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Looks like when the market went south, both of these projects became vaporware.
The dead web sites make it appear that neither is a going concern, and some entities have a whole lot of money tied up in a venture that isn't going anywhere.
I imagine a skyscraper would cost half today what it would have cost 3 years ago. What a shame.
The Chant Tower was mostly a dream, I think. As for Packard, it was being proposed by the same man and company responsible for the half-finished Anasazi Downtown. He was basically a crook and now that project sits abandoned in some sort of foreclosure or bank repossession.
So, prospects for either of those projects ever coming to fruition are pretty much non-existant.
The best we can hope for at this point is the Anasazi Downtown eventually being sold to someone who will finish it. The worst-case scenario is that it will have to be demolished, either for financial or practical considerations such as structural deterioration.
If Albuquerque ever does get a new tallest building I think it will most certainly be a residential or hotel tower. Demand for office space in anything over a few stories is very low in this town filled with suburban-type office parks.
I personally don't like the idea of our skyline becoming dominated by condo towers like Austin or even Vancouver. Most of them are just plain awful-looking to me.
While I'd love for Albuquerque to reach higher in the sky, I'm quite happy with our skyline as it is now. Albuquerque Plaza is a perfect cap to our skyline, I think.
Yesss. ABQ does need Skyscrapers imo. 600-650 would't look to shabby in ABQ. If Albuquerque wants to be looked at as another major city in the USA, they should build up! Tulsa and ABQ are around the same size..yet, i feel that Tulsa is a much larger city..and its only because of the skyline!
Yesss. ABQ does need Skyscrapers imo. 600-650 would't look to shabby in ABQ. If Albuquerque wants to be looked at as another major city in the USA, they should build up! Tulsa and ABQ are around the same size..yet, i feel that Tulsa is a much larger city..and its only because of the skyline!
So a few empty skyscrapers dying because of the economy are necessary for your ego about ABQ?
Yesss. ABQ does need Skyscrapers imo. 600-650 would't look to shabby in ABQ. If Albuquerque wants to be looked at as another major city in the USA, they should build up! Tulsa and ABQ are around the same size..yet, i feel that Tulsa is a much larger city..and its only because of the skyline!
Tulsa does have a great skyline. But there is a reason for that. In the twenties Tulsa had an oil boom and with that came major corporations and such that were homegrown. Those homegrown corporations over time (but mostly in the twenties) built edifices and skyscrapers that enhanced their town. Those corporations also created wealthy people who were very philanthropic in the community.
Albuquerque has almost no major corporations that are homegrown. And even the ones we have had have chosen to set up shop in those office parks I mentioned earlier rather than build skyscrapers (like the former Sun Healthcare).
We've also never had a boom like Tulsa. Our booms have come mostly through natural population explosions and national migration patterns. We boomed incredibly in decades such as the forties and fifties when population across the country swelled, we just swelled more and captured more of those easterners who began migrating to the west.
Also, most of our job growth has been due to governmental entities, which has not given us a philanthropical base to draw on for things such as art collections or donations for building arenas and performing arts centers. And, yes, even the somewhat ego-driven desire to build skyscrapers (see the new Devon Energy tower in Oklahoma City as an example).
So when people look at cities and see disparities in how urban-feeling one is based on population numbers one has to consider all the factors that might have gone into all that over time.
Despite all this it should also be noted that Tulsa today is in fact bigger than Albuquerque (metro-wise) by about 50,000 people.
Tulsa does have a great skyline. But there is a reason for that. In the twenties Tulsa had an oil boom and with that came major corporations and such that were homegrown. Those homegrown corporations over time (but mostly in the twenties) built edifices and skyscrapers that enhanced their town. Those corporations also created wealthy people who were very philanthropic in the community.
Albuquerque has almost no major corporations that are homegrown. And even the ones we have had have chosen to set up shop in those office parks I mentioned earlier rather than build skyscrapers (like the former Sun Healthcare).
We've also never had a boom like Tulsa. Our booms have come mostly through natural population explosions and national migration patterns. We boomed incredibly in decades such as the forties and fifties when population across the country swelled, we just swelled more and captured more of those easterners who began migrating to the west.
Also, most of our job growth has been due to governmental entities, which has not given us a philanthropical base to draw on for things such as art collections or donations for building arenas and performing arts centers. And, yes, even the somewhat ego-driven desire to build skyscrapers (see the new Devon Energy tower in Oklahoma City as an example).
So when people look at cities and see disparities in how urban-feeling one is based on population numbers one has to consider all the factors that might have gone into all that over time.
Despite all this it should also be noted that Tulsa today is in fact bigger than Albuquerque (metro-wise) by about 50,000 people.
Well i know some of this, but I still think it would be nice to have a few taller buildings downtown!
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