007 at 10:13am — No Comments

human scale in New England

Here are some case histories and examples of human scale development that was done in New England cities in order to maintain the traditional character of neighbourhoods and to encourage development that was comfortable for pedestrians and conducive to community life: http://www.nh.gov/oep/programs/SmartGrowth/learn/documents/principle-2.pdf Continue

Added by John Zeger on December 12, 2007 at 10:07am — No Comments

Fairview Village, Portland. OR

A good example of human scale development is award-winning Fairview Village in Portland, Oregon. The following link takes you to a website that describes this project in greater detail as well as describing some of the social advantages of this type of design. http://www.fairviewvillage.com/main.html If only the rest of Portland were developed like this instead of with high-rises such as in their downtown, then it might have become a more ap… Continue

Added by John Zeger on December 12, 2007 at 9:09am — No Comments

"My greatest crime was the construction of high-rise buildings" -- an architect's confession

"My greatest crime was the construction of high-rise buildings. The most successful cities of the past were those where people and buildings were in a certain balance with nature. But high-rise buildings work against nature, or, in modern terms, against the environment. High-rise buildings work against man himself, because they isolate him from others, and this isolation is an important factor in the rising crime rate. Children suffer even more because they lose their direct contacts with nat

… Continue

Added by John Zeger on December 7, 2007 at 2:20pm — No Comments

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