Mixed Use....But on Steroids

Rem Koolhaas was on point with his analysis of Manhattan.  What he observed and concluded to be a “Culture of Congestion” came to my mind worded as “Mixed Use on Steroids.”  No worries, it is all the same concepts.  Being from South Carolina, where the largest city in the state has a population of just under 150,000, I am more accustomed to seeing mixed use development as retail and restaurant spaces on the ground floor and housing on the upper floor(s).  These developments typically go no higher than 10 floors, from what I have seen to be commonplace.  Manhattan takes this typology and takes it vertically where 50 and 60 story towers, each seemingly unique from each other, are commonplace.  Multiple floors are devoted to certain occupancies, floors can differ in height, and floors can house some of the most eclectic endeavors, completely irrelevant to the floors above and below.  This creates a vertical congestion, and when coupled with the horizontal congestion of millions of people packed on a slender island at the mouth of the Hudson River, a fast-paced culture of congestion is born—an unspoken, quintessential case study of mixed use on steroids.

So, I get it Rem.  I really do.