"I agree with you for every neighborhood except downtown. Downtown has an existing context of midrises, and midrises that were leveled for the current seas of parking. Brickell was essentially built new, and could support complete planetary colonization levels of super buildings. Downtown has a more complicated and fine grain structure of culture and demographics. It will never be a Brickell, a SOBE, or a Manhattan. It needs to be its own neighborhood. This insistent tendency to view downtown as North Brickell or South Midtown is very frustrating. That being said I believe towers SHOULD have a prominent place in any plan to develop Downtown. But the current reality actually calls for a greater variety of spaces than simply the Pedestallized-overamenitized-overpriced villas in the sky. If the city seeks the dynamism and diversity of a real downtown it needs some lower cost, more mid range projects. The only way that can happen is if the current land banking speculative holding companies lose incentive to keep high-priced, underperforming land in a state of vacancy. I recognize the importance of towers to any Downtown plan, but insisting EVERY project must be an 80 story mega-project, or another self contained superbuilding is unrealistic. This may just knock the economics around in such a way to get things on the right path."-Scott Douglass [Lowered FAA Height Limits Could Decapitate Downtown Miami]
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