Comments on: A handful of tall buildings being allowed on Paris’ outskirts https://www.marketurbanism.com/2010/11/25/a-handful-of-tall-buildings-being-allowed-on-paris-outskirts/ Liberalizing cities | From the bottom up Fri, 14 Jan 2022 17:30:52 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=5.1.1 By: Alon Levy https://www.marketurbanism.com/2010/11/25/a-handful-of-tall-buildings-being-allowed-on-paris-outskirts/#comment-9393 Fri, 26 Nov 2010 11:53:00 +0000 http://www.marketurbanism.com/?p=1813#comment-9393 The elevator comment is plain wrong – elevators are counterweighted, hence energy-efficient. The comment about “very few cities” is Eurocentric beyond belief and made me squirm. But the comment about water pressure is true. The comment about “serious studies” is grating, but I’m not sure it’s wrong – the studies I’ve seen suggest a peak efficiency for mid-rise buildings, in the 6-10 stories range.

Bear in mind, there’s good reason to allow much taller buildings, especially for office use. The efficiency loss isn’t huge, and could be a loss leader for much lower transportation needs. Office space needs to go somewhere, and if there’s no room in the city, it’ll go into suburban office parks. Not building at all is a net economic drag, and there are much better places to trade money for a cleaner environment in, such as heavy industry.

]]> By: Ant6nd https://www.marketurbanism.com/2010/11/25/a-handful-of-tall-buildings-being-allowed-on-paris-outskirts/#comment-9390 Fri, 26 Nov 2010 06:24:00 +0000 http://www.marketurbanism.com/?p=1813#comment-9390 “I guess European environmentalists haven’t warmed to density like America’s have” … wtf?
I think it’s more like American notions of environmentalisms haven’t caught up to reality (instead preferring green-washing), and your article is testament to that.

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