Louisiana City Skylines

[NCB]

Ok, hold off on this one guys, I've got a pretty good one coming tommorow.

[NCB]

Alright, here's the "Mizzou"

Saint Louis

City population: 353,837

Metro population: 2,865,205

Tallest building: Metropolitan Square- 593 feet

Number of buildings above 600 feet: 0

Number of buildings above 400 feet: 5

Number of buildings above 200 feet: 49

^Courtesy of "Drawings of Light- Paul" on Flickr

^Courtesy of "7170tanner" on Flickr

^Courtesy of "durangokid45" on Flickr

Kansas City

City population: 444,965

Metro population: 2,034,796

Tallest building: One Kansas City Place- 632 feet

Number of buildings above 600 feet: 1

Number of buildings above 400 feet: 9

Number of buildings above 200 feet: 35

^Courtesy of "piomike" at Flickr

^Courtesy of Jessica Beeler on Flickr

^Courtesy of Jeffrey Beall on Flickr

[dan326]

Hey I did this one too!

Just kidding. Nice match up.

I think Kansas City wins this one.

[NCB]

Hey I did this one too!

Oh, now that wouldn't have been pretty!

[SlidellWX]

I got to go with St. Louis on this one. The Arch is such a beautiful landmark for the city.

[NCB]

Anything from you, Richy?

[richyb83]

Sure Nate, I just always like to give everybody a chance first.

Another great "Intra-State" battle; there are plenty!

Tough choice once again; Got to give it to KC. Just a better looking skyline with taller buildings. Like SlidellWX said the iconic Gateway Arch is an awesome landmark, but the rest of the St.Louis skyline is a little bland for me; though they have a more impressive list of 200'ft bldgs and the Mighty Mississippi.

[NCB]

I agree, Richy, KC wins it for me as well; more impressive height and overall size. Saint Louis' skyline is pretty nice, but it is pretty bland once you get past the Arch.

[NCB]

Here's one that was sort of discussed about a year ago, but there was never an official "battle," so here it is!

Houston

City population: 2,076,189

Metro population: 5,380,661

Tallest building: JPMorgan Chase Tower- 1,002 feet

Number of buildings above 1000 feet: 1

Number of buildings above 800 feet: 3

Number of buildings above 600 feet: 17

Number of buildings above 400 feet: 46

Number of buildings above 200 feet: 135

^Courtesy of "inyoface71" on Flickr

^Courtesy of "j-a-x" on Flickr

^Courtesy of "schmat" on Flickr

Toronto

City population: 2,503,281

Metro population: 5,113,149

Tallest building: First Bank Tower- 978 feet

Number of buildings above 1000 feet: 0

Number of buildings above 800 feet: 3

Number of buildings above 600 feet: 8

Number of buildings above 400 feet: 41

Number of buildings above 200 feet: 128

^Courtesy of "vinimanoj" on Flickr

^Courtesy of "TerraS" on Flickr

^Courtesy of "mr_bcos" on Flickr

[dan326]

This one is tough. Toronto has a great overall flow but without the CNN Tower Houston wins.

Be prepaired, I'll be having my own battle soon.

[richyb83]

Another tough/interesting battle with the U.S.#3 Skyline vs. Canada's#1.

Eventhough I am a little H-town bias; still got to go with Houston in a close match-up! Something about Houston's "Bold" skyline is just eye-popping The fact that Houston's 600' footers "doubles" Toronto's also says something. And then there is Uptown Houston and other multiple skylines too.

Toronto is an international player for sure! The 1st pic with the Skydome is very impressive!

Could there soon be a "New #3" Skyline in the U.S.?? Definetly the Fastest Growing. If this nightime pic of Miami is any indication; it makes it debatable as they continue to "Manhattanize" with too many projects to count currently going-up or proposed.

(*courtesy of somebody, sorry wrote it down somewhere and can't find it)

[Gary_Kreie]

The Gateway Arch in St. Louis is 630 feet high (and 630 feet wide). And that has been established as the height limit for all buildings in Downtown St. Louis. That is why St. Louis has a number of skyscrapers just a few feet short of that limit, but none higher.

I believe the KC company made their tall building come out to be 632 feet to make sure it surpassed the Arch and therefore would be the tallest building in Missouri. But you can't judge a skyline by tall buildings alone. There are a lot of skylines with tall buildings that look alike to people who don't live there. I'm not sure I could pick KC's skyline out of a lineup with Minneapolis, Charlotte, Atlanta, Houston, Denver, LA, etc. unless they can get something in the foreground to give me a hint, like Union Station.

But the St. Louis skyline is unmistakable.

[NCB]

I believe this photo was posted by TSmith long ago, but I found it today and wanted to share it with everyone. You've all seen the New Orleans skyline from this angle before, but this one is suprisingly clear. No haze, fog, or anything of that sort.

[Rardy]

I know Memphis isn't a Louisiana city, but it's close enough, and there's enough of us transplants up here for it to qualify!

These were taken by Otacon in the Memphis forum.

...versus...

Geez...Memphis now can't even beat New Orleans 30 years ago...

[UptownNewOrleans]

Memphis' skyline is underrated imo.

[NCB]

Hey Rardy, is there a better angle of the Memphis skyline that is rarely in seen in photos? In New Orleans, everyone likes to take pictures of the skyline from across the river(or on it) and that's probably the worst angle of the skyline. However that view from the high-rise I posted is getting more "press."

Anyway, what's the best view of the Memphis skyline?

I took this from West Memphis, just before getting on the I-55 bridge over the Mississippi, and thought it was a much more impressive view of the skyline:

[UptownNewOrleans]

Aerial view of the Memphis skyline

[richyb83]

Thanks for revving up the Skyline thread again Nate, this is one of my favorites

It's interesting to me how different angles of many skylines make all the difference in the world!

Rardy, I consider Memphis and NOLA/BR kind of like cousins, that's cool! Nice skyline pics! Do you have any pics of Memphis-East skyline??

Nice aerial Derrick!

I had thrown around some western city names for some battles months back, but never got around to doing it. Not so much as awesome skylines; but close battles?? So many cities across the U.S. have already been used on this thread.

We could always set up a "Tournament bracket" for skyline battles....but in the end everybody knows it will be Chicago vs. NYC in the Championship The most interesting battle would be for the Bronze (3rd place)?? Houston, Philly, LA, Miami, etc.

[Rardy]

^My favorite of the Memphis skyline is on the I-40 bridge across the Mississippi, second is the one you took on I-55. My favorite distance shot is on Austin Peay (TN-14) in north Memphis. You can really get some great silhouette shots from there.

My vote for bronze is definitely Houston. Emporis has a ranking system that always puts Houston high in the world.

Here's some other shots:

This is of course DT:

I don't have any good East Memphis pics. Wish I did

[NCB]

Thanks for the pics, Rardy! I also consider Memphis and New Orleans to be like cousins, as they are cities that are known for their amazing music and food, culture, Mississippi River setting, streetcars, nightlife (Beale and Bourbon) and both cities have faced many of the same problems over the last couple of decades.

[dan326]

O.K. ,so this isn't a real skyline battle,but it's still kind of neat.

It's a battle between Baton Rouge and Grand Rapids, which I did before. But what's neat about it is that this is between to similar looking building to be put in similar positions(between the to tallest buildings and along the river). They even have the same set back at the top.

Grand Rapids

City population- 197,800

Metro population- 771,185

Tallest building: Plaza Towers- 345 ft

Number of buildings above 400 feet: 0

Number of buildings above 200 feet: 5

JW Marriott

Baton Rouge

City population- 224,097

Metro population- 751,965

Tallest building: Louisiana State Capitol- 450 ft

Number of buildings above 400 feet: 1

Number of buildings above 200 feet: 5

RiverPlace Condominiums(redesign)

[richyb83]

I have a new appreciation for Grand Rapids since coming to UP. Nice looking city...with good mix of buildings; like their riverfront area.

Wouldn't it be nice to have BOTH designs for River Place?? Side-by-side over at the next vacant block( giant parking lot) south of RiverPlace(Laurel/Florida/Lafayette/River) owned by Hartley & Vey. The original design sure would look nice between the current RiverPlace/Advocate site/and Hilton Capitol Center(Capital House).

[dimebag1980]

Wow... when did this redesign of RiverPlace come about?

Man, I'm behind the times...

[richyb83]

^ That's the original design...One River Place...we can only speculate what the redesign will look like?? Maybe more like the original??

Always nice to have your imput Brian, it ain't the same w/o you!

[Rardy]

K guys...I've got a new skyline battle for y'all: Memphis v. Omaha

Memphis

City population- 670,902

Metro population- 1,260,581

Tallest building: 100 N. Main - 430 ft

Number of buildings above 600 feet: 0

Number of buildings above 400 feet: 3

Number of buildings above 200 feet: 11

Omaha

City population- 427,872

Metro population- 822,549

Tallest building: One First National Center - 633 ft

Number of buildings above 600 feet: 1

Number of buildings above 400 feet: 2

Number of buildings above 200 feet: 16