I have; though admittedly it was 3 years ago, and I stayed with a friend in a more residential part of the city (2-3 story buildings). A large reason why plann

I have; though admittedly it was 3 years ago, and I stayed with a friend in a more residential part of the city (2-3 story buildings). A large reason why planners leave open spaces around tall buildings are for environmental reasons like shadow impact, and wind tunneling. Without the open space, the canyoning effect would be much worse--look at most financial district areas. So the taller the building, the more open space required. If you've been to Berlin, I think their altbaus strike a fine balance between housing a lot of people while still maintaining good street life. The flip-side is that Berlin's streets are generally wider than most other cities.