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11/1/2007 2:16:02 PM

What do you think are the best skylines? Perhaps we should break it up into two categories. Cities with less than a million people in the actual city (not the metro), and cities with greater than a million people in the actual city (i.e. Chicago, NYC, Hong Kong, etc.).

Here's some of my suggestions for cities with fewer than a million people in the city limits:

Atlanta
Charlotte
San Francisco
Detroit
Baltimore
Boston
Seattle
Denver
Louisville
Nashville
Miami
Pittsburgh
St. Louis maybe (mainly b/c of the Arch, without the Arch it's not that distinct)
Minneapolis
Frankfurt
Vancouver
(I'm trying to think of more international cities to add to the under a million list)


Greater than a million:
Hong Kong
NYC
Chicago
Shanghai
Toronto
Shenzhen
Dubai
Tokyo
Dallas
Houston
Sydney
Philadelphia
Montreal
London
Calgary
Melbourne

11/1/2007 6:36:47 PM

Also, the view from the top of 30 Rockefeller Center is the best in the city, maybe the best in the country. It may not be even close to the tallest building in NYC, but its the only one where the actually roof is the viewing platform so that while standing in one spot you can get a 360 degree view of the city, CT, NJ, NY, & PA.

Totally worth it over Empire State.

11/2/2007 12:43:17 PM

Skylines of cities under 1 million people within the city limits

Atlanta



Charlotte



San Francisco




Detroit



Baltimore





Boston



Seattle



Denver



Louisville



Nashville



Miami





Pittsburgh





St. Louis



Minneapolis



Frankfurt

^may have seen this earlier


Vancouver

damn Vancouver is dense!

11/2/2007 7:09:35 PM

Vancouver has a shitton of tall buildings for a smaller city

Of all the cities I've been to in America...

I think Seattle, Pittsburgh, and Boston have the top skylines (for cities less than 1,000,000)

[Edited on November 2, 2007 at 7:49 PM. Reason : and Minneapolis and San Fran]

11/2/2007 7:46:36 PM

the rivers and the bridges make pittsburgh visually interesting

11/2/2007 8:02:01 PM

You have to imagine that some of these buildings if a natural disaster ever occurred like an earthquake would be toast and do a Twin Towers-esque devastation.

[Edited on November 2, 2007 at 8:17 PM. Reason : .]

11/2/2007 8:15:59 PM

I really don't think Boston's skyline is all that. It's kind of all over the place for the size of the metro and the density of the area. I'm not trying to knock it, b/c I love Boston, but it could be better in my opinion. The city only has only two buildings over 200 meters. I mean Charlotte has two 200 meter buildings and will soon have 4 in the future. Also while Atlanta has some cool skyscrapers, they are too far apart. There are a bunch of gaps in between them that need to be filled in.

Pittsburgh is one of the rare cities that has a skyline that looks good both at night and during the day. I love how the financial district is on the peninsula with gold painted bridges leading into it.

11/2/2007 9:19:16 PM

Boston's skyline would be better if it wasn't split into two large building sections

they have the Prudential Center (and a couple other tall buildings) in one area of the town and the Hancock a mile away by the bay

11/2/2007 11:18:26 PM

kind of like atlanta and buckhead

11/2/2007 11:41:19 PM

i don't see why people think baltimore, detroit, nashville, and louisville are amazing. not much over raleigh.

how'd you leave out nap town?

11/3/2007 3:14:23 AM

Quote :

"i don't see why people think baltimore, detroit, nashville, and louisville are amazing"

ive never really heard of baltimore being a "skyline" type city. its cool to sit up on federal hill and look at the city over the harbor, but its downtown area is relatively small. its known more as a city of neigborhoods rather then having a major downtown center.

11/3/2007 10:12:32 AM

the space needle really looks cool compared to all the other buildings in those pics

11/3/2007 11:43:58 PM

Raleigh has about as good of a skyline as I am a photographer.

11/4/2007 1:47:31 AM

Not so much a skyscraper, but it is the world's tallest free-standing non-steel structure. Plus it just looks good.

[Edited on November 4, 2007 at 2:32 AM. Reason : tags]

11/4/2007 2:31:50 AM

^ I thought it would be the Chrysler Building in NYC as it is made from brick, and is the world's tallest brick building. So it should also be the tallest free-standing non-steel structure.

11/4/2007 4:47:16 AM

its just the worlds tallest masonary structure.

11/4/2007 11:22:10 AM

^^
it has a steel skeleton though

11/4/2007 12:03:05 PM

Bump

Quote :

"I really don't think Boston's skyline is all that."

It isn't. Pittsburgh's is really awesome. Seattle is tough to beat with the Needle. Vancouver is beautiful. I have never been but always wanted to go. St. Louis skyline is not anymore impressive than Charlotte's. And as brassmonkey has pointed out Charlotte's will be much more impressive in the coming years.

11/6/2007 1:06:04 AM

Boston's skyline sucks.

Hong Kong has one of the best skylines in the world IMO..




Not great pics, but you get the idea.

11/6/2007 9:54:20 AM

I like Hong Kong's, but I also like Shanghai's skyline as well. The part in Mission Impossible 3 where Tom Cruise is driving into Shanghai looks awesome.





Oriental Pearl Tower, 468 m/1,535.5 ft. tall. The tower has three observatory levels. The highest is at 350 metres, and is called the Space Module. The second is at 263 and 259 metres and is called the Sightseeing Floor. And the lowest, the Space City, is at 90 metres. There is also a revolving restaurant at the 267 metre level and it also has a 20-room hotel called the Space Hotel, located in the five smaller spheres between the two biggest ones. It will soon be surpassed by the Shanghai World Financial Center as the tallest building in Shanghai.






The Jin Mao Tower at 421 m/1,380 ft tall it is currently the second tallest building in Shanghai.






Jin Mao Tower with the Shanghai Financial Center

11/9/2007 11:58:40 PM

San Francisco has the coolest skyline if there is fog on the Bay near the Golden Gate and you are coming down the hill from the inland East Bay.. I'll try and snap a picture next time I see it like that...

Seattle is pretty awesome in the winter too...

[Edited on November 11, 2007 at 11:37 PM. Reason : x]

11/11/2007 11:37:00 PM

that pearl tower is the coolest building i've ever seen.

11/12/2007 12:02:38 AM

U.S. Steel Tower, at 841 ft. it is the tallest building in Pittsburgh and a very intimidating looking building.








During construction with the famous Mellon Arena below.

11/12/2007 6:47:12 PM

dude boston has more than 4 million in its city limits... i don't know wtf you were thinking

11/12/2007 7:24:04 PM

boston probably has a metro population of around four million but there are definitely fewer than one million within the city limits

11/12/2007 7:29:37 PM

Burj Dubai, about 575 meters tall in the picture below, taken on October 7.

Currently ~600 meters tall.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burj_Dubai for more info and pics.







Skyline of Dubai:

Quote :

"Since 1999 and especially from 2005 onwards, Dubai has been on an epic skyscraper and supertall building boom with all 17 of its 200+ meter (656+ foot) buildings completed after 1999. Dubai currently has 270 completed highrises but that number will increase greatly in the near future. With 339 highrises under construction right now and 330 approved highrises (more than that already completed), including many skyscrapers and supertalls, Dubai's skyline is rapidly growing. Dubai is expected to have more 100+ floor buildings than any other city in the world by 2015.[1]"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tallest_buildings_in_Dubai





http://archive.gulfnews.com/articles/07/05/28/10128282.html

Dubai to have at least six supertowers by '15







http://archive.gulfnews.com/articles/06/07/21/10053993.html

Quote :

"Profile: Burj Dubai Staff Report Published: July 21, 2007, 13:33 - Height is being kept secret but will be more than this estimate: 700 mts (MY NOTE: most reports say about 818 meters) - The number of floors is also a secret but likely to be about this: 180 - Samsung Corporation from South Korea is main building contractor - Estimated construction cost. The whole Dubai Downtown development is costing around $20 billion and will contain 30,000 homes and the world's largest shopping mall, The Dubai Mall $1 billion - Many of the lower floors will be taken up by a 175-room Armani Hotel. In addition there will be 144 luxury residential suites designed by Giorgio Armani and kitted out with his home furnishing line - Floors 17 to 108 will have 800 private apartments. These sold out within eight hours. (MY NOTE: the cheapest was $550,000 for a 1-BEDROOM or maybe it was studio ) - Most of the higher floors will be offices and private suites - An observatory 442 metres above ground on the 124th floor will be open to the public ? the highest publicly accessible observation deck in the world - There will be a club on floors 144 to 146 - Inspiration for the design was derived from the flower of the Hymenocallis plant that is widely cultivated in Dubai. - Built of glass, aluminium, concrete and steel - Much of the external surface is made of factory-produced unitised panels. Made of aluminium, glass and various brackets, they interlock on site and are up to two storeys tall. They improve quality and speed up building work - Tip of the spire will be visible 60 miles away - The rods that reinforce the structure weigh a total of 31,400 tonnes and laid end-to-end would stretch more than a quarter of the way around the world - Water system will supply about 250,000 gallons per day - The building's external surface is the size of 17 football fields - The concrete used is equivalent to a solid cube of concrete 61 metres in size or a 1.5-metre wide pavement 1,200 miles long. It weighs the same as 100,000 elephants - Peak electricity demand of the building is the same as 360,000 100-watt light bulbs"

11/17/2007 5:49:33 PM

This is how the developed area will look:





Here is a cool link:

http://archive.gulfnews.com/megaprojects/index.html

11/17/2007 6:05:03 PM

Just out of curiousity, what is the impetuous behind this crazy insane building spree in the UAE. Last time I checked they had plenty of land and not a ridiculous amount of people or high population density. Usually what drives such buildings are those conditions (see Hong Kong & NYC).

Just curious, b/c I wonder if they'll even be able to fully occupy all those buildings.

Quote :

"Floors 17 to 108 will have 800 private apartments. These sold out within eight hours. (MY NOTE: the cheapest was $550,000 for a 1-BEDROOM or maybe it was studio )"

LOL, in a good part of Manhattan 1/2 a million will only get you 500 sq ft,sadly Thats insanity if you're landlocked.

11/20/2007 1:30:14 PM

world's tallest building under construction:

Quote :

"Just out of curiousity, what is the impetuous behind this crazy insane building spree in the UAE. Last time I checked they had plenty of land and not a ridiculous amount of people or high population density. Usually what drives such buildings are those conditions (see Hong Kong & NYC). "

haha, "impetuous"

see, those skyscrapers in dubai (~200 completed, ~300 under construction, ~planned) are NOT for the locals. locals are only 20% of dubai's population. most of the locals live in the other emirates (UAE has 7 emirates, and dubious is one of them).

all these freehold apartments and houses are being bought up by foreigners, from middle class asians and other arabs, to ultra rich asians, whites, and arabs. sure, locals also buy some of them, but as i said, they are only 20% of the population, and probably most of them cannot afford those apartments.

of course, the impetus is tourism as a source of income for the emirate. their economy is tourism based, not farm-, industry-, oil-, or knowledge-based.

it is simple: when a place doesn't have much to offer in the way of nature, history, culture, or archeaology, build the world's largest mall, themepark (dubailand), islands, airport, artificial ski slope, tallest building, and a few other superlatives, and people will come.

11/21/2007 8:11:07 PM

Well I guess that kind of answers my question. Still don't entirely get it though

Crazy ass impressive though.

11/26/2007 10:01:43 PM

Yeah, people are buying up these offerings on real estate speculation, but will they ever be significantly occupied?

11/26/2007 10:57:55 PM

Park Row Building in NYC, completed in 1899. Floor count, 30. At 391 ft (119.2m) tall it was the tallest skyscraper in the world from 1899 until 1908, when it was surpassed by the Singer Building.













[Edited on November 27, 2007 at 9:29 PM. Reason : ]

11/27/2007 9:27:33 PM

What street is the Park Row building on? That doesn't look familiar to me at all.

(I'm guessing downtown though0

11/28/2007 1:19:10 PM

Quote :

"location 15 Park Row"

http://www.nyc-architecture.com/SCC/SCC012.htm

[Edited on November 28, 2007 at 1:59 PM. Reason : aka 13-21 Park Row, 3 Theatre Alley, and 13 Ann Street]

11/28/2007 1:58:34 PM

Citigroup Center, formerly Citicorp Center, in NYC, completed in 1977. It has 59 floors, and is 915 ft (279 m) tall. It is one of the most recognizable buildings in NYC, and has one of the craziest bases ever.








L-R: Four Seasons, Citigroup, Bloomberg

11/28/2007 6:33:02 PM

225 Bush Street, San Francisco, completed in 1922. Floor count - 22. At 328 ft (100 m) tall it may not be considered a skyscraper now, but it was the tallest building in San Francisco when completed. Plus I love the style that the buildings from the 1920s-30s have. There's just a lot of detail everywhere, especially at the top of those old buildings.






[Edited on November 28, 2007 at 6:47 PM. Reason : ]

11/28/2007 6:46:16 PM

I love art deco design. Most of the buildings from the 70s 80s and even now just have no soul

You got anything to say about the Bloomberg building?

And I've never heard of a street called Park Row, must be a pretty short obscure street downtown...

11/29/2007 1:55:31 PM

I've got to correct the caption of this picture that I posted farther up. For some reason I listed them in the reverse order. It should be L-R: Bloomberg, Citigroup, Four Seasons.




Bloomberg Tower aka One Beacon Court in NYC. Completed in 2005. 54 floors. At 806 ft (246 m) tall, it is the 14th tallest building in NYC. It cost $450 million to build. There is a Home Depot in the complex.


This picture was taken during its construction in 2004

11/29/2007 7:09:46 PM

I heard some stories about a 30-40 story high rise going up at the corner of Hillsborough and Glenwood. Supposedly this is being announced after new years.

11/29/2007 7:34:49 PM

two of my favorite buildings in NYC:

590 Madison:


and Flatiron:

11/29/2007 10:54:21 PM

I gotta give a shout out to Nature for its engineering brilliance:


El Cap. 3000 ft which still beats any man made structure. 2000 ft up it I was amazed that the Sears Tower would be topping out below me.

11/30/2007 2:10:46 AM

This is right down the street from me, I can see it from my window

11/30/2007 2:35:41 AM

Taken earlier tonight. Merry Christmas! and damn if that tree doesn't look small with the whole building behind it, lol.

12/1/2007 1:26:27 AM

Mellon Bank Center in Philadelphia. It is 792 ft (241 m) tall and has 54 floors, making it the fourth tallest building in Philadelphia behind the new Comcast Center, One Liberty Place, and Two Liberty Place. The appropriately-named Pyramid Club banquet hall is located just under the extravagant clear roof.

12/6/2007 10:30:06 PM

Boston's Hancock Place aka the John Hancock Tower. At 790 ft (240.7 m) it is the tallest building in Boston and the tallest building in New England. The building consists of 60 floors. It took 8 years to construct (1968 - 1976) due to a delay. It was originally supposed to open in 1971. The total cost is rumored to have rocketed from $75M to $175M. It originally had many engineering flaws.

The building's most dangerous and conspicuous flaw was its faulty glass windows. Entire 4' x 11', 500 lb (1.2x3.4 m, 227 kg) windowpanes detached from the building and crashed to the sidewalk hundreds of feet below. Police were left closing off surrounding streets whenever winds reached 45 mph (72 km/h). According to the Boston Globe, MIT built a scale model of the entire Back Bay in its Wright Brothers Wind Tunnel to identify the problem. The exact cause of the malfunction was never revealed due to a legal settlement and gag order. Most now diagnose the problem as a combination of the double-paned glass construction method, and the pressure differentials between the inside and outside air. In October 1973, I.M. Pei & Partners announced that all panes would be replaced by a different heat-treated variety—costing between $5 million and $7 million. During the repairs, plywood replaced the building's empty windows (see pic 3), earning it the nickname "Plywood Palace" and the joke that it was "the world's tallest plywood building."

12/7/2007 9:08:27 PM

new Bank of America Tower on 6th Ave in Manhattan. When complete it will be the second tallest building in the city, just behind the Empire State Building (by 50ft).


I don't know what building this is, but I love it. It borders Bryant Park (as does the new BofA tower).

12/12/2007 12:16:09 AM

it looks a little like the Four Season's Hotel but I forgot where that is.

[Edited on December 12, 2007 at 8:17 PM. Reason : ]

12/12/2007 8:17:22 PM

I could be wrong but I'm 90% certain there isn't a hotel at the base.

12/13/2007 1:55:20 AM

One PPG Place in Pittsburgh. Floor count 40 floors. At a height of 635 ft. (194 m), One PPG Place is the third tallest building in Pittsburgh. It was completed in 1984. It has a very intimidating look to it.




The other building in this picture is Fifth Avenue Place.





From L-R U.S. Steel Tower, One PPG Place, One Mellon Center

[Edited on December 24, 2007 at 2:59 PM. Reason : ]

12/24/2007 2:53:13 PM