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I am less of an arena enthusiast than I used to be. I do want a clean, safe, exciting downtown, whether an arena should be part of that, I just don't know anymore. Light rail would be a step in the right direction.
Albuquerque is Albuquerque. It is what it is, and it ain't what it ain't.
From what I have read here, maybe the first step for Albuquerque is realizing we are not other cities, and what they do really won't work here, and cannot be applied here.
Austin has an amazing downtown and skyline. Our skyline is more like Regina, Canada. If that.
You can already see the mountains from almost anywhere in town. I don't think a few more 3-4 floor buildings along Central will really bother anyone in the true scheme of things and a few highrises downtown or along Jefferson, should the need ever arise, will not really affect anything. Seattle and Denver have highrises and the sanctity of the mountain-view was not violated. Better cities are more important than mountain views, imho. If we keep spreading, we might end up having the same smog problem SoCal has and then no one will be able to see the mountains. (maybe)
Although I also think skyscrapers aren't really a wonderful symbol of cities themselves though they can be pretty to look at. Building high buildings just to have high buildings is just as silly as fighting them for a view of the mountains few people probably take advantage of daily, anyway.
I have not read all 43 pages of this thread, but my understanding is that the nature of the soil (sand to a fairly deep level) prohibits skyscrapers beyond to far above the levels of the current downtown area. That makes sense..... unless there is solid bedrock to anchor too, you can only built to a certainly height.
^^I think that's totally true, and I think if someone didn't want to be in that region of town where they might one day be obstructed of a mountain view, they should elect to move to an area where such a development won't occur. Perhaps Taylor Ranch? I think part of living in the central area of an urban region is accepting that development will have to occur at some point. And I'm sure many would rather have one 400 foot tall building that has a relatively small width and impact to a really long 9 or 10 floor building that almost acts as a wall of sorts. I doubt either of these will be built anytime soon, but I think if there were some company or organization needing to build here, and they were obstructed in their pursuit to build a high-rise, they'd probably resort to building a long, ugly wall-type building to accommodate their needed space and they'd probably build it far from Downtown, thus impacting even more beautiful vistas (or they'll just take their jobs and money elsewhere). There's a balance. Skyscrapers are good when needed, but not always essential. But lets remember that fighting high-rises is one of several factors that has lead to large rents in San Francisco and DC. Maybe that'll never be a problem with Albuquerque spreading out into the limitless desert, but do we really want to spread out into the desert? Is that sustainable? And is that the type of development that will keep young people with nursing, engineering, and medical degrees here? We can have a little of everything and keep everyone happy. If it's ever needed, we can put the 40 floor buildings downtown, and we'll keep them away from the Cottonwood mall or the Northeast Heights.
I think that last time Albuquerque built a building of significant height was about 1987. Cities that are prosperous have cranes up all over and buildings going up all the time. Over twenty five years since we built a structure over twenty stories is pathetic and sad.
Albuquerque has a metro area of about 900,000 and a skyline nowhere near as cosmopolitan, ours is more like Regina, a city with a quarter our population.
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Some glass is needed in Downtown (Buildings, that is)
