Archinect - News

Moshe Safdie's National Medal of Honor Museum is off to a rocky start

2018-07-13T14:45:00-04:00

It isn't often that architect Moshe Safdie is sent back to the drawing board. But that's exactly what happened earlier this year when his soaring vision for the National Medal of Honor Museum clashed with a local height ordinance. [...] planning commission in the Charleston suburb of Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, unanimously denied its Safdie-concieved proposal because it would exceed by 75 feet the elevation limit on land zoned for no more than 50 feet.

"Ultimately, it all came down to a lack of communication," writes Jolee Edmondson. "What has transpired in Mount Pleasant underscores the importance of builders engaging in community outreach before submitting a formal plan for public property. Safdie's design was unveiled in 2015, but it was mainly confined to the foundation's website."

Seattle's proposed 101-story 4/C Tower considered as too tall by the FAA

2016-01-06T14:05:00-05:00

The proposed Fourth and Columbia Tower...would be a mixed-use office and residential tower rising up 1,111 feet above the street. It would be 101 stories, with two levels of retail shopping, four levels of above-grade parking, and six levels of office space. It would also play home to 350 hotel rooms, and 1,200 residential units...But being the tallest could be something [developer] Crescent Heights may not want to give up.

Previously on Archinect:

Proposed Seattle Tower, designed by LMN Architects, could become the West Coast's tallest

Keeping the Disneyland magic alive, by limiting neighbors' building heights

2015-12-14T17:47:00-05:00

The policy, limiting building heights of 75 to 240 feet within a half-mile radius of the Disneyland Resort, isn’t meant to keep outsiders from getting a peek at the rides and attractions. Rather, the Disney Cone is aimed at limiting views of the outside world for the 25 million-plus annual visitors who walk into the parks for a sense of escape and fantasy – just as Walt Disney had first envisioned on Disneyland’s opening day, more than 60 years ago.

Exceeding height restrictions to break a housing logjam in San Francisco

2015-09-30T15:00:00-04:00

Neighborhoods across the west side of San Francisco could see thousands of new housing units under a measure Mayor Ed Lee is proposing that would allow builders to exceed current height restrictions in exchange for including more affordable units.

The Mayor's proposal would allow builders to add two stories of additional height to the current building height restrictions to help the notoriously expensive metropolis of San Francisco become more affordable to middle-class denizens (unlike federal or state sponsored initiatives, which target low-income groups). To exceed the height restrictions, thirty percent of the new development's units would have to be affordable; for those projects that are fully comprised of affordable units, developers would be able to add a third story. In San Francisco, middle-class is defined as "families making between 120 and 140 percent of area median income, which is $122,000 to $142,000 for a family of four."

For more on San Francisco's housing crisis, do check out:

• Airbnb rentals cut deep into San Francisco housing stock, report says

• No room for affordable housing in SF? Build it in Oakland

• Markasaurus does the math on SF housing prices