Is it true (San Antonio, Alamo, Howe: real estate, condo, hotel)

[adtobias]

Is it true that no building in downtown can be taller then the "tower of the americas"

[210]

No. That is a myth. However, there is a rule that within a current radius of the Alamo building height is regulated.

[adtobias]

so why are all the buildings so short

[210]

They just are. Same with Phoenix. Short buildings for no real explanation. Same with Denver and Utah, etc.

[21bl0wed]

Originally Posted by adtobias

so why are all the buildings so short

Just not a big economic power house like houston or dallas. And no real condo livin downtown yet. = no tall buildings.

Of course we seem to have gotten the lamest of all big corporations hq'd here in terms of highrises since none of them build any. USAA went cheap and built out in the burbs back in the day. And at&t has some old ghetto crap dt that should be torn down. Oh well hopefully condo livin comes into full swing here in the next couple years, thats our only hope.

[210]

Condo living is in full swing.

[wCat]

Basically, tall buildings came about in other cities when real estate in outer areas became hard to find and expensive. It made building UP more plausible.
San Antonio hasn't had that land lock problem, like cities that are near large bodies of water or where real estate costs per square foot are higher. It's only a matter of time here when that begins to happen.

I've seen a couple of posts regarding our "skyline"....one commenter even said he was "embarrassed". I'm totally confused as to why a city's skyline has an impact on the quality of life. I'd rather see the freeway construction completed ASAP. In all the years I've lived in SA I've never seen so much road construction going on at the same time. While it's truly a sign of accommodating growth in the city, it's a total PIA while it's being completed. All I can say is that we at least know it's temporary.

[irnag]

Originally Posted by wCat

Basically, tall buildings came about in other cities when real estate in outer areas became hard to find and expensive. It made building UP more plausible.
San Antonio hasn't had that land lock problem, like cities that are near large bodies of water or where real estate costs per square foot are higher. It's only a matter of time here when that begins to happen.

I've seen a couple of posts regarding our "skyline"....one commenter even said he was "embarrassed". I'm totally confused as to why a city's skyline has an impact on the quality of life. I'd rather see the freeway construction completed ASAP. In all the years I've lived in SA I've never seen so much road construction going on at the same time. While it's truly a sign of accommodating growth in the city, it's a total PIA while it's being completed. All I can say is that we at least know it's temporary.

It's all about phallic symbols

[TXRose]

Originally Posted by 210

They just are. Same with Phoenix. Short buildings for no real explanation. Same with Denver and Utah, etc.

When I visited Scottsdale about 5 years ago we stayed at a Marriott that was very spread out - none of their buildings were taller than 2 or three stories. It was a great hotel, but man was it a pain to walk from our rooms to the conference center in that June heat! We were told by hotel staff that the hotel was designed that way because Scottsdale had a zoning ordinance that restricted buildings over a certain height so as not to obstruct the views.

[snippet]

There is a rule that no building can cast a shadow on the Alamo, thus the short buildings near the Alamo.