Quote:
Originally Posted by Rico Rommheim
I've always wondered about this too. Was there some sort of height restriction in Chicago until the 1960's? Lots of 40 floor buildings, but nothing higher. Even Cincinnati, Cleveland and Detroit had taller or rivaling buildings.
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Yes, there were caps on height. These varied over time. In general, the idea was to keep the new buildings from choking off available air & light (public safety & well-being).
As a
gross simplification, Chicago's codes encouraged shorter buildings with large footprints, whereas NYC's codes encouraged slender, tall towers with setbacks.