[FiveOverPun]

I don't think it's particularly helpful to compare old world cities with hundreds (or thousands) of years of history to newer cities that are expanding in the time of steel and automobiles. Cities are also not one thing, they can have skyscrapers in one part and midrises in another and (God forbid) single family homes in some parts too.

The better question is whether a place is appropriately dense, and if not, should it change? And as somebody who lives in the Pearl, I'd love to see some additional density. There's a LOT of ground-floor commercial space that's empty right now, especially as you head north from here. Getting 15-25 floors on the Broadway site (just north of here) will be incredibly important for this area, and it's a shame this building was downsized.