But...but...but...look how much HIGHER the top of the building is relative to the telephone poles!!

Click here to view image.

I still don't get the obsession with height, it's just a number. Put 80% of your nit-picking and demands into the ground floor, 10% into the floor above that, 5% into the floor above that, and so on and so on with exponentially less importance.

A 10 story building with a crappy ground floor is better than a 11 story building with a fantastic ground floor to so many people. I mean do you really notice? I'd love to do a sort of "blind taste test" with anti-height types. Blindfold them at the base of a building and give them 5 seconds to get an impression of the building then tell you the number of floors and if it's a good building or not. Again, 80% of their impression will be from the ground floor and how well it interacts with the street. They'll be able to tell you maybe if it was a mid-rise or a high-rise. They could tell you the buildng is under 8 stories, but they won't be able to tell you if it's 12 or 14, or 20 or 25.

Stop worrying about numbers like FSR and floor count, start worrying much more about getting the ground floor stunning and a delight to walk past. If "letting" a developer add a few more floors means the flat faux brick on the ground floor can afford to be replaced with real stone and sculptural details, do it, get the best design and materials possible.

Well said Baro.

A 10 story building with a crappy ground floor is better than a 11 story building with a fantastic ground floor to so many people.

The Wave being the perfect example. Not super tall but the ground floor sucks.

I still don't get the obsession with height, it's just a number. Put 80% of your nit-picking and demands into the ground floor, 10% into the floor above that, 5% into the floor above that, and so on and so on with exponentially less importance.

A 10 story building with a crappy ground floor is better than a 11 story building with a fantastic ground floor to so many people. I mean do you really notice? I'd love to do a sort of "blind taste test" with anti-height types. Blindfold them at the base of a building and give them 5 seconds to get an impression of the building then tell you the number of floors and if it's a good building or not. Again, 80% of their impression will be from the ground floor and how well it interacts with the street. They'll be able to tell you maybe if it was a mid-rise or a high-rise. They could tell you the buildng is under 8 stories, but they won't be able to tell you if it's 12 or 14, or 20 or 25.

Stop worrying about numbers like FSR and floor count, start worrying much more about getting the ground floor stunning and a delight to walk past. If "letting" a developer add a few more floors means the flat faux brick on the ground floor can afford to be replaced with real stone and sculptural details, do it, get the best design and materials possible.

Can you imagine the nightmare of regulations if height limits were replaced with guidelines like "a stunning ground floor" and "a delight to walk past"?

Can you imagine the discussions at council meetings and community sessions?

I think developers would commit suicide. There should be fewer restrictive rules for sure, but the rules that do exist should be less subjective, not more.