John King and "slender" residential highrises

Vancouver

No matter where they are, Chronicle columnist John King likes "slender" highrises. In today's Chronicle he refers lovingly to "a slender glass pyramid that will rise 1,000 feet smack next to London Bridge" ("Lessons to be Learned from London's Mayor," SF Chronicle, June 9). 

He especially likes the residential highrises in downtown Vancouver and wants more of them in San Francisco.

King thinks he has a kindred soul in London's Mayor Ken Livingstone, who has supposedly trod the highrise path in London: 

Let developers thrust towers into the sky. Let new housing spill through a revered old city. But do so in a way that makes society and the urban fabric---the world we live in---stronger as a result.

How specifically do you do that? For one thing, King thinks you have to get the right architect to make his residential towers acceptable. He offers as an example the small, two-story art gallery on Maiden Lane designed by Frank Lloyd Wright!

Along the way, King takes his usual swipes at unidentified city politicians who "equate big with bad" and who "want to meddle in the details and show off their clout." 

Why the coyness? Could we have some names and some specifics?