Re: 120 Kingston, 29 Story Tower in Chinatown
I think we have one of the best skyline's in the US. (Groans from the gallery at this, no doubt!) We don't look nearly as generic as so many other cities in this country. You pause and think - what city is that tower in - oh yeah, Pittsburgh, Atlanta, Houston. I don't mean to damn these cities, there are sections in each of them I admire. But so what. Walk around these cities where these tall building live and the street-life sucks. Houston, Atlanta, name the place - the best places where people hang out end up being the low-rise sections.
Pittsburgh actually has a pretty nice cityscape. Southern cities don't stack up to northern cities at all in this regard. However, why bring them up at all and ignore my mention of European cities? Isn't Boston considered the most European city in the US? (and for good reason)
European cities that have built at least a 600'+ tower in the last 3-5 years include: London (many, even one over 1000'), Paris (multiple), Madrid (4 Hancock sized towers), Vienna (finishing up a 700'+), Warsaw (Zlota 44, awesome, more on the way), Frankfurt (multiple), Milan (1 so far to the spire, but more U/C right now), Istanbul (many), Moscow (huge "supertall" cluster, basically all Hancock-sized or bigger), and Benidorm (ugly/gross but almost done).
Other European cities that have been adding height in the last few years (much taller than anything Boston has built, at least 450') include Rotterdam, The Hague, Kiev, Seville, Bilbao, Manchester UK (in 2006 but still semi recent), Yekaterinburg, Grozny, St. Petersburg (with a supertall on the way), Wroclaw.... heck even Rome sneaks onto this list.
It seems like all of these cities realized that building up is the most efficient way to utilize their remaining space. Over here, we have studies warning that areas such as Kendall could run out of room completely in the next few years if we keep emphasizing the horizontal over the vertical. So let's substitute all of these cities for the Atlanta's and Houston's you seem to think best fit your argument, and feel free to defend your position.
By the way, you're right, I'm not always the most civil person in the world. Whenever a large project in Boston finally gets out of the ground (hardly happens now does it) here's a clip that best illustrates what I wish I could do to everybody who stood in the way:
http://www.anyclip.com/movies/lethal-weapon-3/jack-travis/#!quotes/
Good stuff huh? All of the letdowns Boston has put me through over the years have transformed me into a rampaging lunatic. I mean, not really, but I'm probably just a couple years away from dying of a brain aneurysm if none of these 600 footers get out of the ground. The past is great and should be preserved as much as possible, but we deserve some more 21st century shit to be proud of, and it shouldn't be a one-or-the-other proposition like some of you continuously insinuate.
Unless you think Boston is a special kind of "better" than not just American (or Chinese/Asian) cities, but also all European cities, Canadian cities, Australian cities, South American cities, Latin American cities... Many of these have as much or (significantly) more history than we do, and they all joined the 21st century.
