What are the worst enemy for skyscrapers in your city/country?

Some choices:
1- NIMBYS, BANANAs, CAVEmen, and so on: local civilians opposition
2- bureaucracy: opposition from government or slow paperworks
3- corruption: on any level, from government to contractors
4- economy: crisis hits and cancels everything
5- nature: natural risks, earthquakes, storms, anything, damage from the four elements

anything else?

Give us some examples?

I'll start first: La Defense, Paris aggl, IdF, France, late 80s, early 90s
The greatest European building since the Eiffel tower was to be built. Completely approved! All was set to go! The Tour Sans Fins by Jean Nouvel! All 425m of glory! And at the last moment! Bam! Economic crisis, and all is canceled! The horror! The Humanity! :gaah:

In Russia its mainly the lack of a "pro-business" environment. (This is why I envy Kazakhstan. It may not be democratic but at least thier government is friendly to business and investment.)
Then there's also the the local officials who make up imaginary obstacles. (In one of our cities we got a 150m highrise going up and suddenly the local authorities say the building is illegal)
St Petersburg is somewhat of a special case because mandated of height restrictions. And of course there is huge local opposition.

I believe that the reasons differ from country to country. In Greece it's a combination of legislation (general height limit is 27m as per building code), people's negative attitude, mentality and phobias (fear of earthquakes, fear that the Acropolis will not be visible from all points of the horizon, fear that these buildings will spoil the image of the cities they will be built in, etc), as well as the known sadism on the part of the NIMBYs and a general aversion towards whatever is related to private enterprise and business development.

Although many of these reservations appear to have a grain of reasonable doubt in them, it is the extreme and absolute aversion of these groups of people that makes the difference. Many things have changed during recent years of course but still, people need to be informed as there are signs of a wider change of attitude BUT, the opposing forces still have the upper hand since they are more organized and occupy many of the traditional mass media where they continue to spread their outdated ideas.

BTW, I am surprised about what dear Caligula says regarding Russia. From the construction and Economic boom taking place there, one could easily assume that businesses are welcome with open arms. Otherwise, developments like the "Moscow city" are built for whom?

The chamber of architects in Turkey is world's biggest skyscraper enemy! There are so many cool projects on hold (Dubai towers among these projects) because of this chamber

some examples:
Dubai towers:
http://img206.imageshack.us/img206/5902/139125955f67a8cf0c26hv.jpg

Garden Tower
http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f197/zhjakob/Projects/462915.jpg

Central Bank
http://www.tolaymuhendislik.com/resim/merkez.jpg

Eczacibasi towers
http://www.krjda.com/images/Eczacibasi_1.jpg

I really don't understand what's the point for the chamber of architects to stop the Garden Tower. is it really on hold? Pity, this is one of the most beautiful new generation towers in Istanbul. BTW, wasn't the Eczasibasi replaced by the Kanyon?

In general, Levent is already tall, I don't understand why they want to stop new towers. Don't the neighbors want their properties to gain value?

Why would the chamber of architects be opposed?
Are they pissed that companies would use foreign architects or what?

@gm2263: Garden tower was too high for their taste since it can be seen from the Bosphorus (like all skyscrapers actually, I don't get the logic either), they approved a height of ca 150m which was too short for this project so we are still waiting for the decission. And yes Eczacibasi was replaced by Kanyon. Kanyon is only 118m tall, that's why they approved it. Just 200m next to Kanyon Sapphire is u/c and is 261m tall and no one said anything against this tower.

3tmk: You don't know what kind of projects they stoped. It's not because of foreign architects (why should one be against foreign architects) it's because they think these projects destroy the view from Bopshorus and the view of ancient peninsula.

^^ no,

right before the construction they changed the project and made it taller than main project and it was too tall for its plot size. You know, it needs a section (emsal )

The project didn't change in height, just some minimal changes on the facade, they approved only 3 "emsal" so they couldn't realize the real Garden tower project!

The entire city and the majority of its population:D

The biggest enemies of skyscrapers is environnementalists... since it was proved that scrapers were terrible for birds and natural environnement...

The entire city and the majority of its population:D

I deeply and wholeheartedly understand you, although your city is very beautiful as is :)

The entire city and the majority of its population:D

hehehe.
For "Pest" ;), I guess the acronym CAVEmen fits well: Citizens Against Virtually Everything

The project didn't change in height, just some minimal changes on the facade, they approved only 3 "emsal" so they couldn't realize the real Garden tower project!

Main point of "Chamber of Objectors" ehm.. sorry "Architects" is mainly the increased density of construction in the area, then the height. They some sort of act like city planners, but doesn't matter "Chamber of City Planners" also usually follow them.

In Ankara;

- Chamber of Architects opposing on creation of CBDs and increasing density in certain areas of the city. And those areas are not even city center, they have cancelled many arrangements in newly developing areas.
- Bureaucracy very old and outdated laws and no attempt to replace them.
- Habits companies usually own their own 3-4 floor lowrise company centers instead of moving into plazas.
- Economy many companies with Ankara background move to Istanbul after reaching a certain level, so possible plaza renters are gone.
- NIMBY's especially in downtown, they usually work in corporation with Chamber of Architects.

For Amsterdam:

1. Amsterdam Airport Schiphol is so close to Amsterdam, that there is virtually no location where they are allowed to build higher than 150m because of the radar. On many locations there is a maximum height. For the Zuidas the maximum is for example 60 - 90 meters, however there are exceptions up to 105 meters. On that location there are now 2 buildings of 105 meter and they are building 2 others. The highest top in Amsterdam of a building is 150 meters. There are more exceptions to be expected for Amsterdam, but it makes building more difficult.

2. Lack of prestige that the Dutch have to build really high. While the Netherlands has enough headquarters of big multinationals such as Shell, ING, Unilever, Ahold, Akzo Nobel, Heineken, ABN-Amro/Fortis, Philips, only a few have their HQ in a skyscraper.

3. Nimbys, although they seem to be happy that as long as the city centre isn't touched, there is a fear that a very few are delaying projects. The Rembrandt Tower (135 meter, 150 with antenna) was build before people could even think of protesting. And as soon as it was there, I don't have the feeling that people seem to object to skyscrapers anymore in general in Amsterdam, except for the old city centre. But even the very pro skyscraper people don't even consider touching it.

Michał Borowski in Poland :bash:

http://www.sztuka-architektury.pl/files/borowski.jpg

the law which forbids tall buildings(but thiswill chage soon),the small population of our cities,financial reasons,the fire department which does not have the adequate equipment for extinguishing fires in tall buildings and etc (i am talking for cyprus).

a bunch of silly people in brussels, and the other govrments in blegium. Buth it's going in the good direction now!
there was one time that a mayor of brussels wanted to demolish every high building that he saw at the balkony of the city hall!

UNESCO.

ah yes, UNESCO
Those guys have probably protested about every skyscraper that is within a 100km of some of their ruins, lol

In Milan, option 1 and 2.

Pour ou contre les tours à Paris?

«L'urgence des villes, c'est le développement durable», estime Denis Baupin. «L'unique argument écologique ne peut que réduire le débat sur l'architecture », lui répond Jean-Michel Wilmotte.

Read full article sur Le Figaro (http://www.lefigaro.fr/lefigaromagazine/2008/06/07/01006-20080607ARTFIG00039-pour-ou-contre-les-tours-a-paris-.php)

Skyscrapers' worst enemy in Europe?

Our historical cityscapes. That's it.

^^but same cities full with huge blocky housing complexes.:|

Yes, but these were built mostly in the 1960, 70's and 80's.
Nowadays urban standards are much different so is the attitude
towards historical heritage.