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'A tortured heap of towers': the London skyline of tomorrow
- d_theorist 11y agoI don't understand what these people are complaining about. I walk across Waterloo Bridge twice a day, and it's the highlight of my commute. The view east down the river is stunning, and there are always people admiring it. I don't think London has ever looked better.
- elthran 11y agoDefinitely - I travel in to London from the east, and I love seeing the cluster at Canary Wharf, and then the cluster that this article focuses on, with my train travelling underneath it. If anything, I wish the regulations were a bit more relaxed so we could have some more clusters to the west, to balance out the heavy weighting of the skyline to the east.
- oneeyedpigeon 11y agoFenchurch or DLR? The latter is the best experience; I'm stuck on the former, unfortunately.
- elthran 11y agoLiverpool Street actually - I suppose my initial comment was inaccurate/exaggerated now I think about it. Either way, those buildings are my favourite part of the journey, as far as scenery.
- oneeyedpigeon 11y agoGotcha. Yeah, they definitely help to build the excitement when travelling into the city. The best thing about the Shard is the view from the top of it - gives a whole new perspective to the 'gherkin cluster' of buildings.
- UK-AL 11y agoBecause people hate change. Do the change, leave it a few years then everyone thinks those buildings have now become part of the character of a city and don't want to change it...
- Zach_the_Lizard 11y agoNot everyone. To some, it will always be better back in ye olden times.
- TelmoMenezes 11y agoPeople have different tastes. Why is that so surprising to you?
- Zach_the_Lizard 11y agoPeople hate change, no matter how good or bad. For instance, Arlington, VA has transformed massively since they ran the DC Metro through it. To someone who was alive in the 1960s the parts near the Metro lines would be almost unrecognizable. Here's a letter to the editor complaining of all the changes in Arlington written a few days ago: https://www.arlnow.com/2015/12/09/letter-to-the-editor-arlington-was-better-without-high-rises/ https://www.arlnow.com/2015/12/09/letter-to-the-editor-arlin... TL;DR old woman complains of change, wishes there were still cows in land immediately adjacent to the nation's capital city.
- DanBC 11y ago> wishes there were still cows in land immediately adjacent to the nation's capital city. Considering how important and influential the beef industry is that's not a terrible idea.
- Zach_the_Lizard 11y agoConsidering how expensive housing and office space is in and around DC, I think this would be a terrible idea. We shouldn't make housing and office space more expensive so that we can allow one special industry to lobby slightly more effectively. This was even true in the 40s and 50s; DC had had explosive growth due to WWII and the population was over 800,000 people. There was a shortage of housing even then which Arlington and other areas took advantage of. If anything, rural interests are already over represented in the Federal government given the nature of the Senate and how we determine the number of members in the house and electoral college votes.
- nitrogen 11y agoI say this a lot on HN: rural interests are urban interests. That's where our food and clean air are made.
- Zach_the_Lizard 11y ago>I say this a lot on HN: rural interests are urban interests. No, they don't always align. There are different needs in rural areas and urban areas that compete with one another. Transportation needs, for instance, are vastly different in rural Illinois than in Chicago. Farmers might lobby for more and bigger roads and dislike public transit because it doesn't make sense in their regions. Meanwhile people in Chicago want more and better transit. These needs compete for the same infrastructure dollars. People in cities need to eat, but their interests are directly harmed by the various food price control mechanisms that the Feds put in place. Price floors, for instance, ensure that milk won't get too cheap. Who benefits? Farmers who couldn't compete at lower prices. Who loses? Every other person. Cities can pollute rivers that farmers depend on or even dam them for power needs. They can seize agricultural land for urban needs like high speed rail or airports or landfills. So no, urban and rural interests don't always align. There are quite a number of issues that can benefit one or the other but not both. I don't agree with stacking the deck so that they get more power per capita.
- Angostura 11y agoI like the London Skyline, except for the Shard which is so large - and indeed ugly - that it can be seen from many places across London. These 'super-large' buildings pollute the skylines of many many neighbours in a way that Canary Wharf, the Gerkin etc simply don't.
- anonymousDan 11y agoEmphasis there on commute. What if you happened to live beside where one of these huge skyscrapers is plonked down?
- d_theorist 11y agoPractically nobody lives near those things.
- anonymousDan 11y agoMaybe not in the city, but there are towers going up all over the place in London.
- tim333 11y agoAnd the reason is because it's too darn expensive, not because people don't want to. http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/map.html?locationIdentifier=STATION%5E551&insId=1&sortType=1&minBedrooms=2&radius=0.5#_includeSSTC%3Don%26auction%3Dfalse%26lastPersistLocId%3DSTATION%255E551%26locationIdentifier%3DSTATION%255E551%26minBedrooms%3D0%26previousSearchLocation%3DBank%2520Station%26radius%3D0.5%26searchLocation%3DBank%2520Station%26searchType%3DSALE%26sortType%3D1%26useLocationIdentifier%3Dfalse%26box%3D-0.10073%2C-0.07740%2C51.50597%2C51.52053 http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/map.html?locati...
- hacker_9 11y agoReally enjoying the graphics on this page!
- david-given 11y agoSurprisingly interesting and really well presented --- the animations are inspired. Personally, I love big, ugly skyscrapers (I've been trying to get myself onto a tour of the Gherkin for Open Doors Day for years). I do agree with the decision to limit them to one particular district, though. London's got a lot of fantastic buildings which don't want to be overwhelmed, and besides, skyscrapers look best from a distance. (I didn't know that views of St. Pauls are protected by law! And I'm embarrassed to say that I never even knew about the Great Fire of London memorial...)
- mattmanser 11y agoA few annoyances though, if you click play on the audio clip and scroll down, the audio clip stops. Because obviously you can't read and listen at the same time, as any wife knows. But these interactive stories are definitely getting better.
- david-given 11y agoI didn't have my speakers on, so I wasn't aware there were any! (And, TBH, I rather like the idea of the bandwidth heavy video player automatically turning off when it becomes invisible.)
- rocky1138 11y agoThe video pausing doesn't always mean that it's stopped downloading.
- jeffwass 11y agoYou should take a look at King Henry's Mound in Richmond Park, which is maybe 10 miles away from St Pauls cathedral, but with a protected view. You can clearly see the dome through carefully designed passages of trees and lack of building obstructions all the way to central London. Pretty cool to see.
- mstade 11y agoYou haven't missed much. The Gherkin is as deprived of a soul as the other towers in the city; and the bar at the top is just a place to bring clients so they can say "I've been to the top of the Gherkin." It's just a really sad place, and I don't miss working there. (If you have to go though, I can recommend Association – a coffee shop around the corner which is really nice. Despite all the cheap suits.)
- venomsnake 11y ago> These rigid rules first appeared in the 1930s, when the surveyor of St Paul’s came up with a precise grid of heights around the cathedral to safeguard the panorama from the South Bank. “We’ve been able to calculate where he took his views from, and most of them end up outside pubs,” says Rees. The more times change. But it is interesting how some minor vices can have more than their fair share of consequences.
- raverbashing 11y agoTypical complaint about tall buildings The other option is to follow Dublin's model where height is severely limited and companies can't find office space?
- cjrp 11y agoAs opposed to London where companies just can't _afford_ office space ;)
- elthran 11y agoIn a sensible world, building loads of office space should decrease the price of it. But welcome to London...
- raverbashing 11y agoYou mean, because the Russians parked their money there?
- peteretep 11y agoMy personal fantasy is that they'll turn the Isle of Dogs in to an area that looks like Hong Kong.
- bjornsteffanson 11y agoKowloon Dog City.
- ctdonath 11y agoWhen will city buildings stop being delineated by ground-level roads, and start extending thru the space over roads - making single vast structures instead of individual spires?
- rocky1138 11y agoI haven't been there but I've heard Hong Kong is a bit like this. In a YouTube video, some people were championing that it's been 3 weeks since the touched the ground.
- lhopki01 11y agoThere are a few buildings like that. Near the barbican there's a massive building that is built over the road. There are a few more dotted around.
- scrumper 11y agoIt'll be more acceptable to do that once there's a majority of electric or hydrogen cars on the roads. Otherwise those enclosed roads are air handling nightmares.
- DanBC 11y ago> “We’ve been able to calculate where he took his views from, and most of them end up outside pubs,” says Rees. That might be just because England has so many pubs. There are currently over 60,000, and this is after the closing of 28,000 pubs.
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]