Second Downtown (Houston, Dallas, San Antonio: bankrupt, theatre, new construction)

[scuba steve]

Originally Posted by the411

Well....would hi-rise suffice?

I guess it's all a matter of perspective.

List of tallest buildings in Seattle - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For me, tall starts at 50 floors. 12 is ok for a suburb but I think the building is going to be in one anyway. Maybe it'll look cool, not like a tall concrete box but with nice colors or windows. Or an energy-efficient green building.

[Hyun-Soo]

Our downtown is still a little too touristy.


A second downtown for the locals somewhere would be cool.

But it would be difficult to make a cosmopolitan urban center out of suburban land.

[Hyun-Soo]

Sigh.

I wish we could have a downtown with a skyline like Seattle's:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/c/c2/Seattleskyline1cropped.JPG (broken link)

Instead of this:
http://www.mrfs.net/trips/2000/San_Antonio/skyline.jpg

We are just still too suburban minded.
But we're improving with Vidorra condos which seems to be topping out and our new Grand Hyatt, although I wish it wasn't so wide.

Vidorra:
http://www.sanantoniocondoguide.com/images/buildings/20070715033434_Vidorra-Condos-1_tmb.jpg (broken link)

Grand Hyatt:
http://www.ippa.net/conferences/images/GrandHyattSanAntonio.jpg (broken link)


lol sorry about all of the complaining, but this is one of the few things that I don't like about San Antonio.

[scuba steve]

Don't get me wrong... this area is plenty suburban-minded. I think the big buildings come with having a metro area population of 4 million or so people. Downtown looks much better from the Sound - the picture you posted is from Queen Anne Hill (just north of the city center). It runs north / south between the Sound and Lake Washington so the city looks longer instead of blob-shaped. From the water it looks bigger than it really is.

Like I said, it looks nice, but there are problems. Google "Viaduct" and you'll get plenty of hits. And I think a lot of the older New England-style brick buildings are more susceptible to earthquakes than the newer ones.

edit: I looked online to get the details of this new building. Is it going to be built with traditional methods, or will it feature any kind of energy-saving design? I think a green roof would be a good thing to give a try since San Antonio is such a hot region.

[smitty12]

Originally Posted by Hyun-Soo

Sigh.

I wish we could have a downtown with a skyline like Seattle's:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/c/c2/Seattleskyline1cropped.JPG (broken link)

Instead of this:
http://www.mrfs.net/trips/2000/San_Antonio/skyline.jpg

We are just still too suburban minded.
But we're improving with Vidorra condos which seems to be topping out and our new Grand Hyatt, although I wish it wasn't so wide.


lol sorry about all of the complaining, but this is one of the few things that I don't like about San Antonio.

That is not a particularly good comparison set.... I bet Seattle's skyline doesn't look so good from on top the needle..... I'm not saying Seattle's isn't better, but that is one of the worst possible views of San Antonio's.

Chicago's Skyline looks like crap from the top of the Sears Tower also...

A considerably better San Antonio Skyline picture is here...

Downtown San Antonio skyline on Flickr - Photo Sharing! (http://www.flickr.com/photos/espngo/1217716371/ - broken link)

[allylang1]

Thank you smitty, that is soooo much better.

[imaterry78259]

SA downtown is the smallest of the 10 largest city in the USA

[ryneone]

Originally Posted by imaterry78259

SA downtown is the smallest of the 10 largest city in the USA

Wrong. You must have missed Phoenix.

[TexHwyMan]

Talking about second downtowns, I remember this term from a paper I read a long time ago that talks about the phenomenon of multiple large business districts in a city: "polynucleated metropolis".

I think the Medical Center definately qualifies as a secondary nulceus for the city. I remember a while back, a co-worker of mine in San Marcos had come to the Medical Center and thought it was downtown.

[scuba steve]

I can vouch for Phoenix having a small downtown. If you're very far from there or Sky Harbor you're probably going to miss it (partially due to the haze in the air). Phoenix is completely spread out all over the place, kind of like San Antonio.