What buildings have an illusion to look small but are not

[LivingIn622]

there are some buildings out there that you look at and say, that's probably only 30 storys when it turns out to be a 40-50 story building. Does anybody know of these types of buildings. These come to my mind on buildings that seem small but aren't. Comerica Tower, Detroit. Aon Center, Chicago. Those are the first two that just pop up.

[Dac150]

One Financial Square, Park Avenue Tower, 100 United Nations, Continental Center. All in Manhattan, and all are bigger then they come off.

[headcase]

Originally Posted by LivingIn622

there are some buildings out there that you look at and say, that's probably only 30 storys when it turns out to be a 40-50 story building. Does anybody know of these types of buildings. These come to my mind on buildings that seem small but aren't. Comerica Tower, Detroit. Aon Center, Chicago. Those are the first two that just pop up.

I have to completely disagree with Aon, especially since I enter the building at least 5 days a week. That building looks every foot of it's 1136', I personally feel from the base it feels taller than Sears, mostly because you can see the building were you lose parts of Sears because of the set backs.

SSDD

[STERNyc]

Any building that groups two or three floors together so that it looks like one storey.

For example this building in Mexico City is 50 storeys and 565 feet tall.



It looks like its 20 storeys.

[Upward]

The AON Center?! I can't think of a building that places more emphasis on the vertical. It looks like the very tall building that it is. What does look small in Chicago is Two Prudential Plaza, next door to AON! With its pinnacle and tapering form, it looks like it's meant to be the tallest in the city. And in most cities, it would be. It just happens to be one of the worst-positioned buildings anywhere, being totally overpowered by AON. In fact, AON looks like a box that Prudential could fit inside! That's not to disparage AON, though, because it's one of my favorites.

[Upward]

Originally Posted by STERNyc

Any building that groups two or three floors together so that it looks like one storey.

For example this building in Mexico City is 50 storeys and 565 feet tall.



It looks like its 20 storeys.

Yes, exactly. Another good example of this is 1000 Wilshire in Los Angeles (also known as the Wedbush Building). Emporis and SSP disagree on the number of floors (21 or 23), but either way, this 350' building appears to only have about 10 floors.

This is the best picture I've taken of it. I don't have a more close-up view, because I don't like it! This picture does show one of the main problems with the building, though: it completely skews the apparent scale of the downtown skyscrapers near the 110 freeway. Until you notice how many floors the surrounding buildings have, everything looks about half as tall!

[atl2phx]

almost every hotel tower in vegas.

[MayDay]

^You're reading my mind - the Wynn is 614 feet tall, but it looks shorter with the facade treatment:

[brickell]

The VAB building at Kennedy Space Center. It's boxy and square, but man is it huge.

http://science.ksc.nasa.gov/facilities/vab.html

[KevinFromTexas]

@ MayDay. YES! When I first saw the height for that thing I thought for sure it had to be wrong. Check out a skyline picture of Vegas with that thing in it. It doesn't even look taller than the rest of the buildings, even though it's twice as tall as most of the hotels from the 70s or early 80s. From the shots where it does look taller, it sort of tricks your eye into thinking it's just closer to the camera. Some of the other hotels are getting tall also, but they all look short, but not necessarily squat. Kind of strange.

[KevinFromTexas]

Originally Posted by brickell

The VAB building at Kennedy Space Center. It's boxy and square, but man is it huge.

http://science.ksc.nasa.gov/facilities/vab.html

The building was actually the tallest in Florida from 1965 to 1974. Get this, it's 526 feet tall, and is 717 feet long and 518 feet wide and actually has 40 floors. It's also the largest building on the planet by volume with 129,428,000 cubic feet. It's also the tallest building in the US outside of an urban area. (Emporis)

[LivingIn622]

I still think the Aon looks not as big as it really is. Standing beneath it or a couple blocks down the Aon and Prudential look small. And I'm not saying like 500 ft small but around 880 ft. Even though the Aon Center in Chicago is bigger than the Hancock it looks a nice amount shorter.

[Tom In Chicago]

Just about every building in Las Vegas is - for obvious reasons - much taller than they would appear. . .

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by LivingIn622

I still think the Aon looks not as big as it really is. Standing beneath it or a couple blocks down the Aon and Prudential look small. And I'm not saying like 500 ft small but around 880 ft. Even though the Aon Center in Chicago is bigger than the Hancock it looks a nice amount shorter.

like others in this thread, i have to completely disagree with you about aon center. no building that i can think of so strongly and emphatically reinforces its verticality the way that aon does. those bold, muscular linear vertical elements on its facade make the building truly soar, a very tall feat for a box-scraper indeed (pun intended).

as for the thread topic, a great many of the newer vegas hotel towers disguise their height with the multiple floor grouping trick, as others have mentioned. the wynn is a good example of this. the bellagio is even more dishonest.

Originally Posted by Tom In Chicago

Just about every building in Las Vegas is - for obvious reasons - much taller than they would appear. . .

what are the reasons for this? you say they are obvious, but in all my trips to vegas i've always wondered why the mega-resort developers try to disguise the heights of their buildings. any insights?

[LivingIn622]

here is a shot of the Aon and Prudential. Both I would say look smaller than their real height. Why Aon looks small, in my eyes, is because of its width. It is very wide so the height doesn't look that great. If it was skinnier it would look alot taller. Skinny towers look taller than the same sized fatter ones.

[MayDay]

LivingIn622, I'm with the opposition on this one - seeing Two Prudential and realizing it's in the same league as Key Tower yet Aon soars above it - nope, it doesn't look smaller at all.

"@ MayDay. YES! When I first saw the height for that thing I thought for sure it had to be wrong."

I had to wonder when I looked up heights - to think it's only a little shorter than Rhodes Tower in Columbus (pic below, on the right for those who don't know)... it may well be but it sure doesn't look anywhere near that height.

[PeterG]

On a bit of a detour, the Wynn really reminds me of a big solar panel, especially when the sun shines off it like in this photo. Mind you, I really like it's design - very minimalist but still projecting a lot of power and status (the signature does help of course!).

[JManc]

^ and that building cost almost $3 billion.

[Tom In Chicago]

Steely Dan - what are the reasons for this? you say they are obvious, but in all my trips to vegas i've always wondered why the mega-resort developers try to disguise the heights of their buildings. any insights?

Well perhaps NOT-so-obvious then. . . maybe they're trying to control absolutely every aspect of your experience. . . I'm sure someone probably has a better explanation, but I'm not surprised by the fact. . .

[MayDay]

^As in, they're hoping for the opposite of what most of us enjoy about tall buidlings.

They need to build mammoth hotels to house the millions of tourists, but big mammoth hotels that look mammoth might be overwhelming (cool for us SSP geeks, but not so much to Ethel from Fumbuck).