How tall is too tall?

The sky has become the limit for buildings throughout much of the world only since the turn of the century, but a proposal to puncture the clouds above Kakaako is creating controversy here — even though Honolulu fits the typical suitability for tall residential structures because available land is restricted.

The Outdoor Circle, the city’s longtime protector of uninterrupted scenery, sees the 650-foot proposal dubbed 690 Pohukaina as "an unwelcome, unnecessary infringement upon the viewpoint of hundreds of thousands of people," said Bob Loy, the organization’s director of environmental programs.

But Gov. Neil Abercrombie testified to the Hawaii Community Development Authority that the project, including a residential tower and mixed-use commercial and retail block, "is about enhancing the way we live. Sustainable urban density is the future."

Most U.S. cities have limits on building heights, most notably Washington, D.C., where a structure is limited to the width of the street where it stands — about 130 feet, contrary to the myth that it is based on the height of the Capitol building. Although New York City’s 1,250-feet Empire State Building was erected in 1931, it was topped by the World Trade Center in 1972 and two years later by the Sears Tower (renamed the Willis Tower) in Chicago. Only six buildings in the U.S. surpassed its height by 2000.

Honolulu has a building limit of 350 feet — parts of downtown can exceed it with a special permit — but Kakaako areas governed by HCDA are exempt. First Hawaiian Bank was allowed by the city to puncture the limit in 1996 with completion of a downtown structure 429 feet in height, Honolulu’s tallest, for the bank’s corporate headquarters, according to developers. Numerous condominium towers exceeding 350 feet have been built since 1992 in Kakaako, near Ala Moana Center, with HCDA’s permission.

In some quarters, those are called "supertall," while skyscrapers are considered to be at least 500 feet high, the typical limit around the mainland. Nomenclature is debatable. Tall-building New York architect T.J. Gottesdiener has said a skyscraper "is anything that makes you stop, stand, crane your back, and look up."

In Honolulu, that definition may focus more on whatever interrupts the view from ocean to mountain.

Anthony Ching, HCDA’s executive director, has said the "skinny side" of the proposed Kakaako building, named 690 Pohukaina after the street makai of its location, will be positioned from makai to mauka, limiting the scenic disruption. Similar buildings 400 feet tall or more may be suitable for as many as 16 parcels in Kakaako, four of which will be planned in the next two decades.

David L. Callies, University of Hawaii law professor, supports the idea that "low, dense buildings" can be "as rocky at ground level and thereby as tall as narrow ones."

For example, Callies, author of the recently updated book, "Regulating Paradise: Land Use Controls in Hawaii," points to Tamarind Square, which replaced the four-story Alexander Young Hotel, demolished in 1981, next to the 28-story Pauahi Tower and across King Street from the eventual First Hawaiian building.

"When you were down on the ground level, you couldn’t see the mountains, you couldn’t see the ocean, you couldn’t see anything," Callies said. "Then we got the 20-plus-story tower right mauka of Tamarind Square, and it opened up views of the ocean from the mauka area and it opened up views to the mountains from the makai area and, of course, a very nice park downtown, a nice piece of green space."

But Kem Lowry, social sciences professor emeritus on urban and regional planning at UH, said he is skeptical of the Pohukaina project, acknowledging that he is "not a connoisseur of tall buildings."

He spoke of the European method of dealing with greater densities. For example, he said, a city like Paris has "great densities with eight stories throughout the core of the city," without tall buildings.

"It’s not attractive to me," Lowry said of the Kakaako plan. "I’m a planner and a natural resource management person … I need to be shown that it can work in terms of the visual impact on the community, but I don’t have an architect’s eye on how it can work."

Lowry said his concern is less about the aesthetics than about "the integration into the land use pattern around the building," which he said could put more strain on it, particularly the increase in density, especially in "a car culture."

Ching has said each residential unit at 690 Pohukaina will be allowed no more than one parking spot in the building.

However, Lowry said, "That just has a displacement effect. That puts the cars on the street or somewhere else. I understand the intention; I’m just not sure it can be made to work."

Callies said officials must decide upon areas to develop for residential housing, and the preferable alternative is an area where housing already exists or is zoned for residential. If "green space" toward ewa of the urban core "spreads out to take advantage or a rail system, if we ever get it, then it’s criticized for chewing up land that could be used for other purposes.

"Granted, we’re talking about extremes here," he added, "but it’s dense where there’s an urban area, and I don’t think Kakaako to be that much different from the urban core, not anymore. Or we spread out further afield from the second city, from Mililani, and work it that way."

Choosing Kakaako as the logical area to place further housing, Callies said, is the answer.

"The Hawaii Community Development Authority is just that, a community development authority, not a community preservation authority. … HCDA has some stuff in its enabling legislation that’s supposed to make it careful for a variety of things, including affordable housing and a range of activities, but it’s still a development authority."

Lowry responded that residential development in and around Kapolei as well as large housing projects in the urban core, including Kakaako, is unnecessary. "I don’t see that the demand is that great — the existing demand — unless they anticipate a lot more population growth," he said.

Questioning whether the choice should be between Kakaako and the second city, The Outdoor Circle’s Loy said that the urban core has "innumerable vacant lots throughout the urban area that are right for housing." He said government should find ways to lower heights of prospective housing and look at parcels throughout the urban core for possible housing projects.

"We think height limits have gone high enough and it’s time to put a cap on it and keep it there," Loy said.