Louisiana City Skylines

[richyb83]

Nice match-up Nate. Tampa beat-out Tulsa a few months back to go 1 and 0. Jacksonville has a nice skyline and waterfront and their tallest BoA is the most impressive of both cities IMO. I just like Tampa's more! Having 6 taller than 400' makes a big enough difference. Tampa is now 2-0.

Agreed that Tampa's skyline is ranked 2nd in the Sunshine State behind only Miami. Jacksonville would be 3rd. Orlando is in the process of dramatically improving their skyline.

[dan326]

Definitely Tampa.

[NCB]

Here's a skyline battle containing two major cities, with two major skylines; Philadelphia and Los Angeles.

Los Angeles

City population- 4,097,340

Metro population- 17,629,607

Tallest building: US Bank Tower- 1,018 ft

Number of buildings above 600 feet: 12

Number of buildings above 400 feet: 32

Number of buildings above 200 feet: 88

Courtesy of Lloyd Prudhomme at pbase; Link

The amount of smog in L.A. can be amazing sometimes

Courtesy of "JRinSoCal" over at SSP; Link

Philadelphia

City population- 1,463,281

Metro population- 6,372,799

Tallest building: One Liberty Place- 945 ft

Number of buildings above 600 feet: 6

Number of buildings above 400 feet: 25

Number of buildings above 200 feet: 113

Courtesy of "garyhymes" at Flickr; Link

[bluff2085]

Nice showdown, Nate. Philly has a classic, big-time east coast skyline. The 1920s-era, irreplacable 15-30 story 'scrapers only complement Philly's nice collection of striking modern supertalls. Comcast is on the way,too and might be the beginning of a high-rise renaissance in Philly. But I'm leaning towards LA. It's got more supertalls and something about it is just cool. Even though its skyline reeks of ultra '80s modernism (cough, Houston, cough), I prefer LA for some reason.

[richyb83]

Another great match-up Nate. Thanks for the skyline battle.

Philadelphia's Downtown looks larger; and Los Angeles's is taller. Each have a great landmark skyscraper. I like Los Angeles skyline better, but that doesn't necessarily mean they win? It's just a matter of preference.

Hard to believe LA's City Hall(on the very left of 1st pic) was the tallest building in the city for so long; until the the advent of (technology) of the "earthquake-proof" skyscrapers.

[dan326]

I like Los Angeles best, although I don't think it reflects its population.

[dimebag1980]

I really like the LA skyline, especially the US Bank building, but Philly's sprawling skyline and more impressive architecture really win it for me.

Nice matchup.

[NCB]

Well, since we seem to be pretty busy this evening, I thought I'd put up another skyline battle. I think this will be another pretty good one; two tall and very compact skylines...

San Francisco

City population- 739,426

Metro population- 7,168,176

Tallest building: Transamerica Pyramid- 853 feet

Number of buildings taller than 600 feet: 5

Number of buildings taller than 400 feet: 40

Number of buildings taller than 200 feet: 118

Image courtesy of Ron Niebrugge; Link

Photo courtesy of Declan McCullagh; Link

Pittsburgh

City population- 316,718

Metro population- 2,478,883

Tallest building: U.S. Steel Tower- 841 ft

Number of buildings taller than 600 feet: 5

Number of buildings taller than 400 feet: 15

Number of buildings taller than 200 feet: 35

[dimebag1980]

Pittsburgh! I must say I've never really been a fan of San Francisco's skyline... nothing against it, but it's not extremely impressive to me other than its size.

[richyb83]

SF vs. Pitt....hmm????

I like Pittsburgh's skyline alot. Great variety and density. I also like the three rivers area and all the bridges too. While SF is not my favorite skyline around, it WINS with it's massive size.

Thanks for posting Nate.

[dan326]

I like Pittsburgh the best. I like the way the downtown seems to be in it's own little word.

[bluff2085]

I think SF wins this one easily. Pittsburgh's skyline is awesome but might fare better against a smaller metro like Charlotte.

[NCB]

Ah, finally some love for San Francisco shines through!

IMO, Pittsburgh's skyline is awesome, but it just can't beat the huge, dense, and reasonably tall skyline of San Francisco.

[richyb83]

it WINS with it's massive size.

I said San Francisco too Maybe just not as much love shining thru as yall?

The iconic TransAmerica Tower is cool too.

[bluff2085]

Hey guys, check this out. I had a couple hours between classes this morning and started browsing through Emporis.com. With the help of my TI-86, I thought it would be cool to post the "skyline ratios" [term I made up] of a few cities. Here's what I did: Counted the total number of floors for all buildings in a city 20 stories or more. Then, I divided that number by the total number of floors for all buildings in that city between 5-11 floors. Then I multiplied that fraction by number of buildings in said city at 20 stories or more. Very, very unscientific, but I thought it might be an indicator of how big a city's skyline is.

Baton Rouge:

Total # of floors for [5] buildings at or above 20 stories: 121

divided by--total # of floors for buildings b/t 5-11 stories: 324 = 37%

then -- 37% X 5 = 1.85 [skyline ratio]

Memphis:

Total # of floors for [12] buildings at or above 20 stories: 313

divided by--total # of floors for buildings b/t 5-11 stories: 507 = 62%

then -- 62% X 12 = 7.44

Charlotte:

Total # of floors for [18] buildings at or above 20 stories: 554

divided by--total # of flloors for buildings b/t 5-11 stories: 883 = 63%

then -- 63% X 18 = 11.34

New Orleans:

Total # of floors for [28] buildings at or above 20 stories: 1009

divided by--total # of floors for buildings b/t 5-11 stories: 898 = 112%

then -- 112% X 28 = 31.36

New Orleans blows Charlotte away. But what's amazing is, if you look at Emporis, the number of buildings in Charlotte b/t 5-11 stories that have been built in the last 10 years. That city's growth is really amazing and the skyline isn't the only symbol of that.

[dan326]

Poor B.R. All we have is a 1.85. Maybe with the addition of RiverPlace it will be bumped up all the way to 2. And look at New Olreans at 31.36, that's big.

[NCB]

New Orleans blows Charlotte away. But what's amazing is, if you look at Emporis, the number of buildings in Charlotte b/t 5-11 stories that have been built in the last 10 years. That city's growth is really amazing and the skyline isn't the only symbol of that.

Well, it's definately growth, but much of that came at a hefty price. During the '80's basically every historic low and mid rise building in Charlotte was destroyed, which is why it seems like everything there has been built since 1990. Maybe it's just because I'm from an extremely historic city where preservation is extremely important, but I can't even begin to think about having nearly every physical piece of New Orleans' history destroyed in the name of "progression."

Anyway, bluff, awesome job with the skyline ratio idea. The ratio idea really seems to give a good indication of a skylines' height as well as its density, and that's what New Orleans does best. And hey, isn't it interesting where you may end up putting those high school and college math courses to good work, sometimes?

Can't touch this!

[Rardy]

New Orleans is definitely blessed with a great skyline. While height is great and important, I prefer how skylines look at the street level -- which is where Nashville and Charlotte lose out. New Orleans wins at that level too, hands down.

[NCB]

While height is great and important, I prefer how skylines look at the street level -- which is where Nashville and Charlotte lose out. New Orleans wins at that level too, hands down.

I feel the same way. Charlotte's skyline looks great from a distance, but once you're actually there, right in the city core, it looks extremely uninpressive. Lots of open gaps, parking lots, and absolutely no history to speak of.

Nashville, however, while not as dense or active as New Orleans, is still one of my favorites. Plenty of clubs, bars, restaurants, and people downtown after 5pm, which is something you will never see in Charlotte.

[richyb83]

Very interesting Bluff, thanks for doing that. You did some serious counting to find all those 5 to 11 story buildings.

That's the exact reason why I had New Orleans beat-out Charlotte for the 5th place in the Southern Skyline Rankings.

I have never been inside Uptown Charlotte, just saw the skyline from a few miles away on the Interstate. I have more appreciation for the historic buildings and from what Nate says Charlotte did not leave much history behind.

[NCB]

I have never been inside Uptown Charlotte, just saw the skyline from a few miles away on the Interstate. I have more appreciation for the historic buildings and from what Nate says Charlotte did not leave much history behind.

Don't get me wrong, I think Charlotte is a very nice city, and the people have always been great while I've been there. But to me, there is a fine line between "progression" and simply over-doing it, and IMO Charlotte raced past that line when they decided to deastroy literally almost all historic buildings in the downtown area.

Charlotte is one of those cities where you have to really see all of it for yourself to develop any kind of opinion. Some people love the Uptown area, and other people just don't like the look and feel of it, and I'm one of the latter people. The new buildings look great, but it all just looks so pre-fabricated, everything looks too new, too sleak, too clean, if you know what I mean. No age or history to speak of, and I just don't like that.

There is plenty of growth around Uptown Charlotte, and there is less sprawl taking place than you might think because of this, but all of the "fun" features that Charlotte once offered (bars, clubs, restaurants, etc.) have all been replaced with offices and banks, and because of this, there is absolutely no reason to go into Uptown Charlotte other than to work, there's simply nothing to do. This is the reason why the Uptown area is almost desserted(literally) after the evening rush hour home.

Again, overall, I like Charlotte. Great people, beautiful area, very clean, I like what they're doing with the growth they're having, i.e. not letting the sprawl get out of hand, great mass transit planning and city upkeep, etc. But some of the city's ideas of "progression" and alot of what has come of those ideas, just ain't for me.

[richyb83]

I know Charlotte is going big time. 2nd largest in U.S. as far as being Financial hub was very impressive. The city is hilly so the roads on the south-side of the city look like they dropped a plate of spaghetti on the map; the way the roads seem to go all-over-the-place.

Some say Dubai has this same type of feel with sleek, pre-fabricated, no soul,etc.

[NCB]

Now that we're on the topic of individual buildings, I thought I'd bring up something else.

I'll use New Orleans first as it's Louisiana's largest skyline, and has by far the most buildings to choose from, but we can do it for Baton Rouge, Shreveport, and maybe even Monroe and Metairie as well.

What are your five favorite mid and high-rise buildings in New Orleans? They don't have to be in any particular order, or any particular height, but please try to focus on buildings around 200+ feet. I think this can give us a little more of a look into the individual buildings that make up our state's skylines, not just the skylines as a whole, which we all just look at most of the time.

So, what are your 5 favorite mid and high-rise buildings in New Orleans?

For reference if you need it: New Orleans on Emporis

Oh and just one more note, please don't include buildings that are proposed, approved, never built, etc.

[TBurban]

Nice topic!

My five favorites are.....

1. Place St. Charles

2. 909 Poydras Street

3. 1450 Poydras

4. Hibernia Bank Building

and for sheer height....

5. One Shell Square

[bluff2085]

I'm glad emporis added low rise buildings to their database. But I wish they had photos too. I just haven't spent enough time in New Orleans to have a real favorite. Plus the built environment in New Orleans has sort of an organic feel to it, where buildings are less likely to be viewed as products of design. I think this is directly related to NO's density and its appealing, socially-enhancing street life. Same thing with NYC--the buildings are impressive nonetheless, but it's the street life that grabs your attention first. On the other hand, when I'm in a sprawling city like Houston or Atlanta, the relative lack of street-level activity lends itself to the examination of the next-most appealing sign of life--the buildings.

With that said, the building I am most fond of in Baton Rouge is Shaw Plaza. It has the most commanding presence in the Essen office corridor, without being noticeably taller than Jacobs Plaza nearby. It's a successful blend of power and grace and would look good anywhere in the city.