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An end to high rises in Toronto?

Though I'm not an anti-highrise advocate by any means, I think an obvious retort to that is that La Defense and Canary Wharf are soulless corporate bores compared to the "real" Paris and London.
 
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I really appreciate and love the "real" Downtown London and Paris. I'd take them in exchange in for our Financial District any day, but that might be because I'm used to it. I say this because the people I met in London and Paris loved their city, but the part of their cities that they loved the most were their new fancy financial places. When I was in cabs I admired their downtowns, the drivers would rant about how fantastic "and like New York" their new respective financial districts were. I, a North American, thought they were soulless petty things in view of their fantastic downtowns, but the locals thought their downtown was boring and their new districts were bold and exiting.

I guess your viewpoints depends on what you're used to.
 
Though I'm not an anti-highrise advocate by any means, I think an obvious retort to that is that La Defense and Canary Wharf are soulless corporate bores compared to the "real" Paris and London.

In a way, it wasn't so much La Defense and Canary Wharf per se, as the towers that actually invaded the historic heart of things--the Tour Montparnasse type thingies--and especially in the 60s and 70s, when the jab against them wasn't so much their being soulless and corporate, but being tacky and lurid and with a strange adolescent obliviousness in their urban stance.

If you compare this with this, you can sense how the archi-urbanist climate's changed on behalf of inner-city towers, compared to a generation ago. Gherkins win out over Towering Inferno clones, anytime.
 
The original poster is suggesting a ban on all towers because he considers some of them unsightly, and then goes on to suggest that structures of only four floors be allowed downtown.

May I suggest that banning everything because of issues over some things is extreme. As for the solution, what guarantee is there that these four floor structures will all be aesthetically pleasing? There are plenty of butt-ugly one, two and three floor structures around where I live.

Limiting height won't automatically deliver attractive buildings.
 
I think the opposite regulation should be enacted. Instead of capping new construction at 4 stories, I think 4 stories ought to be the minimum height on any major street.
I also think we should encourage the construction of towers at main intersections throughout the city. I rather like the idea of individual (or in pairs) towers dotted throughout the city.
 

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