Skyscraper limits limit revitalization
The recent articles in the Rocky Mountain News about the city of Denver’s plan to revitalize downtown have been exciting. As a native, I would love to see downtown Denver a gleaming place of activity and renown.
However, one thing bothers me: the City Council’s restrictions on skyscraper height. Before the new airport was built, the restriction was 720 feet because of airspace at Stapleton. Now, the height restriction is the same, but the reasoning is that tall buildings restrict views of the snowcapped Rockies.
We all know a straight line is not natural in nature.
Standing in the huge west window of the Museum of Nature and Science, looking at the mountains, I also see the downtown buildings in the foreground.
The tops of the highest buildings are all the same height, and, because of the Denver City Council’s restrictions, future buildings will always be that same height. All I can think of is how unnatural it looks. The downtown buildings, no matter how beautiful individually, have become a line of strait-laced restrictions against the grandeur of the soaring snowcapped Rockies.
If there were no height restrictions and downtown buildings truly scraped the sky, they would still be dwarfed by the mountains. Both would soar together to make people gasp in awe.
Dave Brown, Englewood
Dave, you have no idea what you're talking about. Yes, there are height restrictions in some parts of downtown, but there are quite a few areas where no height limits exist.
The reason Denver doesn't have any super-tall buildings right now is because the economics just still aren't there yet.
Posted by on May 17, 2007 04:23 AMYour comment would be taken more seriously if you had signed it.
Daniel Miller, Lakewood
Posted by Daniel Miller on May 17, 2007 02:30 PM4:23
Apparently, Brown read the same articles I did in the Rocky and Post several weeks back. I read a developer (Donald Trump?) planned a new skyscraper and it was only a few feet under the height restriction of 720 feet. If that is the case, it has nothing to do with economics, but height restrictions as the articles, and Brown, mentioned.
I would also like to see soaring skyscrapers in Denver, primarily to hide the ugly "cash register" building, which makes me think of a pink phallus.
Posted by Jim on May 17, 2007 02:50 PMThere ARE areas with height restrictions in and near downtown Denver, but there ARE some areas with no restrictions whatsoever. Think along 17th-18th Ave's as two examples...
Aaron
PS: I posted the first reply. Remember, just because Trump was thinking of building a tower that was located in an area with a height restriction doesn't mean all of downtown has the same restriction.
Oops, I means 17th and 18th St., not Ave... ;)
Whatever Daniel Miller...like you are any more or less anonymous than any other poster on here. Your post would be taken more serious if you weren't such a moron.
Posted by Anonymous poster on May 19, 2007 11:00 AMDenver is hopeless and has zero character. I think a fitting skyscraper would be a two-thousand foot tall all white building similar to the Republic Plaza but with no windows.
Posted by Jesse Kane on May 29, 2007 08:34 PMDenver is hopeless and has zero character. I think a fitting skyscraper would be a two-thousand foot tall all white building similar to the Republic Plaza but with no windows.
Posted by Jesse Kane on May 29, 2007 08:35 PM