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Originally Posted by Alice93
I think a number of highrises would be nice in the inner city. I would like a good number of highrises with height in the middle, but mostly I would like good medium sized developments. That's what matters more to me because tall towers look pretty, but the ground level is where the action happens. Human scale looks more inviting by the way.
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I agree 100%.
In the 20s, when the city was centralized, there was a demand for tall structures, and those structures just got taller and taller. From the South Texas Building to the Milam Building to the Tower Life Building. Of course when the depression reared its ugly head, we saw some planned structures get cancelled.
I remember reading a front page article of a 1920s San Antonio Light when I was a kid, and it had a large rendering of a planned or proposed 100 story building on or by the site of the International Building, which at the time was the Central Library. It was a simple four sided column looking similar to the World Trade Center but had a gothic appearance similar to the Milam Building. If anyone knows anything more on this please share.
Its all cause and effect. After the Depression era, reliable cars and public transportation, seemingly endless supply of drinking water, etc. the city was decentralized. Miles and miles of uninorporated land all around us ripe for development. Why build up when you can build out? USAA Headquarters has more square footage than most skyscrapers, including the Sears Tower.
The sprawl goes on for decades and has picked up steam but the end is drawing near. Encroachment on the Edwards Aquifer Recharge Zone and Camp Bullis, as well as infrastructure expenses and the rising cost of gas and increasing pollution etc., the city is seeing once again the benefits of centralization. The "Decade of Downtown" proclamation and creation of the Center City Development Office is evidence of this. The Downtown Alliance would like to see the downtown population to grow up to 50,000 within 20 years.
But even then I don't think that our downtown is on its way to looking like Houston or Dallas. I've always felt that if downtown does get any highrises they would be built by hotels chains or by businesses already located downtown (Frost, At&T, HEB, etc.). Or it would be built by the city, like a monument or structure intended to bolster the city's image or spur tourism dollars. But in the meantime I think it will be the cost-effective midrise building that will make up the majority of downtown development. With that said, I still think that the South Texas Building kicks ass.
So yeah I agree 100%.