[NewAtlantisMiami]

Hi, guys! Been listening in for quite some time now, but had trouble getting administrative approval to join the site! They must have been short-staffed, the way Emporis seems to be these days with not having updated the Miami page in weeks. Native Floridian here who has lived in the Miami area since 1984, but I moved to South Florida after living in California for 10 years where I became a skyscraper enthusiast/aficionado with the skylines of Los Angeles and San Francisco! When I used to watch the Miami sunsets from my high-rise, bay view, South Beach apartment, I would imagine what Miami would look like with a skyline like that of L.A. or San Francisco, and I thought it was something I could only dream about. Now, with what has already sold, in addition to what is already under construction, Miami will easily have the 3rd most dynamic skyline in the country within the next 5 years with 21st century skyscraper architecture spreading from the Rickenbacker Causeway to I-195!! I don't have the inside scoop on a lot of these projects the way of some of you do, but living right in the city now (upper east side), I occasionally take weekend drives just to monitor the progress of some projects. I do hope Empire World gets built at 1000+ feet though. If we are going to have the 3rd most dynamic skyline in the country, it is only appropriate that we have at least 2 supertalls (I don't particularly care for the skybridges either, but they add stability and speak to the area in which we live the way our architecture should). About height restrictions, I've been watching planes fly into Miami International for over 20 years now, and I think the FAA and MIA are too stringent with their height restrictions! Instances in which they would need as much clearance as they are asking seem almost negligible to me! I tire of hearing about our towers being chopped down. The designs of Capital I & II, for instance, almost beg to be taller and should have stayed at 805 feet. Either way, I anxiously await 2011 and the new skyline like a gentile kid waiting for Christmas! It is something I quite literally used to dream about! There is no place in the world I would rather be right now than Miami! Steve