California Tower downtown Riverside Riverside County Bldg. downtown Riverside

As long as I can remember I've always been fascinated with tall buildings and urban landscapes. At a very young age, I vividly remember attending a company Christmas show in downtown Riverside with my family. We parked at the base of the then Security Pacific National Bank building (now known as the California Tower).

Once out of the car, I immediately became mesmerized by the tall vertical bands which encircled the building. Staring straight up in awe, it wasn't long before I began to wobble and become unsteady nearly falling backwards onto the pavement. (This was probably my first real experience with vertigo, which sadly, I would later find is quite common the affliction for me – especially at amusement parks.)

As my mom swiftly ushered us kids away from the car that morning, I remember her having to tug at my arm as I insisted on craning my neck backwards - and upwards - toward the building. Needless to say, I had a very stiff neck later that day.

At only 11 stories the building wasn't much of a skyscraper, but at age 7 anything over 5 stories seems enormously tall – particularly in vertically-impaired suburban Southern California.

As time progressed, I was always eager to make return visits to downtown Riverside if only to once again stand at the base of that building - or even the glass-curtained Riverside County building - and peer skyward. Luckily, both my mom and sisters would often browse through the various antique shops lining the Main Street pedestrian mall (which just happened to abut the Security Pacific building) so I was able to spend a fair amount of time downtown admiring the various buildings and landscapes.

Besides the taller structures and cool historic buildings and shops, the thing I most remember about downtown was the moderate amount of pedestrian traffic which at times seemed to outnumber the cars – a rare sight in Southern California. In short, the uniqueness of downtown Riverside had managed to captivate my imagination.

But in truth, my fascination with tall buildings and urban landscapes probably started with my family's move to the San Jose area in the early-1970s. My father had taken a job with a local electronics firm near Palo Alto. I can still envision all the space-age homes and buildings that comprised much of the landscape. Even then, the surroundings had a hi-tech look and feel.

Two Eichler atrium homes (courtesy of: Eichler Network)

At first, we lived in a modest middle class neighborhood in nearby Mountain View. Colorful Volkswagen Beatles filled many of the neighboring driveways and tall wispy trees lined the local thoroughfares. After about a year, we moved a few miles down the freeway settling near the Vallco Fashion Mall in Cupertino. This too was simply another middle class neighborhood, but one with a neat twist – tiny, Frank Lloyd Wrightesque tract homes.

These modern and contemporary styled homes incorporated large expanses of glass and open-air atriums. At times, windows outnumbered even the walls. The basic concept was to bring the outdoors in. And indeed, these homes did. Anybody who has heard about those cool Eichler homes across a great deal of the southern Bay Area knows exactly what I am referring to.

While living in the Bay Area, my family would often venture into downtown San Francisco for the day. And, it was during these trips that I discovered the richness and uniqueness – and of course, tall buildings – of downtown San Francisco. Admittedly, I was still a bit young to comprehend all the subtleties, but indeed, downtown San Francisco was quite different from the quaint housing tracts that I had become accustomed to. The cable cars alone made this distinction apparent.

Transamerica Pyramid San Francisco (courtesy of: Transamerica)

Of all the buildings in San Francisco, I remember one that truly stood out – the Transamerica Pyramid. Elegant, modern and graceful. Without a doubt, one building can – and often does – make or break a skyline in so many ways. The Transamerica Pyramid is one such building and remains one of my favorites to this day.

I also remember being enamored with the interior of the John Portman-designed Hyatt Regency Hotel at Embarcadero Center. Watching the cool Willy Wonka style elevators glide up and down the 17-story, multi-tiered atrium was a pretty cool site - particularly for a 5-year-old patiently sitting on a sleek cement bench next to a planter full of ferns and bark.

After a few years, we moved back down to Riverside – where the aforementioned arm tugging incident took place.

Over the years as I ventured into Riverside's quaint downtown, I often envisioned bits and pieces of downtown San Francisco's urban landscape taking shape as Riverside grew and matured. Once, I even fancied a cable car system of some sorts. And later, I boldly envisioned having the world's tallest building constructed. This in a downtown, mind you, where the tallest building was a mere 10x shorter than the world's tallest (well, I was just a kid with BIG dreams).

World Trade Center Lower Manhattan New York City (credit: unknown)

But, it didn't stop there as I soon thought why just build one? Heck, why not build two?? Needless to say, New York's World Trade Center's twin towers instantly came to mind, which sadly, are no more.

Obviously, this will never happen in Riverside – at least not during my lifetime. Besides, it's now more about quality than quantity. And although tiny by eastern city standards, downtown Riverside still has a unique opportunity to become one Southern California's few true urban villages. The city has done a great job of preserving the downtown core's historical character while still promoting new business growth, but it has come up a bit short on the residential side of the equation.

Fortunately, there's an emerging demographic today that's looking for more than simply the latest and greatest housing tract and wants a bit more cosmopolitan and urbanity packaged with their community. Likewise, there are a great deal of people who still care about the notion of "community" as well as the importance of culture in their daily lives.

Hopefully, the city won't let this emerging "urban village" opportunity slip by. Only time will tell.

Anyhow, I will never forget those early dreams – or those 'twin towers.'