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City preservationists and pro-development factions frequently wage pitched battles over high-rise development, armed with a range of emotional weapons - angry exhortations, prophecies of neighborhood doom and threats of political retribution among them.
Enter Peter Bosselmann. The unassuming director of the Environmental Simulation Laboratory at the University of California at Berkeley, Bosselmann has injected a dose of scientific dispassion into a flourishing debate over the rapid pace of Upper West Side development.
Bosselmann, whose professional curiosity runs to sunlight, shadows and wind, and how they are altered by urban development, built a 5-by-7-foot replica of the neighborhoods and parks from 59th to 81st Street between Fifth Avenue and the Hudson River, then subjected the model to a series of sunlight, shadow and windtunnel tests in his laboratory.
The model, showing existing buildings carved from wood and projected high-rise structures painted in gray, was supplemented by scores of photographs shot from select Central Park and West Side vantage points, assessing the potential impact on local parks and streets.
Commissioned by the nonprofit Parks Council, the study found that if each of the 28 major developments either approved or on the drawing board is built as proposed, it would dramatically reduce available sunlight and cast...