Suburban DC condo high rises: unique?

As the person who started the recession proof-DC thread, I might have included this one there, but felt it really deserved its own thread: I recently got back from a vacation in which I was in Washington. Our nation's capital is different from other US cities in so many ways, due to the presence of the US government. On signfificant diference: height restrictions that keeps the skyline exceedly low (almost to the point of elemination). Clearly the government buildings dominate the cityscape as they should, and no structure comes close to the height of the Washington Monument. My sense is (from this trip and other trips to DC) that the DC height restrictions create almost unique suburban high rise settings, different in intensity when compared to other US cities. For example: • Alington, VA: the vast commercial complex west of the river, clearly visible from nearby DC itself, pays testimony to the need to create a dense core shortly outside the city limits to meet needs that would have been dealt with within city limits of most US cities. • More remarkable to me were the exgtensive stirngs of high rises that dominate the close in DC suburbs (along with their massive downtowns). For example, taking Wisconsin Ave. out of Georgetown ends you up in places like Bethesda and Rockville. These town host huge condo projects that not only have height, but mind blowing width. I have never seen such a concentration of high rise condos that DC possesses. My own massive city of Chicago (where high rise living dominates the downtown core and so much of the north side lakefront) has nothing comparable. To be honest, I have not been in suburban NY recently (either LI or Westcheser) so I don't know what the suburban high rise scene is like there). Meanwhile, in LA, while downtown is loaded with residential condos, the city stilll has a massive section of them. But these are in-city limits, lining the Wilshire corridor, and hardly suburbanin nature. So going back to my original observation: is DC suburbia truly unique in being the sububs of a powerhouse city THAT CANNOT BUILDHIGH ITSELF, thus transferring the high rise growth to the suburbs? Is Washington really "different" in this high rise world of suburbia?>