Some data^ on skylines for those cities which anchor comparable US metro areas to Austin's (roughly those between ~1.9 and ~2.5 million*) IF you define a highrise building to be any with a height above 200' (as was done above):
- Charlotte, 2.53 million, 43 completed buildings taller than 200' with an average height of 376' -- the 5 under construction towers at 632', 378', 372', 280', and 252' will not change that average
- Orlando, 2.51 million, 21 completed buildings taller than 200' with an average height of 329'
- San Antonio, 2.47 million, 26 completed buildings taller than 200' with an average height of 312' and the 3 additional towers under construction at 386', 314', and 247' will not change the average height
- Portland, 2.45 million, 58 completed buildings taller than 200' with an average height of 279' and the 2 additional towers under construction at 358' and 325' will push the average to 281'
- Pittsburgh, 2.33 million, 64 completed buildings taller than 200' with an average height of 336'
- Sacramento, 2.32 million, 17 completed buildings taller than 200' with an average height of 312'
- Las Vegas, 2.20 million, 108 completed buildings taller than 200' with an average height of 371'
- Cincinnati, 2.18 million, 45 completed buildings taller than 200' with an average height of 303'
- Kansas City, 2.13 million, 41 completed buildings taller than 200' with an average height of 317'
- Austin, 2.12 million, 52 completed buildings taller than 200' with an average height of 322' and the 12 additional towers under construction (or in site prep) at 690', 542', 459', 446', 419', 397', 387', 386', 330', 247', 236', and 222' will push the average to 336'
- Columbus, 2.08 million, 30 completed buildings taller than 200' with an average height of 332' and there's one under construction tower for which I can't find a height
- Cleveland, 2.06 million, 45 completed buildings taller than 200' with an average height of 329' and the 1 under construction tower at 380' will push that average to 330'
- Indianapolis, 2.03 million, 38 completed buildings taller than 200' with an average height of 303' and the 1 under construction building at 290' will decrease that average to 302'
- San Jose, 2.00 million, 19 completed buildings taller than 200' with an average height of 248'
- Nashville, 1.90 million, 38 completed buildings taller than 200' with an average height of 323' and the 5 under construction towers at 550', 460', 345', 289', and 267' will increase that average to 330'
Some observations (using stats from data including both completed and under construction towers):
1. Vegas is the indisputable winner in our weight class in both height (371' average) and mass (108 buildings over 200')
2. The only other notable stand-out for average building height is Charlotte (376'), with everyone else between 300' and 340' except San Jose (at 248') and Portland (at 281')
3. Outside of Vegas, which has many more 200'+ buildings than any other city in this weight class, there are notable tiers in quantity of these highrises:
Pittsburgh (64), Austin (63), and Portland (60) are tier 1
Cleveland (46), Cincinnati (45), Charlotte (43), Nashville (43), Kansas City (41), and Indianapolis (39) are tier 2
Columbus (30) and San Antonio (29) are tier 3
Orlando (21), San Jose (19), and Sacramento (17) are tier 4.
Overall, taking bulk and height, I'd rank the skylines like this:
X. City (# / average / tallest)
1. Vegas (108 / 371' / 1150')
2. Pittsburgh (64 / 336' / 841')
3. Austin (63 / 322' / 683')
4. Charlotte (45 / 376' / 871')
5. Portland (60 / 281' / 546')
6. Cleveland (46 / 330' / 947')
7. Nashville (44 / 332' / 617)
8. Cincinnati (45 / 303' / 665')
9. Kansas City (41 / 317' / 624')
10. Indianapolis (39 / 302' / 811')
11. Columbus (30 / 330' / 624')
12. San Antonio (29 / 312' / 750')
13. Orlando (21 / 329' / 441')
14. Sacramento (17 / 312' / 430')
15. San Jose (19 / 248' / 286')
Consider the two skylines we were talking about
: Austin and Charlotte. What is currently in the development pipeline that hasn't started turning dirt? If we include those buildings in our data Austin simply blows Charlotte out of the water and looks to be starting to give Las Vegas a run for its money:
Austin, 2.12 million, 85 highrises at 355' average height, tallest building at 848'
Charlotte, 2.52 million, 52 highrises at 372' average height, tallest building at 871'
Even if you only include the most serious Austin proposals, Austin still is potentially at 75 highrises above 200' within 10 years with these buildings having an average of 344'. We simply don't currently have an 850' + building dragging up our average height. Instead, we have breadth as was noted above. To expand on ILUVSAT's numbers above, I think this shows why I think that although Austin already has a larger skyline (if currently lacking a big tall signature building) it will soon have a substantially bulkier skyline with equal height:
Completed:
800 PLUS: AUS: 0 / CHA: 1
700-800: AUS: 0 / CHA: 1
600-700: AUS: 1 / CHA: 1
500-600: AUS: 3 / CHA: 3
400-500: AUS: 8 / CHA: 9
300-400: AUS: 16 / CHA: 12
200-300: AUS: 24 / CHA: 16
Completed + Under Construction / Site Prep:
800 PLUS: AUS: 0 / CHA: 1
700-800: AUS: 0 / CHA: 1
600-700: AUS: 2 / CHA: 2
500-600: AUS: 4 / CHA: 3
400-500: AUS: 11 / CHA: 9
300-400: AUS: 20 / CHA: 14
200-300: AUS: 27 / CHA: 17
Reliable Proposals:
800 PLUS: AUS: 1 / CHA: 1
700-800: AUS: 1 / CHA: 1
600-700: AUS: 2 / CHA: 2
500-600: AUS: 5 / CHA: 3
400-500: AUS: 11 / CHA: 9
300-400: AUS: 23 / CHA: 16
200-300: AUS: 32 / CHA: 19
All Proposals:
800 PLUS: AUS: 1 / CHA: 1
700-800: AUS: 1 / CHA: 1
600-700: AUS: 4 / CHA: 2
500-600: AUS: 7 / CHA: 3
400-500: AUS: 11 / CHA: 9
300-400: AUS: 28 / CHA: 16
200-300: AUS: 33 / CHA: 19
^data is mostly from skyscraper forum database with other sources used to supplement
*I chose this range because (1) to include both Austin and Charlotte) and because there are (2) no clear gaps in size between the 15 metropolitan areas in this range with no gap being larger from one MSA to the next, when ordered sequentially, than 121k and only 3 gaps larger than 50k and (3) because, in turn, there are obvious gaps in size between the largest city within this range (Charlotte at 2.52 million) and the next largest cities of St. Louis, Baltimore, and Denver (at 2.81, 2.81, and 2.89 million, respectively, with a minimum gap in population between Charlotte and St. Louis of 282k) as well as the smallest city in this range (Nashville at 1.90 million) and the next smallest cities of Norfolk (1.73 million, a gap from Nashville of 178k), Providence (1.62 million), Milwaukee (1.58 million), and Jacksonville (1.54 million)
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