This is what sits on top of the Columbia Station, on Sky Train’s Expo Line in British Columbia:
Columbia Station, New Westminster, BC
Now that’s what I call an overbuild. More later.
Seattle’s Land Use Map
Seattle’s Land Use Code Blog- Latest Micro Housing Debate: How Many Sinks Are Enough? May 7, 2013If you went into the Fellowship Hall of the First Baptist Church last night seeking fellowship or edification there was little to be had. Instead it was the scene of the latest set-piece battle in the wider war between NIMBY … Continue reading →
- Urbanism Without Effort? Let It Be! May 6, 2013Anyone who knows Chuck Wolfe, author of Urbanism Without Effort, knows he has an agile mind an encyclopedic knowledge of local land use law and lore. But you’ll also know that he is not one who seeks attention by taking … Continue reading →
- Land Use and Dance: Make Me Feel Weird April 19, 2013Two things happened yesterday that point where we can go as a city when it comes to growth. The first, in the middle of the day, was a public scourging of a housing type, small, affordable apartments. Erica Barnett wrote … Continue reading →
- Supply Isn’t A Four Letter Word Anymore March 11, 2013Something amazing is happening in the discussion about housing and affordability in Seattle: people are starting to talk about how building more housing can lower housing prices. Supply, a word seemingly reserved only for the Master Builders Association, is beginning … Continue reading →
- Is There an Apodment Moratorium in the Works? March 6, 2013The rumors are flying: The Seattle City Council is preparing to consider legislation that would shut down, or at least hinder, more development of apodments,* the small affordable apartment dwellings that have been popping up in town. The arguments against … Continue reading →
- Seattle’s Silent Epidemic: The Ferris Firefighter Fantasy March 2, 2013Hal Ferris, a local developer, has achieved some notoriety of late with his report on incentive zoning, completed at the behest of Mayoral candidate and current City Councilmember Tim Burgess. But maybe Ferris should be known as the inventor of … Continue reading →
- Bismarck to Burgess: Do Affordable Units Mean Fairness, Equity, and Public Benefit? February 25, 2013The basis of social policy is to ensure the welfare and health of a population, specifically the population of a political unit like a country, state, or city. Housing and shelter are commonly accepted as important elements of basic welfare … Continue reading →
- Latest Micro Housing Debate: How Many Sinks Are Enough? May 7, 2013
Underbuilt! It’s “garden city” nonsense that doesn’t have any variation and doesn’t create street life. Build what they built and then put a lot more between them.
I would prefer 6-10 story breadboxes (like Paris) within walking distance of stations rather than Vancouver’s “skinny tower” solution. Towers mostly benefit high-income condo buyers and property owners at the expense of lower-income renters and environmental sustainability. You can get the same density with mid-rise while increasing the street scale and reducing the tendency to build empty plazas or yards around the buildings. As long as parks are scattered around the city, I don’t see the objection to breadbox buildings of a modest height.
Some Skytrain Station areas may have a garden city aesthetic, but in my experience New Westminster is not that. The streets are bustling and lined with street retail or apartment buildings. The bases of these towers are sure to have retail all around them.
Zef – there is no conceptual trade-off between mid-rises and high-rises. In the Vancouver podium-and-tower concept, the first four floors are built like Paris: with apartments to the lot line with ground floor retail on retail streets. But on top of the podium is a skinny high-rise, adding even more residents than the podium can house. You get your mid-rise density and active street life, and on top of that you get some high-rise density, which adds further to the active street life.
Just because lots of garden city high-rise districts were built mid-century with excessive plazas and gardens, doesn’t mean that high-rises have to be built that way.