The Unintended Message of the High-Rise Race

“'[A]ct like you’ve been there before,' not like a newcomer to the industrialized world," land use attorney Bill Adams challenges new city-state super powers. 

"It seems like every place in the world that has been simmering awhile with an inferiority complex rushes to build a super high rise when they get some money. 'That’ll show the world we’re no rubes, no country bumpkins!' they seem to scream."

"In the early part of the last century, it was the U.S., and particularly New York City symbolizing the U.S. throwing off the yolk of a small ex-colony of the British Empire and flexing its new gilded era muscle. . . .On the international scene, the march continued through the latter part of the last century into the new millenium: Kuala Lumpur, Taipei, Dubai, Shanghai, etc. . . ."

"[T]rue urbanism can be traced more to how a city treats its citizens on the street than those that dwell in the air, and arrive and leave by car. . ."