Best Skyline In Florida (Excluding Dade County)

[Martinman]

Why is everyone focusing so much on Tampa and Miami north (Jacksonville). All of the cities are pretty close in terms of skyline and none is way ahead of the others.

But everyone seems to be ingnoring Ft lauderdale which probably has the most density. And its probably because there are no good pics of the skyline that noone mentions it.

[TallTampa]

Why is everyone focusing so much on Tampa and Miami north (Jacksonville).  All of the cities are pretty close in terms of skyline and none is way ahead of the others. 

But everyone seems to be ingnoring Ft lauderdale which probably has the most density.  And its probably because there are no good pics of the skyline that noone mentions it.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

That's a great shot of downtown that I haven't seen.

[cityboy05]

I think right now Tampa and Jacksonville really needs to watch out for Orlando. Orlando is such a serious threat. It will be interesting to see which of these three cites will come on top. No, the battle is not over but it seems to me that Tampa is in the lead. Other cities to look out for is Ft.lauderdale and St.Petersburg. Although these 2 cities are overshadowed by their big sister and bro (Miami and Tampa) they are working hard to demand the respect they deserve. Ft. Lauderdale already boasts a nice dense skyline and is tired of being overlooked. Then there is Tallahassee (capital city, Florida). My friends Tallahasee ain't no small town anymore! She is experiencing some changes. Surely but slowly this city's skyline will become more impressive and dense. I can't wait to see how these cities will look after construction of buildings. Then again there will always be new proposed developments. Looks like a loooooong battle!

[CRSSFIRE]

I agree, Orlando is starting to pose a huge threat to other Florida skylines. If you visit Orlando Skyscrapers, you will see a list of approved, proposed and under construction skyscrapers.

[cityboy05]

WOW Orlando has big plans!

[Florida]

Indeed, indeed Orlando has its good share of projects underway and propsed. That city is truly blessed and beautiful, at least the core area. I truly believe Tampa has the best Skyline from the pictures posted, but Ft. Lauderdale and Tampa also have great looking Skylines.

I'm a bit unsure of how I'd like to rate Jacksonville's skyline in light of the fact that it is larger than both Orlando and Ft. Lauderdale, two cities that quite frankly dwarf our state's largest city's downtown. However, I've seen the plans for Jacksonville and if corrected could spell a dramatic change for the giant city.

As for our precious Capital City, progress is the word! I've lived here 17 years and I've never seen neither the action or the interest in development that I've seen in these past 5 years. Like Orlando, Jacksonville, and the other Great Florida cities we've got quite a bit planned, but whats more interesting is the fact that our growth is now taking this city into a new direction - south to the Gulf coast... totally reshaping our geography, transportation plans, and image as a land locked community. The more we continue to beat our way toward the coast, the more locals will realize they aren't far from the water, and visitors will find reason to stay a little longer to wade the beautiful northern Gulf shores, or do a little fishing.

[bobliocatt]

Don't forget about Fort Myers, which will sport the state's newest big city skyline once most of its projects near completion.

[cityboy05]

O yea! Can't forget about Ft.Myers. Slowly but surely, s-l-o-w-l-y but s-u-r-e-l-y.

[Viper]

Current completed buildings:

Jax - 51

Orlando - 52

Tampa - 55

FtLD - 117 (lots of beach condos)

FtMyers - 16 (but lots are coming)

St Pete - 36

WPB - 43

Sarasota - 38

Miami - 190

Tally - 6

In 20 years, all (Tally aside) should be at or above 100 given current trends.

[sunshine]

Are those in Orlando include all the highrises in Disney and I-Drive area?

[prahaboheme]

sunshine, those numbers dont include the whole metro area. If it did, all the beach condos in Miami, Tampa and JAX would also be included.

[Eternalrsx]

I'm from Tampa, but have been all over florida. I would have to say, since we aren't counting miami, that Tampa does have one of the more impressive skylines. It's dense and nicely clustered. As channelside builds up it will add more to the skyline.

Channelside currently has three projects on the books that are 30 floors or more:

O2 condos (2 towers @ 37 floors each and possibly an observation tower)

Towers @ Channelside (2 towers @ 30 floors each)

Downtown Channelside (2 towers @ 30 floors each)

Then there is a hotel planned for the north side of the port @ 55 floors.

When you add those to the other projects like Skypoint (31 floors), Trump Tower (52 floors), Four Seasons (51 floors), and Hillsborough River Tower (45 floors), Tampa should take shape nicely. The only building in Tampa I truly despise is Park Tower it's the only detractor to our skyline, IMO.

I have to agree with other posters that Orlando is a viable threat.

[CRSSFIRE]

Are those in Orlando include all the highrises in Disney and I-Drive area?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

No! The highrises being discussed are only in Downtown Orlando. This does not include the highrises in our attraction areas.

[cityboy05]

Sounds like someone is a little cocky!LoL

[FLORIDA SKYRISE ORDER]

I would've loved to have picked Jacksonville, but I picked Fort Lauderdale. A year or two ago I would have said Tampa, but all of us really need to look at some recent photos of Fort Lauderdale; the skyline has become dense, proportioned, and have added at least 3 400+ footers. No real talls or super talls, and I'm sure they are on the horizon, but Ft. Lauderdale's skyline really needs to be analyzed by all.

Here is how I rate all of them outside of Miami:

1) Fort Lauderdale - Has become dense, proportioned, well placed and with good diversity of buildings (architecture, color, size, tallness, etc.).

2) Tampa - Not really that dense but many talls grace the skyline with some good diversity of buildings.

3) Jacksonville - No real denseness overall but a few talls grace the skyline. One of the things that makes Jax's skyline unique is the placement differential of the buildings, that is, many buildings of height in different areas of placement downtown. No real potholes in skyline; just needs a few more tall buildings to add denseness. Look for Jax to move into Tampa's spot and then Ft. Lauderdale's once more talls and possible one supertall comes into the mix.

4) Orlando - St. Petersburg can rival Orlando for this spot. Too much space and non-density in the skyline and not many real talls to account for. Skyline is yearning for denseness and more proportioness. Too many potholes in the skyline when viewed from all angles.

FLORIDA SKYLINE ORDER

[Florida]

Current completed buildings:

Jax - 51

Orlando - 52

Tampa - 55

FtLD - 117 (lots of beach condos)

FtMyers - 16 (but lots are coming)

St Pete - 36

WPB - 43

Sarasota - 38

Miami - 190

Tally - 6

In 20 years, all (Tally aside) should be at or above 100 given current trends.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

What is the criteria you use for your counts?

[Viper]

What is the criteria you use for your counts?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Emporis was used.

Granted it's behind in Jacksonville and quite probably many others as well however, it is still the most respected source for skyscraper data on the Internet.

[sunshine]

Here is a rendering that bic did on the Orlando thread with most of the announced projects....more is on the way...anyway, this is how Orlando will possibly look like in 2 - 3 years.

Current

Then you can add this in there

From certain angle, the entire skyline can merge into one, for example

driving on I-4 from west to east, from Lake IVanhoe or from the MD Cancer center.

This is typical view from I-4 West to East (not recent)

From MD Cancer Center

From Lake Ivanhoe

The Space between two cluster will be filled in a 2 years.

Aerial

We still have a few more multi towers projects waiting to be announced but they prolly wont be done till 2010.

[TallTampa]

Those are some great shots of Orlando.

[bobliocatt]

Don't forget about St. Petersburg

[jackson]

quite frankly, i'd say Jacksonville has a weak skyline for a city its size. Tampa is a lot more impressive, not to mention the fact that its less than half the size of Jacksonville. People on this thread are wack, because jacksonville is not half the size of tampa. Its the other way around.

[Viper]

quite frankly, i'd say Jacksonville has a weak skyline for a city its size. Tampa is a lot more impressive, not to mention the fact that its less than half the size of Jacksonville. People on this thread are wack, because jacksonville is not half the size of tampa. Its the other way around.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Jacksonville IS half the population of the TB.

When you compare two cities, you can't use arbitrary political boundaries because they have no context on the definitions of the overall picture.

Would you say Jacksonville is bigger than Atlanta, Miami, Boston, San Fransisco?

You must use the best means that puts the whole in context and in that respect Jacksonville at 1.3 million is half of Tampa at 2.6 million.

[Aessotariq]

quite frankly, i'd say Jacksonville has a weak skyline for a city its size. Tampa is a lot more impressive, not to mention the fact that its less than half the size of Jacksonville. People on this thread are wack, because jacksonville is not half the size of tampa. Its the other way around.

Most people here are referring to the size of the metropolitan area, which is much more relevant in determing the size of the core city's skyline than just the population that resides within a relatively arbitrary political boundary of a city (cities are not islands unto themselves that don't interact with the surrounding area). Metros are more representative especially in Florida where so much of the urbanized area is unincorporated. There is no in-between municipal entity such as a township as one might find in the northeast and midwest. From a metro standpoint, the Tampa Bay area is about double the size of the Jacksonville area.

[Viper]

arbitrary political boundaries

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

arbitrary political boundary

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Great minds must think alike. I hope he gets the point after we both basically said the same things at the same time.

[Aessotariq]

lol.. I hadn't noticed you replied around the same time I did. Riding the same wavelength.