Looking at OKC on Google Maps, it's got a very dense core with a few large highrises, and then right next to that single storey buildings and car parks, and then literally three blocks away from the city centre in the Sosa district are totally empty lots.
What's the cause of this? The houses next to them look like they're in good condition, with new cars out the front - it doesn't look like something out of The Wire. Surely the land price isn't being artificially depressed by high crime. On Zillow the land itself looks like $300k, with $900k-$1.2m houses next to it.
Wouldn't it be more economically viable to build 3-4 storey buildings on these empty lots (or even just single family houses - there would have to be a premium on being closer to work) first, before building a giant skyscraper?
I once went to a talk by an SOM architect (SOM is the firm that does the engineering work on nearly all supertalls). He said that on a cost of construction versus land value basis, even in the most expensive markets, it makes no sense to go above 60 stores or so. Every building built taller is built for some other reason, usually to turn it into a "prestige address" that can charge premium rents.
but then you have to go through the whole permitting process for each 3-4 story building, which I'm guessing is blocked by bureaucracy and red tape. cheaper to just do it really painfully once.
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Looking at OKC on Google Maps, it's got a very dense core with a few large highrises, and then right next to that single storey buildings and car parks, and then literally three blocks away from the city centre in the Sosa district are totally empty lots.
What's the cause of this? The houses next to them look like they're in good condition, with new cars out the front - it doesn't look like something out of The Wire. Surely the land price isn't being artificially depressed by high crime. On Zillow the land itself looks like $300k, with $900k-$1.2m houses next to it.
Wouldn't it be more economically viable to build 3-4 storey buildings on these empty lots (or even just single family houses - there would have to be a premium on being closer to work) first, before building a giant skyscraper?
I once went to a talk by an SOM architect (SOM is the firm that does the engineering work on nearly all supertalls). He said that on a cost of construction versus land value basis, even in the most expensive markets, it makes no sense to go above 60 stores or so. Every building built taller is built for some other reason, usually to turn it into a "prestige address" that can charge premium rents.
but then you have to go through the whole permitting process for each 3-4 story building, which I'm guessing is blocked by bureaucracy and red tape. cheaper to just do it really painfully once.