Originally Posted by
Bham1982
Yup. Highrises have almost nothing to do with urbanity.
Best urban environments on earth are probably Paris, Barcelona and Manhattan, IMO. And the best neighborhoods in these respective environments have few highrises. Even in Manhattan, the best areas are between Midtown and Lower Manhattan, an area that is full of midrises, but has relatively few towers.
In American cities, especially, modern highrises tend to be bad for walkability and street-level urban feel, because they tend to be monolithic full-block sites with giant parking garages at the base. Visit, say, River North in Chicago, and you see how the American auto-obsession has led to poor urban environments. You have newer towers everywhere but the street-level environment sucks. Places like Dallas, Miami and Atlanta are far worse, even.
Outside of NYC, and a few tiny sections of Philly, SF and Boston, modern American highrise districts tend to be crap.