As a dumb hick from flyover country, I really don’t get why rich people want to live stacked on top of each other in geometric ant-farm cubicles, but, as long as no one is forcing me to live like that, I have no objection. (And the environmentalist nutjobs who think that’s how everybody should be forced to live to save the polar bears can GDIAF.)
I would imagine if we look back to when the Chrysler building was built there would be similar editorials. History repeats.
The same was echoed when the Otis Elevator was first displayed, freeing the wealthy from the lower floors to ascend to the heights of their socially-stratified apartment buildings; the cheap and despised starving-writer’s garret became the rich-banker’s palatial penthouse as the wealthy ascending to and through the clouds.
Without power those towers are uninhabitable. BathHouse Barry declared war on cheap energy and the power grid is in its worse condition in US history. A guy with a rifle can shut down large swaths of city by shooting the bottom of the large power station transformers, solar flares can knock down whole regions. http://www.businessinsider.com/silicon-valley-power-station-sniper-attack-2014-2 People had a weeks warning with Sandy and still nicely dressed people dumpster dived for food 2 days post.
I have stayed at unfavorable places in my time but I don’t believe man was meant to be able to hear when his 5 closest neighbors flush the toilet. Since everything will break down from time to time and stupid people start fires I would not want to live higher than I can comfortably rappel down. In flyover country you can mortgage a McMansion for what it costs to rent a Boston Parking spot.
I always imagine those high rises in cross section. That way you can see all of the sophisticates sh*tting on each others heads all the way down. Quite amusing.