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Jason Barr Releases New Book, "Cities in the Sky"
and Writes on NYC Housing in Vital City
Marron Fellow Jason Barr just released his new book, Cities in the Sky: The Quest to Build the World’s Tallest Skyscrapers:
Skyscrapers have brought us awe and wonder, and yet they remain controversial—for their high costs, shadows, and overt grandiosity. But, decade by decade, they keep getting higher and higher. What is driving this global building spree of epic proportions? Cities in the Sky explores why we are building ever upward in the 21st century.
Join Barr and the Wall Street Journal’s Konrad Putzier for a conversation about the book on May 15 in NYC, followed by a signing.
Writing in Vital City, Barr makes the case for making New York City pro-housing policies more popular, in “Can New York Become a City of Yes?” He offers several strategies after posing the opportunity to develop more housing units:
New York—yes, even this most dense of American cities—has a vast trove of underutilized land. Outside of Manhattan, 92% of buildings within one kilometer (0.62 miles) of a subway stop are three stories or less. The city has 10 square miles of vacant lots zoned for residential use. If developed at the same density as the Park Slope neighborhood in Brooklyn (Community District 6), this land could yield at least 340,000 units.