The first couple weeks I played the role of everyday-tourist and had the pleasure of visiting some of the main sites with my mother when she passed through for a few days.
We took the city canal tour in a long flat boat which magically fit through the very small bridge openings. Did they measure before building these boats or just get lucky?
Copenhagen has two very new houses-of-culture on the harbor. On the right is the National Opera building by Schmidt Hammer Lassen. To the left is the National Playhouse by Lundgaard+Tranberg which, by the way has a very nice outdoor bar on the wrap-around wooden deck. Which also, by the way doesn't have any hand railings, but just a nice little ten inch bump-up on the edget that houses lighting and seconds as a bench. You can sit at the edge in a comfy chair and really feel right on the water.
Tangent: A common theme I’ve noticed on most waterfront areas in Copenhagen (even the brand new areas built on fill or post-industrial sites) is a thickened outer-most edge for people, bikes, cafes, etc. It seems like a no-brainer, but not really... In Seattle, the downtown waterfront (minus the new Olympic Sculpture Park) consists of a large sidewalk and then a strip of buildings, THEN the water. The buildings block any direct connection with the water. If we just had another edge on the water-side of these buildings there would be opportunities for oudoor cafes, bars, bike/jogging lanes, benches, trees and all the things that make for a useful public space. Maybe then locals would have a reason to go down there. This kind of artificial edge could be useful regardless of what happens to the decaying viaduct roadway.
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