Skylines and Developments of the US/World

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Appreciation/new development thread.

Gold Coast: Australia.

 

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Future London


1 undershaft

 

[stefal]

Wow, constructing 1 Undershaft would be very impressive, not because of the uninspired design, but because of how constricted the site is and it's accessibility for deliveries and heavy machinery in the high density that exists there. I remember with the Leadenhall building (right next to 1 Undershaft), the engineers and construction managers had to painstakingly plan out every delivery, by the hour, even by the minute. It was so complex they had to run computer simulations of the construction over and over until they got it perfect. It's quite a feat of engineering. I can only imagine it being even more difficult for the construction of this building.

 

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The One- Toronto

 

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Heres Dublin, where I got my northern ave bridge proposal from and modified it:

I still think I had the best proposal and since they aren't actually building any of the bridges that they selected I think they should take another hard look at what I gave them. Imagine essentially this over the Fort Point channel replacing the northern ave bridge. These are actually pretty cheap to build as well, considering.

 

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Hong Kong

 

[Shepard]

^ That's a proposal (I believe called The Kiss or something like that) which will never be built as rendered.

 

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Lol the people that hate Devon energy tower are really gonna hate this. 430m Akhmat tower Chechnya.

 

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Osaka japan now has Japans tallest tower, the Supertall Abeno Harukas.

 

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The one Toronto redesigned and u/c 1014 ft.

 

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Ysl Toronto

 

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Londons future skyline. The 2nd tallest shitty glass one is almost t/o. 1 undershaft starts soon.

 

[bigpicture7]

Recently visited Santiago, Chile for the first time.
Thought I'd share some photos. There's a pretty solid amount of contemporary architecture there, mixed in with the historic.

 

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Cairo Egypt

Cairo tower imo one of the worlds nicest observation towers

Imagine if this had been built to a substantial height, it would unquestionably be a world renowned icon. This thing at Burj Khalifa height would have been world class, having this and the pyramids not too far from eachother really would be something else. Even CN tower height would have been incredible.

 

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London construction:

Dermutt, Skyscrapercity

 

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Recently visited Santiago, Chile for the first time.
Thought I'd share some photos. There's a pretty solid amount of contemporary architecture there, mixed in with the historic.

Oh wow! I had no idea, thats amazing. Theyre well on their way to a megacity. This, Mexico City, and Rio are a few of the only sprawling megacities in the Americas. Santiago almost looks like an asian megapolis. I feel like if LA had never moved away from transit and had looser zoning so it wasnt so much low rise sprawl it would have looked something like this and the asian megacities. Instead it has a very American centralized downtown and low rises emanating away from it. It would be cool to have one in the US, something like a Seoul for example:

https://media.wired.com/photos/59aefd1540adcf64e81fd721/master/pass/GettyImages-629196228.jpg

Maybe some day. Im sure LAs density is going to spread out along its new transit lines, and they are relaxing zoning, but itd be a long time before something like this happens. NYC is starting to spread out its high rises into its boroughs so it may be the only city that heads in that direction, although its still creating centralized cbd like areas where its new high rises are in the boroughs vs spread out like other megacities.

 

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Figured Id ask this here since were pretty big fans of cities and how they work here. So Ive been all over the world, but never to Paris. How does La Defense work? It looks like a city that was built on top of the roads, like an entire air rights city. Is this accurate?

It seems like the roads pass all underneath this neighborhood, and then its walking only at “ground level” of the buildings. So id imagine the metro also comes in under the neighborhood, and then the stairs come up from underground, keep going past the road level, and then come out up top where the buildings are? Do the roads under the city lead to a few parking garages too where everyone that drives there parks and then walks up a level to the plaza? It looks different than any other city. It is cool though that they were able to leave the historic part of the city untouched and just build the downtown in a separate area.

Seems like a pretty smart and unique approach to preservation where they just left the old city as is and now instead of tip toeing around trying to build they have a designated area where they dont have to worry and can just build as much as they need. It also looks like they have some cool proposals coming too, and I think they could really make this a great area as well. Again I havent been there, but maybe make the plaza less vast also?

 

[KentXie]

^^That's how they did it in Chicago; pass-through traffic on the second level, pedestrian and street level traffic on the top level, and I think the bottom level is mainly for freight. There are stairs that you can climb to get to each level. Probably the same idea in Paris.

 

[dshoost88]

Figured Id ask this here since were pretty big fans of cities and how they work here. So Ive been all over the world, but never to Paris. How does La Defense work? It looks like a city that was built on top of the roads, like an entire air rights city. Is this accurate?

It seems like the roads pass all underneath this neighborhood, and then its walking only at “ground level” of the buildings. So id imagine the metro also comes in under the neighborhood, and then the stairs come up from underground, keep going past the road level, and then come out up top where the buildings are? Do the roads under the city lead to a few parking garages too where everyone that drives there parks and then walks up a level to the plaza? It looks different than any other city. It is cool though that they were able to leave the historic part of the city untouched and just build the downtown in a separate area.

Seems like a pretty smart and unique approach to preservation where they just left the old city as is and now instead of tip toeing around trying to build they have a designated area where they dont have to worry and can just build as much as they need. It also looks like they have some cool proposals coming too, and I think they could really make this a great area as well. Again I havent been there, but maybe make the plaza less vast also?

I've taken a couple "research" trips to Paris in recent years, including a day at La Defense. Your question is accurate: I did not see a single vehicular street at surface level in La Defense. The experience is mainly pedestrian and metro transit station oriented. And I agree--it was a smart approach to preservation and responding to the market demands of a truly global city.

Among Boston's needs to more proactively plan for resiliency to climate change, the congestion of our urban core, and kindred market demands as a globally significant city, I've been a proponent for years that Lower Allston evolves into something similar to La Defense. A heavy rail urban ring build-out coupled with I-90 realignment, fully transformed regional commuter rail connectivity, and FAA-friendly height favor-ability would mean Lower Allston could accommodate tens of millions of square feet of smart, new development.

 

[Czervik.Construction]

Although I don't find the buildings in La Defense very interesting, I do like how Paris sectioned off a part of the city for modern office towers, leaving most of the rest of the inner city to retain the classic Paris look and feel.

Travelers tip: the hotels in La Defense are business traveler-focused, so if you are in Paris over a weekend, the hotels there are super cheap.