Louisiana City Skylines

[NCB]

Very cool photo, breux!

I wonder what that building is. Is it a bank, or just a general office tower?

It's Bank One Tower right now, but I don't know what it was used for earlier in its history.

[breaux]

Very cool photo, breux!

It's Bank One Tower right now, but I don't know what it was used for earlier in its history.

It was the First National Bank Tower,

then Bank One, now Chase, I guess.

[dimebag1980]

It was the First National Bank Tower,

then Bank One, now Chase, I guess.

Cool, thanks for filling me in. Since I'm not from there, all I could do was assume. It's a nice building.

[TSmith]

Yep gotta love Lafayette... my 2nd favorite Louisiana city. With $70 per barrel oil, her future looks bright... perhaps they'll get a real tower at some point.

[NCB]

This isn't a "skyline battle," but more of a skyline question.

I was just wondering, what do you guys think of Toronto's skyline, and which American skyline would you compare it to most? Just some FYI, Toronto is alot like Atlanta and Houston in that it has a large central downtown skyline, with many other mid-sized-large skylines popping up outside of downtown, as you can see a bit of in the 3rd photo.

[NCB]

Personally, I think Toronto's skyline is pretty comparable to Houston's. They are both large, tall, and there are many different skylines popping up around downtown. Also, with Toronto having 2.4 million people in the city and 5.3 million in the metro, and Houston having 2.01 million in the city, and 5.3 million in the metro, they are comparable in population as well.

Five tallest buildings in downtown Toronto

First Canadian Place- 1,164 ft.

Scotia Plaza- 902 ft

TD Canada Trust Tower- 856 ft

Commerce Court West- 784 ft

Toronto-Dominion Bank Tower- 731 ft

Note: the 1,066 ft Trump International Hotel and Tower Toronto is currently under construction

Five tallest buildings in downtown Houston

JPMorganChase Tower- 1,002 ft

Wells Fargo Plaza- 992 ft

Bank of America Center- 780 ft

Heritage Plaza- 762 ft

1100 Louisiana- 756 ft

[richyb83]

Good comparison Nate. Toronto is definitly up there as far as premier cities are concerned. They are currently having a high-rise construction-boom. According to Emporis they have 83 approved projects on the board. Their Trump Tower will add some flash to the CBD. They also have a proposed 90-story Sapphire Tower with impressive renderings with a globe on top. They have the World's Tallest Observation Tower at 1,815 ft. too ! They have a huge medical (Discovery District) similar to Houston's. They have their own little version of Times Square, the Eaton Centre, which is also a huge mall. Toronto is Canada's ONE city that supports American Professional Sports with the NBA's Raptors and MLB's Blue Jays.

[NCB]

^Yea, you can definately see that Toronto is Canada's #1 city. It's like a mini-New York in many ways, and is just as important to Canada as New York is to the the U.S. And like you said, it is the center of the sports world in Canada, in both American and Canadian sports. Though there are a few other NHL hockey teams in Canada; the Calgary Flames, Edmonton Oilers, Montreal Canadiens, Ottawa Senators, and the Vancouver Canucks, along with the Toronto Maple Leafs.

[richyb83]

My bad.Sorry to leave Hockey out in the cold. (Pardon the pun)

Being from the South we rarely see any ice. So I guess that's why I don't include them in the "Big Three". It has always seemed like a Canadian sport to me. But I do realize it is very popular up North.

[NCB]

Being from the South we rarely see any ice. So I guess that's why I don't include them in the "Big Three". It has always seemed like a Canadian sport to me. But I do realize it is very popular up North.

Yea, I've never considered the NHL one of the big three either. Though I think it would be in the big four. New Orleans used to have the brass, a minor league hockey team, but they ended operations once the Hornets came to town. The Brass drew decent attendance, but the schedule was also pretty short. A full NHL schedule wouldn't draw many fans every game in New Orleans. Though there are quite a few cities in the South with NHL teams; Miami, Tampa, Atlanta, Raleigh, Nashville, and Dallas.

[richyb83]

I did not realize Miami had a NHL Team. Is that an expansion team ?

That was the ECHL where many teams folded. The Brass and two other LA. teams, BR Kingfish and and the Louisiana Ice Gators(Lafayette) also folded. It was very popular in Lafayette for awhile, the team was good. But even crowds there started to slack-off towards the end.

Ooops, this has turned into a sports tread instead of skylines.

[NCB]

I did not realize Miami had a NHL Team. Is that an expansion team ?

Ooops, this has turned into a sports tread instead of skylines.

The Florida Panthers are located in Miami, and they've been around for awhile, not sure exactly how long though. And don't worry about sports related stuff in this thread, Richy, everyone get's off topic sometimes! Especially me, actually.

[richyb83]

Oh yeah, I should have known that. I never followed hockey very closely, but after the NHL went on strike and never played last year, I kinda lost track.

[NCB]

I never followed hockey very closely, but after the NHL went on strike and never played last year, I kinda lost track.

Same here. The NHL is probably the only "Big 4" league in which I can't name all of the teams and their locations off of the top of my head. I've got no problem doing that with the NFL, NBA, and MLB.

[bluff2085]

Here's another match-up: Cincinnati,OH vs. Portland, OR. Both are cities with fairly dense urban cores, both have metros around 2 million and modern skylines to match. Thing is both only have a handful of towers that exceed 30 stories, and both lack a tower taller than 600 feet.

More random similarities:

Portland's tallest : 42 stories at 546 ft.

Portland's 20th tallest : 22 stories and 245 ft.

Cincinnati's tallest : 49 stories at 574 ft.

Cincinnati's 20th tallest : 19 stories at 255 ft.

Portland, OR:

Cincinnati, OH:

[richyb83]

Great match-up bluff2085 ! As you said, many similarities with both cities. Looking at each pic, IMO Cincinnati looks like it has the edge on density. Maybe it's the angle of the pic ? It's very close. Portland is a nice looking place too. I like the book-end skyscrapers and I like the marina down on the river.

[NCB]

Great matchup, Bluff!

I've never been to Portland, but I have been to Cincinnati, and I can tell you that the skyline looks much more impressive in person. It has some nice density as well, and it looks like it beats Portland in that category. Portland's skyline looks very nice, but I prefer the density, older buildings, and some of the grit of Cincinnati's skyline.

The picture you posted is a great view!

Here's another good shot of Cinci's skyline showing some of the density.

[bluff2085]

I think I would give the edge to Cincy too because of its historic crop, esp the Carew and PNC towers (Portland can't compete with cincy's two 400ft + pre-depression 'scrapers). And I agree, density does it for me. With that said, I can't say too much for either city since I haven't been to both, though Portland's skyline is still decidedly dense:

[NCB]

^Wow, it looks like Portland's skyline has alot more low and mid-rise density than I thought. Though I think a 500+ foot tower or two in either city would do wonders for the skylines.

[krazeeboi]

What gives Cincinnati's skyline that "wow" factor is turning that bend on the interstate from KY into Cincy. It's like the skyline pops out of nowhere. Absolutely beautiful.

[NCB]

What gives Cincinnati's skyline that "wow" factor is turning that bend on the interstate from KY into Cincy. It's like the skyline pops out of nowhere. Absolutely beautiful.

Houston's skyline has that same affect. You're driving along on I-10, seeing a building pop up here and there, but you suddenly come around a turn and boom, there's the massive downtown skyline directly in front of you. That happens in New Orleans too, if you're headed eastbound on I-10.

[SlidellWX]

I love that when I'm driving into the city from Metairie. Another city with that cool view is Atlanta. If you are driving down I-85 before merging with I-75 near the airport. It's all trees and then you go around the curve and the skyline just explodes into view.

[NCB]

^Yea, Atlanta's skyline has some of those views as well.

This is my personal favorite view of New Orleans' skyline:

[NCB]

Ok guys, now I know we can get this thread moving again! I'll set up another skyline comparison in order to get some discussion going again.

[richyb83]

Great minds think alike ! I was about to make a new post myself because tall buildings is such an interesting topic. Here is a little crash research I did with some major cities high-rise count. Since the State Capitol is 450', that seemed like a good height to qualify. Here are some random cities with # of high-rises

450+

New Orleans (6) Baton Rouge (1)

NYC (245) currently has high-rises at 450 feet or taller ! WOW !

Chicago (116)

Houston (32); Los Angeles (28); Dallas (22); Seattle (17) ;Atlanta (16) ;Philadelphia (15) ;Minneapolis (14) Miami (13) ;Denver (7) ;Tampa (6) ;Charlotte (5)

*New Orleans currently has two high-rises of 600' or taller lead by the 697' One Shell Square

Others cities with high-rises +600'

NYC with a whopping 74 high-rises topping over 600'

Chicago (31) ;Houston (17); Los Angeles (12) ; Dallas (11) ; Atlanta (9); Seattle and Philly (5); Miineapolis (4); Charlotte (2)