Downtown Sacramento Condos

Via Bob Shallit, I see that Sacramento has its second high-rise condo web site, Aura Condos. Aura Condos is a funkily (not a word) designed 50 story condo tower destined for what is currently a parking lot at 6th and Capitol.  Aura follows in the footsteps of the Sacramento Towers, a dual 50-story condo castle slated to be built four blocks down the street at 2nd and Capitol.  I generally think building high-density housing downtown is a good thing. 

However, John at Uneasy Rhetoric offhandedly pointed out that Portland, which is THE model for Downtown revitalization, made a conscious decision to keep building heights low.  Expanding on John's point, the idea is to get people out of their buildings to build a community.  Portland's Pearl District is interesting and walkable by its inclusion of shops and restaurants on every block.  The Pearl also includes a lot of outdoor dining as well as a city-block sized park around which many of the condos are built. The point is that the Pearl gets people out of their residences and into the community.  Sacramento's 50-story megatowers would presumably include many of the amenities one would need, like restaurants, a grocery store, a gym a coffee shop and so on.  This would seem to have the opposite effect in building a community.  While Sacramento is definitely moving in the right direction, I think multiple projects like the seven story Plaza Lofts at 8th and J might be a better idea in the short term than the megatowers currently being planned.   

Comments

[Maxine Scott]

This sounds like a great ideal. Look at other cities of this size in California and see how successful it has proven to be.
I would like to get my name on the list as a
future owner of one.

[John]

I think the Plaza Lofts are a better model of the way they should take the city. Of course, with the Pearl in PDX, you have a vast contiguous area that all needed redevelopment (like the, ahem, rail yards). Here, a lot of these high rise and loft developments are just being plopped down wherever there is room - not exactly a community building strategy, but it will still increase the density of housing in Sacramento and attract at least a few people to move back into town (provided they can keep the prices down).

These giant tower developments are leapfrogging the idea of a mid-sized city community for something more Manhattan-esque. Given Sacramento's truly deserved reputation as a quiet "cow town," are we really going to be able to support that kind of lifestyle?

Then again, with so much flat space around, what developer wouldn't want to erect his post-modern statute on Sacramento's skyline?