Scandinavia to DAPAC: Low Is Beautiful

Cities in Scandinavia such as Stockholm and Copenhagen have been around 800 to 950 years longer than Berkeley, but they have refused to build skyscrapers. These cities realized that when a city builds large structures, they overshadow the historic landmarks and compromise the city’s core.
In Berkeley, the mayor is pushing for approval of 16-story buildings. However, such structures would cost the citizens views of the Campanile, the city hall, the bay, the Golden Gate Bridge, and the hills.
Even though Stockholm does not have tall buildings, it still has accomplished the goal of density by constructing numerous five to seven story buildings. As a result, Scandinavia leads the world in promoting broad prosperity and bridging social inequality. Scandinavian countries routinely top international rankings of overall “quality of life” and residents’ self-reported happiness.
Berkeley’s 1990’s development plan had a similar plan of five to seven story buildings. No one appears to dislike this plan except for those that sit very high up—like in the mayor’s office, or top UC administrative offices, or the leafy Piedmont aeries where major developers tend to live.


Michael Katz, Scandinavia to DAPAC: Low Is Beautiful, Berkeley Daily Planet (Nov. 6, 2007) (available at http://www.berkeleydaily.org/article1.cfm?archiveDate=11-06-07&storyID=28397).