it must be a weird feeling to be in the position of rebuilding an entire city in that way.
> I don't know whether the land under the buildings is privately owned in > the CBD. It might not matter as investors are getting cold feet due to > the restrictions being placed on the rebuild (eg height restrictions). > So it might be possible for the City Council to buy up lots of land on > the cheap and make good public use of it. > > Personally I think the best approach is a dictatorial one. And my vote > for dictator-in-chief goes to Kevin McCloud. But that'll never happen. > Maybe at least he could do an episode of Grand Designs on a grand scale > during the next decade or so. Be careful what you wish for. Historically, the dictatorial approach has rarely been successful. Paris may be the one exception. Otherwise you have to think of Albert Speer and his dreadful fantasies, or Brasilia, East German tower blocks, or the dreadful stuff we put up here after the war. What is important is to have controls which limit the craziness of developers. Kevin McCloud made an interesting doco about Dharavi, the big slum in Mumbai and how well that works as a place for people. I've been on the fringes of Dharavi, and seen other 3rd world shanty towns, and the always make me think of the way old European cities must have been at some point in the past. You can still see the medieval (or earlier) shape of many of our cities. They arose out of the hugger-mugger of organic rather than planned growth, tempered by frequent disasters and rebuilds. After each rebuild the multitude of property owners and other vested interests ensure that street plans remain the same, even if buildings change. That is what has happened each time London has been rebuilt and is part of the reason why it has charm, and why you can still walk the streets that the Romans, and Chaucer and Shakespeare, and Dickens walked, with the same names. B -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
