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Apple Gets Final Go Ahead for New San Francisco Flagship Store
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Are there any examples of what happens to Apples very distinct architecture/buildings when they decide to leave/relocate?
I finally can see the small doors on either side of the front, along with the glass stairs behind them. The store makes a bit more sense to me now. It also appears that there's an entrance at the back of the store.
When those huge doors are open, what's to prevent customers from tumbling off of the second level?
When those huge doors are open, what's to prevent customers from tumbling off of the second level?
So you support a world in which the people with the most money can buy up land and do whatever they want with it? Sounds great. Want to build a sex shop next door to a primary school? Sure no worries—you paid for the land! Build a 30 metre monument to yourself in the middle of the city? Sure, why not—if you've got the money to do it. Build a 5 story tower in your suburban block that casts a shadow over half your street? Hey, it's your own property—go for your life!
(PS. I'm not saying the bureaucrats aren't too heavy handed at times. Just pointing out that some urban planning is a necessary function of government.)
Because maybe the very expensive neighbors don't want their shops next to a giant "silver toaster oven"? The wall facing the Common Square originally was 75x30 solid silver with no decoration or even windows or enterances.. That's just being an "asshat" neighbor to buy up a CORNER lot and put up a flat wall.
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Looks more like a toaster oven. Especially if it was lit with orange lights at night. The cravings for Hot Pockets will be epic!
Won't happen the US because most architecture there is quite unremarkable so these are pretty much their only option.
Isn't this going to be a two-story building? If the giant glass doors are as high as the building, can't visitors that are upstairs jump/fall out when the doors are open?
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this.
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this.
Crypto-libertarianism is a uniquely American phenomenon. My experience in dealing with these people is that for the most part, they don't actually believe in the ideology they preach. If something big and ugly and disruptive was dropped on their doorstep, they'd be the first to demand that something be done about it.
Well, "Some regulation" in a civilized society is necessary and is just fine. But, if you've ever built or remodeled your own home, especially an older home built before many city codes became so rigid, you'll see that the real problems start when those planning commissions have absolute power and it starts to get way out of hand. Our neighbor here in LA has been fighting with the city of Glendale for YEARS because he has an innocuous 18" tall white picket fence on his own property the city doesn't happen to "like". I received hostility at the permit office because I wanted to replace our 50-year old fire-hazard cedar shake roofing with new, safer asphalt shingles because they said I'm "not allowed to change the style" even though there's a code that states I MUST replace older wood roofs in this part of LA because of the fire hazard. I'm trying to do what they want- so why do they have to give me such a hard time about it? I also have to follow a 27 page brochure on what kinds of windows I'm allowed to put in my own house, even on the side that's not seen from the street. If the originals are wood, I have to replace them with wood, even though more modern building materials may look exactly the same, last longer, be more environmentally friendly and cost 1/4 as much. They don't care if I go broke following the regulations. When we went to a variance committee meeting, the council suggested removing and completely replacing our 2 car garage to get it "in code" because, no kidding, it was ONE INCH too close to the property line. No hazard or safety issue. $7,000 bucks to fix something 1 inch off of regulation. We said no thanks, so they denied the permit we wanted for an addition. These are just a few examples of why regular, hard-working taxpayers who want to improve their homes get mad about it all.....
Ahh, never mind..... good luck. If you ever need a permit for something big, hope your city is easier to deal with than ours has been!
I was a city planner in a previous life. I gave it up for a number of reasons, but first and foremost was my painful discovery that nobody was really in favor of city planning, which to succeed fundamentally requires that everyone be prepared to give up something such that the overall living environment for everyone is better.
Instead, most public planning decisions boil down ultimately to a battle of wills and competing self-interests, with the most powerful wills and self-interests prevailing. This is a fascinating if depressing result, when you consider that the laissez-faire element believes this is precisely how the world should work, but without government involvement.
What a great many people favor on a whole is being able to do whatever they want with their own property, while preventing others from doing what they want with theirs. My home is my castle, but your home is a big problem. This phenomonon is the source of my concept of crypto-libertarianism. The prevalence of this "philosophy" is why planning, which works so well in other countries, is at best a blunt instrument wielded randomly in this country.
Interesting comments IJ Reilly. Coming from a very small town that pretty much let people do whatever they wanted within reason and moving to a big city where people fight over inches of property borders, I think ultimately the only answer for people who really love their independence and personal freedom is to just live in a smaller town where you can own more property and have more space between you and your neighbor. Ultimately most problems like fence disputes, property lines, oranges falling in the neighbors yard, sunlight rights (!), blocking views, loud stereos, and etc can really only fully resolved by having more personal space and living in a smaller, less congested area of the country so you can have more elbow room and acreage for yourself. Then everyone gets what they want. Thats one of the reasons our family is looking at getting out of this town.
BTW, glad you got out with your sanity intact!
BTW, glad you got out with your sanity intact!
The problem with bolting to the urban fringe (or beyond) is that's exactly where everybody else with a like mind is also heading. So what you get out there is a bunch of people who don't know how to live around other people. My brother lives in the high desert in a place he thought was far enough out that it would always be peaceful, but in short order his neighbors started running ATVs all over the place and driving him nuts. So good luck with that, I say.
Not sure I escaped with all of my sanity, but I was headed for the corner of Heart Attack and Vine, so that much I avoided.
First of all, this scenario would not happen. What incentive would someone have to put up a sex shop across the road from a kindergarden? What would be the incentive for that exactly? Plus, imagine all the bad press, social media, and shunning such an arrogant establishment would receive.. But let's assume that they did... Would you go to a business like that? No? Well then I would imagine you would vote your money along with the majority of other people, to not patronize that business, and watch it go bankrupt very quickly. This is especially true given that the things in those shops are available online anyways, which is putting a lot of those businesses located even in the shady parts of town where you prefer them to be located, out of business anyways.
With regard to the statue, if you own that piece of property, no one has a right to tell you what you can and cannot use it for. As long as you done put something on that property that could infringe on the basic human or property rights of an individual, it is your property to do with what you wish; 30 meter statue, whacky waving inflatable arm flailing tube man, or whatever. If you don't like it, buy the piece of land and take it down. Or don't look at it. Or don't patronize the business that person owns so that his or her cash flows take such a hit for that statue that it doesn't make sense for them to keep it there. There are plenty of ways for the public to come together, in a voluntary manner, to solve this problem without the use of government force that is expensive for taxpayers, immoral, and inhibits the speed of innovation elsewhere in the economy.
The whole purpose for building a tower is because the cost per square foot on the ground is too expensive to justify not building vertically. Why would property be so expensive in a suburb to justify building a tower? And even if someone did want to build a five floor house, who you to tell them that they can't? Is three stories too much? I see three-story houses all the time. Or is four stores the cut off? Again, you have no right to tell other people what they cannot can't do with their property. If you like the property so much, then buy it from them. They used to do that all the time in my town during the housing boom. The town hall would put up a sign in the middle of town letting us know how much more money we needed to donate in order to buy a field that was being targeted by a bunch of housing developers so they wouldn't stick of bunch of houses in it. It worked fine then, and there is no reason why it wouldn't work now.
There are still plenty of places in the U.S. that don't have zoning or permitting requirements for people's land, and its not like these things are rampant.
Then maybe their expensive neighbors should put their money where their mouth is and buy the property before Apple does. It's not like Apple is out to piss people off. They go out of their way to make products that are terrific, make sure their company is environmentally friendly, etc. They can listen the public input from people around the area, etc. There is no inherent justification in using the force of government to keep your neighbor from being an "asshat" with THEIR property. It belongs to them NOT you.
Okay, so you really do dream of a world that is ruled by the almighty dollar. If you don't have the most $$$, shut the hell up huh? Heck, why stop there—at elections, why not give everyone one vote for every dollar they have?
Well, I respect your honesty at least, even if I abhor your philosophy.
Great comments!