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Your Favorite US City Skyline


jctim

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my favorites in no particular order (of those that i can pick out without seeing the name of the city)

providence

NYC

philly (i love that city hall is fairly prominent in the skyline)

chicago

someone mentioned new haven... while i'm no fan of the buildings, i love the view of the church steeples poking up out of the mass of buildings. new haven has some beautiful churches.

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My favorites in order (with pictures of the less known skylines

Miami: I love the skyscrapers right by the tropical water

NYC: Massive!

San Francisco: I love the hills and the tall scrapers right by the bay.

Tampa/St. Petersburg: I am kind of partial since I live in the area

Charlotte: Nice lines and growing city.

St. Pete in the day: (borrowed from www.welcometotampabay.com)

Skyline%20cropped%201.jpg

St. Pete at night: (borrowed from www.stpete.org)

072704.jpg

Tampa: (Borrowed from www.1realtyplace.com)

tampa-skyline.jpg

Steve

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  • 3 weeks later...

Portland, Oregon has a very visually appealing skyline and it's one my favorites but for some specific reasons:

1. Color

The variety of color makes for a very diverse yet tasteful skyline. Light pastels and deep blues and greens compliment the natural landscape.

2. Trees

So many cities are lacking in this regard and while Portland isn't winning any awards, it does better than a majority of major cities. I need a minimum quantity of folliage in my cities... something beyond the cliche concrete jungles.

3. Setting

Portland's skyline is beautifully juxtapposed to it's natural surroundings. Just outside of downtown, Forest Park brings nature right downtown while preserving the dramatic hillside from unsightly overdevelopment. On a clear day, views of downtown from Forest Park are magnified by Mount Hood in the distance.

4. Proportionality

Something particularly difficult to manage. Unlike Cleveland or Charlotte where spires seem to rise in cliffs right out of the ground, completely out of proportion to their surroundings, Portland's midrise buildings add a human scale to its downtown. I like DC's skyline for this same reason. It's easy to be overwhelmed by concrete canyons whose apexes seem to stretch to the sky beyond our sight and drawf us. Portland's skyline easily reminds us that these structures were built for our use and we don't get lost in a setting we cannot fully comprehend. Context is key.

5. Diversity

Portland has a wonderful mix of early and postmodern skyscrapers. It makes bold moves without overstepping the boundries of beauty and taste.

6. Waterfront

Portland's waterfront is perfectly proportioned to it's downtown unlike chicago, where Grant Park is nice but in my opinion overly distances downtown from the lakefront.

-no, I don't live in portland, and I've only been there once.

Portland

aaidf1.jpg

portland21sr8.jpg

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1. New York

2. Chicago

Nobody else comes close

3. Miami - BIG and commanding waterfront

4. Seattle - Natural setting & the needle!

5. Philadelphia - Liberty Plaza is a great postmodern compliment to older styles.

6. San Francisco - a bit boxy, but TransAmerica helps, as do the bay bridge and the hill w/ Coit Tower

7. Houston - boxy and bland, but big

8. Los Angeles - disappointing 8th

9. Pittsburgh - I'm starting to run out of cities here

10. I dunno, Atlanta maybe?

Honorable mention:

Boston, Minneapolis, Dallas, Detroit (if only it got rid of the Renaissance Ctr)

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 3 weeks later...

It does, a fairly impressive one actually :thumbsup:

2163283-Cincinnati_Skyline_from_Devou_Park_Covington_KY-Cincinnati.jpg

You can't see it at all in the photo above, but the thing I love about Cinci's skyline (and surrounds) is the sheer number of old brick buildings, I absolutely love it. It makes you wonder how much longer they will be around, as time will eventually take it's course. Milwuakee has a lot of cool old buildings as well.

Atlanta's is an interesting one, it has truly set itself up for the future - once it's 2 "downtowns" fill in with decades more of growth, it will look like Manhattan of the south with one long giant downtown, also like Chicago's from certain angles. Most other cities will have to demolish more heavily to allow their DT's to continue growing like this, Atlanta just has to fill in, it has much of the boundaries set.

Other than that, I love reading everyone's answers here, and you know it to be true, most of you are just homers! Oh, and I vote Charlotte :)

EDIT - replaced "3" with "2" re Atlanta.

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I base my opinion on the WOW factor. When I see a skyline and I can't help but stare at it despite what city it is, that's the WOW factor.

My top ten in no particular order:

  • Chicago has amazed me since I was a child, mostly due to the way it's laid out.

  • Charlotte for being streamline and very well organized. And maybe a partial bias.

  • Miami I believe just for the view you get from S-95 on one of the bridges. It appears you are actually looking downward at the city as you reach the crest of the bridge, which is obviously just an optical illusion. That image has always stuck in my head.

  • Tampa. The first time I rolled through, I caught myself looking more at the city than the road.

  • Atlanta. It wasn't so much the skyline now that I look at pictures of it, but as a child we would drive past the city a few times a year at night and I remember just staring up at the buildings out the car window until they were no longer in site.

  • Houston. While I was too little to remember when I was there, I can appreciate the shear length of the city in pictures I've seen on UP.

  • Pittsburgh for having very unique buildings and the intersection of the rivers creating a very dramatic effect on the downtown areas appeal.

  • Boston, I've just recently begun to appreciate it lately because of pictures I have seen at night that just give it that look.

  • Seattle because of the gorgeous scenery it has to work with. It's breathtaking.

  • Detroit, despite its woes, although I've never been, some of these pictures on here look almost like they are straight out of a comic book.

Not a bash against the cities, but for some reason, LA and NYC have never thrilled me. They are so massive (NYC) and sudden (LA) that it just doesn't catch my eye the same way as a city that builds up. Or maybe I just have a grudge against cities that use initials.

EDIT: spelling

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While not my favorite (Chicago takes that title followed by NYC), Jersey City has an ever changing skyline that is actually very impressive. It has about 6 additional skyscrapers under construction that will fill in the gap between the two areas of downtown.

JERSEY CITY:

JC.jpg

JC2.jpg

JC3.jpg

That's just the Hudson Skyline. There are other tall buildings inward near Journal Square. Here's my personal favorite not seen from the Hudson. It's one of the largest examples of Art Deco outside of NYC.

THE BEACON:

beacon.jpg

The entrance:

beacon2.jpg

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