Reaching for the skies - again

The Warsaw skyline is set to change once more. But how many of the planned skyscrapers will be realised this time around? Developers simply won't let go. The vision of Warsaw as some kind of a CEE Manhattan doppelgänger keeps coming back. In the pre-crisis boom years investors were obsessed with skyscrapers. Tall buildings were to become part of the skylines of cities which have never had any other significantly tall buildings before, Ljubljana is one such example. This lust for high-rise buildings has an explanation. No, it is not simply a one-season sensation. Skyscrapers do look good, but why does it have to be so that plans for several projects are announced at the same time?I am glad you asked. This is certainly a sign, but it is not necessarily a good one, actually. The connection between the ambition to build skyscrapers and an approaching crisis is hardly a novelty. The link has been explained by the so-called 'skyscraper index'. Andrew Lawrence, head of research at Dresdner