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what happened to all of the cool lights under the arches of the Longfellow bridge? I just see one archway illuminated.
 
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Imagine this instead. So similar, but taller and slimmer. This one’s a real triumph.

It's another testament to how hard it is to build anything in this country, and how easy it is in the hungry, less developed countries. Mexico, China, India, Brazil and others will build up unrestrained, and leave us behind in our NIMBYism and our analysis paralysis.
 
It's another testament to how hard it is to build anything in this country, and how easy it is in the hungry, less developed countries. Mexico, China, India, Brazil and others will build up unrestrained, and leave us behind in our NIMBYism and our analysis paralysis.

I don't mean to take this thread too far off topic, but your post just enabled me to make a mental connection... I'd add Chile to your list of hungry/aspiring countries, and in visiting there a few years ago, was taken by what I thought was a very tastefully done new supertall in the capital, Santiago...

Turns out it is a Pelli Clarke & Partners piece as well:

^EDIT: while this one is much more angular than Boston's and Mexico City's, it seems that the "slit(s) in the glass curtain" is somewhat of a PC&P hallmark, as is the multi-layered/glass-finned crown. While I too wish ours was proportioned differently, it's still nice to see its in good stylistic company.
 
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It's another testament to how hard it is to build anything in this country, and how easy it is in the hungry, less developed countries. Mexico, China, India, Brazil and others will build up unrestrained, and leave us behind in our NIMBYism and our analysis paralysis.
You mean in our democracy? Even its current straits you can't possibly see the public process in China (autocracy) or Mexico and India (nominal democracies rapidly approaching autocracy) as more desirable.
 
You mean in our democracy? Even its current straits you can't possibly see the public process in China (autocracy) or Mexico and India (nominal democracies rapidly approaching autocracy) as more desirable.

You raise a reasonable critique of Charlie's list, but I also think there are examples abound where "statement"-type, semi-impractical, zoning-violating structures are built and (at least somewhat) regarded as symbols of civic pride and aspiration within contemporary democracies. The SkyTree in Tokyo and Sydney Opera House stand out as examples. I think even the Gateway Arch in St. Louis is an historic U.S. example of what Charlie's talking about: a projection to the world that we matter, we have resources, and we're ready for business.
 
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You mean in our democracy? Even its current straits you can't possibly see the public process in China (autocracy) or Mexico and India (nominal democracies rapidly approaching autocracy) as more desirable.
I look at the results, and it looks better in those countries in that regard. My older son's father-in-law owns a mining company, and will not even attempt to start the application process for starting a new mine in this country, because it will inevitably be stopped. So, all his mines are in Central America where it takes just a few months to process the application. Look at the stymied high-speed rail line in California. Look at how impossible it is in Boston to build a tower of substantial height. China is building entirely new cities, which would be impossible in most parts of this country. Pandering in extremis to NIMBYs and automatically caving in to nit-picky environmental extremism (which has little to do with substantive environmental issues in many cases), is pretty much paralyzing the moving forward of infrastructure and urban/suburban development in this country. My experiences as a civil engineer and project manager have left me pretty frustrated about the future of development in this country. Sorry to be blunt, but that's my observation and experience.
 

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