It seems normal to have 500 story buildings. ("As upon that foundation has grown a sprawling metropolis 500 stories high, all built like stilts upon the concrete roots of a city of survivors." p. 93) Floor 100 is the cutoff between the haves and have-nots.
For comparison, the Empire State Building (6th tallest in the U.S.) is 102 stories. Burj Khalifa, the IRL tallest building on Earth, has 163 floors and is around 830 meters tall.
So at 500 stories we are talking about something three times as tall as the Burj Khalifa and rising thereby to around 2.5 km in height. Low clouds are below 2000 meters. Mid-level clouds are at 2-5 km.
Considering the weather ("The city is perpetually overcast in swirling mist and air so polluted that some people need masks just to breathe outdoors. Even on the few days when the city isn’t battered with bitter winds or sheets of rain and snow, you’d still need to drive two hours inland just to see the sun." p. 96) surely we cannot even see the tops of these buildings unless in a spinner? Or maybe those on top of the 500 story skyscrapers can see the tops of their neighbors? But pedestrians cannot really see, even from floor 100, the new Wallace HQ "dwarfing the nearby Tyrell pyramid" (p. 112), as we cannot see the tops of either one of these buildings.
But that's not really my question. I have two:
1. Why is this 'verticality' necessary? We are told there is a lack of space, people do not even have kitchens in their homes. There are 30 million people in L.A. in 2037 (Core p. 127) but in 2019 there were 106 million (Blade Runner movie trailer). With such a drastically smaller number of people from 18 years ago and "borders stretching from San Francisco to old San Diego" (p. 105), why did they need to build vertical so much? Mexico City IRL has 9 million people in an area only slightly larger than current day L.A. We would need to triple that, but there is much more area available in 2037 L.A., too. And Mexico City's tallest building is 62 stories. Is our only justification that we have rich folks who want to live above floor 100 and can afford a few floors just for themselves and their families? Or does it have something to do with the megacorps wanting their customers concentrated?
2. What are the consequences of building 500 story buildings? Having elevators for all the people and all the floors would take too much square footage. There is not enough parking for spinners on the roof, either.
- Spinner bays every few floors or for every unit? Maybe we need 500 floors because every rich person will have one floor just for their vehicle collection?
- No going anywhere you cannot fly to? Rich folks essentially trapped inside their own buildings?
- Parks, amusement parks, etc. built into most skyscrapers for recreation, with artificial sunlight, of course? Also adds to the need for more floors.
- Skywalks and even full-on concrete decks connecting buildings at some levels, e.g. 100? Essentially blocking out the sky for those below. Which may be a good thing.
I did note that the Starter Set adventure did not really utilize or discuss the vertical nature of the city much. I wonder why.
I also noted that the Blade Runner's "Home Sweet Home", studio, where "You’re not exactly spoiled with square footage either." (p. 111) is around 70-85 square meters (750-900 sq ft.) when you measure it. That's about double the size of any studio apartment I have ever lived in.