How New York could emulate Asia

New York skyline and Hong Kong skyline

Even as homebuyers from Asia flock to the city,
Asian cityscapes could also serve as an example for New York City, New
York Magazine reported in an article.

Brooklyn and Queens are not dense enough and have too much blue sky,

Vishaan Chakrabarti, a former employee of Related Companies and now in
charge of the real estate program at Columbia University, said. If
there were fewer one- and two-story buildings and more “vertical cities,”
he said, it would help to discourage automobile use, conserve energy and push
more residents onto the subway.
He noted that Hong Kong’s transit
corporation MTR made a fortune by building skyscrapers on landfill
and then building out rail lines to serve those developments. Jay
Walder, chairman and CEO of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority,
announced his resignation this summer to lead MTR.

Because the Time Warner Center has not succeeded in bringing together
CNN workers, residents and and hotel guests, according to the
magazine, New York has been avoiding mixing buildings’ purposes and
populations, even though the city has the potential for Asian-style
complexes.

Some Columbia students have also suggested expanding Governor’s Island
into an artificial archipelago, creating new land that would absorb
storms, and more real estate that could provide tax revenue to fund
green-energy plants. Instead of refurbishing the Javits Center on the
West Side, an alternative would be the construction of a convention
center near the airport in Jamaica or Willets Point. [NYMag]