Best skyline in the Carolinas

[MR-2]

Architecture - Winston-Salem

Density - Columbia

Height - Raleigh

I think that after the multitude of towers on the books are built in Raleigh, the gap will fill up and it'll win all three categories.

[unccmyway]

I didn't know Raleigh had a bunch of towers planned

[krazeeboi]

I think Columbia will still be a leader in the density category. Most of the major projects proposed/under construction in the city are downtown, including two large residential developments in the works (CanalSide and the Bull Street development). The low/mid rises built as part of USC's research campus will add more density as well.

[waynehead]

Raleigh doesn't really have a lot of towers "planned" if by planned you mean approved for construction and perhaps underway in building, except for one residential tower which is already going up and which will probably add some density to the skyline. But raleigh has a lot of potential towers and is second to charlotte, I'd say, in terms of potential.

I'd also like to defend my home city: Durham may not have many skyscrapers, but it has an active and a very historic downtown, and unlike other Carolina cities it has a historic ballpark and franchise right smack dab in the heart of downtown.

[MR-2]

Raleigh doesn't really have a lot of towers "planned" if by planned you mean approved for construction and perhaps underway in building, except for one residential tower which is already going up and which will probably add some density to the skyline. But raleigh has a lot of potential towers and is second to charlotte, I'd say, in terms of potential.

I'd also like to defend my home city: Durham may not have many skyscrapers, but it has an active and a very historic downtown, and unlike other Carolina cities it has a historic ballpark and franchise right smack dab in the heart of downtown.

You're right. I could've phrased that much better. The arrival of 4 mid-to-high rises downtown is inevitable, but they aren't being plotted or constructed yet. They're still in the speculative/analytical stages mostly.

Durham gets too much hate. I really like its architecture. Unfortunately, I haven't actually visited downtown in a long time, so I can't really say how the atmosphere is these days.

[Cosocar]

Columbia has the density - but mostly in a straight line - along Main Street. If you view the city from North Main, it's not as impressive as it looks from I-126 or SC 12.

[803metlife]

Columbia has the density - but mostly in a straight line - along Main Street. If you view the city from North Main, it's not as impressive as it looks from I-126 or SC 12.

But from I-26 you can see everything , and you can tell there's a lot going on in columbia

[Cosocar]

The only development I see much in downtown Columbia is by USC, which is good, but other developements need to happen downtown. We have seen only one tower go up in 15-16 years. Low-rise development is starting to pick up though - which helps density, yes, but no room them to build up, higher. Yes, I think Columbia look rather impressive from the I-26/I-77 interchange.

[Justin6882]

I didn't know Raleigh had a bunch of towers planned

Raleigh has one tower under construction now (Quorum Center). There are also proposals for the south end near the new Civic Center for 10-15 story buildings, plus the new Marriott at 16 stories.

RBC-Centura should announce their plans for a new highrise on Fayetteville Street by the end of October (if they stick to their 60 day guideline) and Reynolds (who is building Quorum) has a deadline set by the city for Februrary to announce his plans for a 30+ story tower across from the round Clarion hotel on Hillsborough Street.

I believe he also has future plans for a ~18 story building next to the 30+ story one.

[sonofaque86]

One tower every 15 years isn't going to do crap for columbia skyline...Hopefully they'll get another skyscraper boom without it being 100% USC

[monsoon]

Myrtle Beach has the most dense urban development including Charlotte when you count the tourists, so I vote it.

Here is a photo of a small section.

[mcheiss]

Myrtle Beach has the most dense urban development including Charlotte when you count the tourists, so I vote it.

Here is a photo of a small section.

Wow, that's a good picture!!

I vote for Myrtle Beach as well.

[intcvlcphlga]

Myrtle Beach has the most dense urban development including Charlotte when you count the tourists, so I vote it.

Here is a photo of a small section.

Sure, but does architecture factor into the meaning of "best skyline?" Architecture seems to be getting short-changed in favor of height and density. I would take a well designed piece of architecture that is 20 stories over an uninspired design that is 60 stories. Myrtle Beach's skyline is a banal multiplication of one typology along a single strip. That's not exactly dense as it is linear or at least the density is flat or 2 dimensional. Charlotte, Winston-Salem, Columbia, et al have various high rise typologies (office, hotel, religious, residential, etc) that are scattered across a grid running in both the x and y axes creating a richer density that is spatial or 3 dimensional. And, architecture arguably factors into the individual buildings that make up the skylines of the aforementioned cities.

[RiverwoodCLT]

To get high rises in downtowns, you first must have a need for them.

One need is large companies, with lots of employees.

There is no need to build a high rise and you can't fill it.

Call the builders of the Vue, maybe they will build a condo tower for you.

Charlotte biggest boom now is condos. Without them not much would be going on in uptown but one tower for Wachovia.

[krazeeboi]

One tower every 15 years isn't going to do crap for columbia skyline...Hopefully they'll get another skyscraper boom without it being 100% USC

While it would be nice to see a few more towers in Columbia (anything non-boxy, especially along Main between the Wachovia and Bank of America towers), I'm more and more becoming a fan mid-rise density, such as that which exists in Washington, DC. Innovista will bring that to Columbia, and the other residential developments will add density in terms of population. I much prefer those two over just skyscrapers (although they look nice).

[NcSc74]

While it would be nice to see a few more towers in Columbia (anything non-boxy, especially along Main between the Wachovia and Bank of America towers), I'm more and more becoming a fan mid-rise density, such as that which exists in Washington, DC. Innovista will bring that to Columbia, and the other residential developments will add density in terms of population. I much prefer those two over just skyscrapers (although they look nice).

l agree with krazee(again). I think every time I reply I am in agreement with you. I am in favor of cities doing midrise mixed with tall towers. Midrise density gives a city its big city urban feel. There downtowns with tall towers but not enough buildings of the same to match and it leaves to big of gaps. If you were to walk them you would not get the same effect if you were in a city with lowrise-midrise-tall towers mixed in with each other. I have traveled a lot and been to many cities and I can say I love Charlottes skyline because even though it is not overly dense its tall towers a located in a central location that gives it an urban feel. I hope Raleigh can embrace midrise development because I think it would be the best way to give it that big city feel the population suggest. The groundwork is there all it needs is to build upon that foundation already. A good example of midrise and talls is Newark NJ. Not a lot of height but the midrise buildings go for more than a few blocks and the feel you get is that you are in a big city even though Newark has about 400,000 in its city limits. It does help that the city is not very big in terms of square milage but the premise is that building tall does not guarantee big city feel.

[krazeeboi]

NcSc74, great minds think alike!

[krazeeboi]

While Winston-Salem definitely has great architectural diversity, views from afar of Columbia's skyline don't reveal some of the architectural diversity present there. Here's one of waccamatt's pictures which shows this:

In the immediate foreground is the Meridian (the city's newest tower), then the Barringer Building (built in 1903, the city's first tower), then the Palmetto Building (the city's second tower), then the Wachovia Tower (built in the 80's or 90's).

And of course, the SC statehouse dome forms part of the skyline. Pic courtesy of Spartan:

[krazeeboi]

Found a pretty good aerial of Columbia online:

[krazeeboi]

A more recent aerial:

[MR-2]

If we go by the relative size of the city's core and the size of its metro area, I think Asheville would take the cake. It has a pretty good skyline anyway, let alone for a metro of 300,000. Visiting downtown, the place feels a lot bigger than it is. True, the buildings aren't really that tall, but the display of architecture makes them all significant. Their downtown is still getting new towers still, so it should continue to impress.

Here are some pics I came across:

Being in the mountains probably helps. There isn't much room to sprawl.

[goodbye]

Great photo waccamatt. I like the density and variation of architechture. What I also see is that the street level needs major improvement in this part of downtown.

[shardoon]

Found a pretty good aerial of Columbia online:

it looks a lot like orlando did back in the late 1970s-early 80s. at least from that pic.

[krazeeboi]

Great photo waccamatt. I like the density and variation of architechture. What I also see is that the street level needs major improvement in this part of downtown.

It does. The good thing is that there is room for street-level retail along that section of Main.

[Charleston native]

OK, I know my hometown's skyline is not impressive, but I thought I ought to send a photo this way. Potentially, it could have excellent midrises with a few towers in and around the medical district. A 20-story hospital tower will be built in the middle of the district soon.

Keep in mind that Dockside Condos (19 stories, and the tallest building in Chas), the 14-story Francis Marion Hotel, and several other 14-story mid-rise apartments are not pictured, but would be located to the right of the photo.