The World’s Tallest Cities

25 02 2009

newyork-skyline

I was recently startled to read the rather short article posted on the Forbes website indicating that all but two of the twenty tallest towers have been built in the last 20 years (1988 to present) representing (for the most part) a rather strong economy.  However, the shift of the skyscraper has quickly turned toward Asia away from North America.  In fact, only Chicago and New York have built skyscrapers over 1000 feet this past decade (3 buildings total).  Contrast that with 18 built in Asia and the middle east and it is quite clear that the growing economies have taken things to new heights (no pun intended).  In fact, if we look closer at the location of top 20 skyscrapers at present day compared to the top 20 just 20 years ago, we notice a rather shocking shift:

1989:

  • 18 in North America (including such cities as Seattle, Toronto, Dallas, etc.)
  • 2 in Asia (both in Singapore)

2009 (Present Day):

  • 16 in Asia and the Middle East
  • 4 in North America (and only in Chicago and New York)

I’d be very interested to see where things stand in the next 20 years.  You can find the Forbes article here.

All statistics taken from www.skyscrapers.com


Comments : Leave a Comment »
Tags: , , ,
Categories : General Thoughts, News

Urban Planners: Going through an identity crisis?

18 02 2009

I often frequent the Cyburbia urban planning message board (http://www.cyburbia.org) and recently found a rather well-written argument on what urban planners should be used for versus what they are currently being used for.  The notion of a functional city and a foolproof city.  The main difference between the two types is their purpose.  Functional cities focus on making a city be able to meet the needs of the people that live in it.  Sometimes in order to achieve these needs, sacrifices may need to be met in terms of such things as a cities attractiveness.  Foolproof cities on the other hand, focus more on trying to create an ideal city that may be free of such things as heavy car traffic or urban sprawl.  According to the article, however, the planners that help plan the foolproof cities don’t always focus on the biggest part of a major city: it’s people.  The planners try to create a city that may stimulate growth in a certain way, yet this growth may not be what’s best for the people of the city.

Further on down the page is a response to this forum post that continues the argument with some further strong points.  Functional cities are created without time in mind.   On the other hand, foolproof cities are created based off current needs of the citizens of the city which may not remain true in the future.

These are definitely some valid arguments and while I don’t necessarily like the idea that we should continue to plan for such things as sprawl, I will say that it helps put the urban planning profession in a new light for me.  You can find the forum posts here


Comments : Leave a Comment »
Tags: ,
Categories : General Thoughts, News, Websites

Insight Guides: My choice for my urban travels

3 02 2009

insightguides-barcelona

I’ll admit it, i’m a huge fan of travel guides.  My bookshelf is full of them.  And i’ve only used about 20% of them for real, practical travel purposes.  However, for individuals who have planned their travels 3 or 4 years in advance like myself, there is nothing quite like purchasing a new travel guide.  I have a wide variety of different travel guides and found them all to have their individual strengths.  The National Geographic guides offer excellent full page photos.  Eyewitness travel guides are great for covering entire countries.  Lonely Planet is a solid bet for information, especially on off the beaten path material.  But since this is a blog about the urban world, I thought i’d highlight one particular travel guide that happens to be my favorite for cities alone: Insight Travel Guides.  My last three urban travel guide purchases have all been insight guides.

What’s so special about these guides?  It’s that they do everything right.  They have loads of pictures (eat your heart Lonely Planet), they still have a solid amount of information and their accompanying maps are the easiest and most frequent of any guide i’ve seen.  Since I know next to nothing about the company, I thought i’d take a look at what Wikipedia says about the publisher:

Insight Guides are a corporation based in London who create travel guides for commercial and domestic use. They produce atlases, city guides and maps. Other detailed guides include shopping, eating and museum guides. Insight Guides was founded by Hans Johannes Hofer. His first book, was based on the island of Bali, and was funded by a local hotel there and was published in 1970, Insight Guide:Bali in 1970. From there he built his publishing empire, exceeding 400 over guide books on over 100 destinations and in the late 90s sold his share of the company to Langenscheidt KG.

God bless the British.


Comments : Leave a Comment »
Tags: , ,
Categories : Book Reviews