User:Daniel Christensen/over

The future of skyscraper design The next phase in skyscraper design.

I'm sure this has been thought of before, even carried out to some degree. I thought of it when reading complaints of the destruction of all the old Art Deco 1-2 story hotels along Sunny Isles Beach to make way for all the new high rise residential condominiums that are considered an eyesore, stating that now you can't even see the ocean anymore. I retort, what was said when those 1-2 floor Art Deco were built and you were no longer on an open road along a golden coastline?

Buildings, as far as our architecture is capable of now, are economically maxed out in their height and floor area relative to their footprint. Not much more can be done. Look at Miami, for example, it is a demonstration of skyscraper sprawl, if you will. Nothing is even 800 feet, and by conservative definition, there aren't even any skyscrapers in Miami; this is actually partly due to the proximity of the airport since every plane flies directly over downtown.

Consider this, skyscrapers built over roads. I'm talking about making them so that they are basically connected over the street, and not just minorly like with a walkway, but completely. This would give these buildings much more space per their footprint as well as increase stability, and once a standard method was developed, could even be easier to build. Doing this would even have the secondary benefit of protection of the road from weather and pedestrians from rain.

Think about it. We already do it with roads, with several large cities having completely separate roads running one above the other. Also with elevated, enclosed walkways connecting buildings and parking garages to their respective building.

Will people say, you can't even see the sky anymore? What of the sky is there to see in any city large or small anyway? I'm not saying it should happen, it would not even be practical, for this idea to be employed throughout an entire district or downtown. But in places. It would also create a great new frontier for architects and developers. Truly this idea is not radical, but rather, is practical. For, if you view it as a mere pipe dream, what do you see as an obvious hindrance to it's legitimacy? Building an entire city in a giant super tower or a ladder to the moon are, but what makes this impractical?

Issue: pollution, this could not be done for very long distances as it would have the effect of being in a tunnel and the air would become heavily polluted. Either simple, even natural ventilation such as openings would eliminate this issue. Besides, a most likely implementation of this would still have buildings separated from each other down the street, just connected across in places.