Quote:
Originally Posted by spoonman
I disagree. Just look at all the sets of twin towers in this city. It's possible some of these would have been single mega towers. Also, many buildings are building up to the height limit all the time...Bosa, Pinnacle, 7th/Market, Manchester, ,OAP, and others. You must also understand that the height limit if 500' from sea level. This means that the maximum building height from grade is often 480' or slightly less. This is why you see a lot of towers like Bosa building to heights of 479'. The effective height limit is even lower in places of higher elevation such as the financial district.
An increased height limit would definitely free up developers to build higher and if instituted in the past we'd have a much taller skyline.
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Yes I do understand how the height limit works from sea level. I also agree with you that a twin tower project might have gone with a single higher tower but that doesn't mean the leftover parcel would also have been used as another high tower. How many twin tower projects are in the city currently? So combine some of them as single higher towers (not all of them because it's unlikely all would have gone that route) and that's how many higher towers we would have today. You can't really add more because the towers are being built to market demand which if it was higher Bosa would have more than one project going on at a time based on the amount of land they currently own. What's the tallest condo towers Bosa builds? There's probably your answer. I'm not disagreeing with you that a few taller buildings wouldn't be better I'm just doubting the reality of how many we might actually have today.
There are a lot of projects being built right now and have been built that could have gone not just a little higher but a lot higher. I see the demand to build higher even if it was available limited. I could see someone breaking that 500 foot limit but I don't see the city looking like other cities with higher towers.
One of the problems being is the city has been unsuccessful so far at getting the type of business that would likely build such a high tower. No Qualcomm, no Sony, no Petco, media outlet, etc... in downtown right now to anchor such a tower. This talk of getting one of San Diegos big companies downtown has proven so far fruitless.
So yeah, I could certainly see Bosa using the land more to their benefit with single taller towers for condos which would help the cities appearance but it still wouldn't resolve a current problem with our downtowns identity. That being the lack of big players in business providing it with character. The downtown doesn't even have small business fronts like a Target, Walmart, Best Buy, etc... in it. The retail experience in downtown is more glaring to me than a 600 footer.