And Paris was started on a muddy riverbank. Also not ideal substrate for heavy stonework. There are plenty of quarries nearby, that I’ve seen in Santa Clara an

And Paris was started on a muddy riverbank. Also not ideal substrate for heavy stonework. There are plenty of quarries nearby, that I’ve seen in Santa Clara and Santa Cruz. It would be a better idea to build using reinforced concrete, though. But even wood is not so limited. Most parcels here are limited by zoning to 2 stories. We could easily build 4-story wooden buildings, and double the city’s density. Some of the oldest wooden buildings are 5-story buildings in earthquake country,[0] and allegedly there are plenty of 10-story wooden buildings that have survived earthquakes in Vancouver.[1] I think some of the appetite for reinforced concrete is because housing is so difficult to build around here, that it’s only worth going through the effort if the prices are high enough to justify expensive materials. Also, steel and glass allow you to have big windows. [0] http://gizmodo.com/5846501/how-japans-oldest-wooden-building-is-still-standing http://gizmodo.com/5846501/how-japans-oldest-wooden-building... [1] https://www.minnpost.com/earth-journal/2015/07/how-tall-can-you-build-wood-consider-1250-foot-plyscraper https://www.minnpost.com/earth-journal/2015/07/how-tall-can-...