Vertical Cities - Aided by Georgism - Will be Socially Progressive & Green

by Hank Pellissier

Want to live in a giant skyscraper, connected via sky-rail to multiple other towers? Everything you need just an elevator ride away: stores, restaurants, theaters, workstations, swimming pools, parks, and farms? Plus, it’s “green”?

Vertical cities are being designed to accommodate 25,000+ people; the best samples - inhabited or opening-soon - are in East Asia.

Shanghai Tower will have nine low carbon footprint cylindrical 128-stories-high towers. The exterior features 270 wind turbines, a glass skin to reduce electric needs, and buffer spaces to provide natural insulation. The metropolis area will be 33% landscaped - this’ll cool the units.

Singapore’s Pinnacle@Duxton (completed 2008) is seven 50-story residency towers housing 7,000 residents. It has two 500-meter sky gardens, a basement car park, food center, daycare center, basketball court, jogging track, playgrounds, and gym.

Ruffles City, in Chongqing, China, has eight towers with 82 stories and 1,400 residencies, plus two swimming pools, restaurants, a 235,000 square meter mall, and it’s surrounded by a park.

Additional vertical livers will be in Hong Kong, Dubai, Bangkok, New York, Taipei, Tokyo, Busan, Toronto, Chicago, Moscow, Mumbai, Melbourne, Riyadh, Panama City, and Makati (Philippines). Earthquake danger removes San Francisco and Los Angles from this list; seismic activity in Indonesia, Japan, and Taiwan limits the loftiness of construction in those nations.

Vertical Cities will provide these valuable benefits to future living:

1. Growing straight up, not out, reduces the sprawl of overpopulation - and it preserves farmland and wild areas.

2. Stacking homes, work, commercial centers, schools, and entertainment / recreation centers on top of each other - will reduce fuel costs, carbon emissions, commute time, and ugly transportation roadways.

3. Food produced in controlled environment, high yield, no-pest, ‘farm-scrapers’, and in-vitro-meat labs, will free horizontal land from non-organic agribusiness and ranching enterprises.

4. Abandoning our dependence on the automobile will encourage a pedestrian-friendly lifestyle. Quick access to exercise and medical facilities will also elevate health.

5. Mega-towers can be covered with solar panels and wind turbines to generate electricity.

6. Curtailing urban sprawl will help preserve historic neighborhoods.

7. The “Big Hives" of a Vertical City can provide humanity with specific social interactions just like the internet, but in the flesh. Want to argue about Georgism face-to-face? 3rd tower, 7th floor. Want Sex? 1st tower, 50th floor. Niche intellectual pursuits and Rare Vices will be featured amenities in the best Vertical Cities, providing delightful convenience.

8. Multiple nature preserve floors can be linked together by sky bridges, to create uninterrupted wild land for animals to live in safely.

Luca Curci Architects is currently designing the largest vertical city - a 180-story residential building to accommodate 100,000 residents. It will be surrounded by three other towers of offices, schools, government centers and medical facilities, and three shorter moon-shaped structures enclosing hotels, sports centers, shopping, etc.

Researchers consistently agree that vertical living will be an environmental savior and a civilization upgrade. A 2017 study using data from Chinese cities asserts, “density improves air quality… reduces per capita carbon footprints… reduces growth or road infrastructure and vehicle ownership… promotes walking… [and] translates into proximity and accessibility.” Jane Jacobs, proponent of livable cities, believed high density led to vibrant culture, production, and innovation. Geoffrey West and Chris Kempes of the Santa Fe Institute claim urban growth fosters inventiveness, information sharing, and wealth creation.

William Meyer, Colgate University geography professor, claims urbanites drink safer water, die in fewer traffic accidents, and enjoy safer workplaces than rural people. He also notes the United States is “anti-urban.” A reason he provides is politically interesting: “Governments tend to fear and distrust the cities that most of their people would prefer to live in, because urban unrest is more effective than rural. ‘A people, when assembled in a town, is far more formidable to its rulers than when dispersed over a wide extent of country.’ (Thomas Macauley, 1850) Most rulers have known this and acted accordingly.” Democracy will be be hugely enhanced if vertical cities become autonomous, self-ruling entities.

Edward Glaser, Economics professor at Harvard University, is very pro-vertical, proclaiming in an essay, “The best thing that we can do for the planet is build more skyscrapers.” Glaser, not surprisingly, agrees with the Henry George proposal “to abolish all taxes, except on land values.” Both economists recognize that taxing construction discourages new building. If only LVT (land value tax) was applied, investors would pay the same tax for a plot of land that contained either a parking lot, or a three-bedroom house, or a 100-story skyscraper. Result? Development would soar.

Adoption of Georgist ideas would encourage the construction of vertical cities with the accompanying benefits. To guarantee an environmentally friendly, socially healthy future, the ideas of the 19th century humanitarian-economist-philosopher need to be resurrected and enthusiastically enacted.