Quote:
Originally Posted by Table 5
Places like 17th (or the old stretch of Inglewood) work because the buildings are typically human-scaled, and tend to use warmer and natural materials like brick or stone.
Skyscrapers on the other hand make for great skylines and add density on paper...but can be pretty cold and imposing when up close. There are always exceptions and they have their place, but in general, I don't really think they make for great neighborhoods.
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And then there's the business reality - new, tall, shiny buildings demand significantly higher rents than the older, human scaled ones least they kill their valuations. Which is why you get TD Bank, A&W, and other Corporate owned tenants instead of that awesome new indie retailer that generates foot traffic.
The SimCity jockey types think it's as simple as penciling in some fine grained retail CRU's on the ground floor of a 30 story condo to activate the street - forgetting this basic reality of business.