Show your city skyline from the year you were born

KevinFromTexas · #1 Posted **May 30, 2014, 5:38 AM**

I'll start off. This was Austin, Texas in 1979 the year I was born. This photo even shows the tallest building that was under construction that year. You can just see it with a crane above that white fire place chimney.

The 1980 census showed 345,496 people living in Austin. The July 2013 estimate shows 885,400.

The tallest building in Austin at the time was the Austin National Bank Tower - today the Bank of America Center - 336 feet with 25 floors. It was built in 1975. It's the black tower on the right. The tallest today is The Austonian - 683 feet 56 floors. Austin only had 5 buildings over 300 feet in 1979, and the Capitol was still the third tallest. Austin only had 53 highrises that year, and 3 of those were under construction. Today Austin has 162 highrises with 12 more under construction. The Capitol today is the 23rd tallest counting those buildings under construction.

Brian M. Glenn‎Remember in Austin, Tx. when... - https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10202627429104287&set=gm.660954467308131&type=1&theater

Centropolis · #2 Posted **May 30, 2014, 5:45 AM**

we only had around 2 million people in metro stl, less than 500k in city in 1980, the region divided amongst diehard old style neighborhood people and suburban flighters.

Chef · #3 Posted **May 30, 2014, 5:49 AM**

I've lived in Minneapolis since the late '80s but it isn't where I was born.

Chicago, 1969, the world I came into:

Chicago 1969 by Blake Bolinger, on Flickr

599GTO · #4 Posted **May 30, 2014, 6:19 AM**

NYC 1986

toddguy · #5 Posted **May 30, 2014, 8:50 AM**

I don't even think I can find a pic of Columbus from exactly 1963. Damn I am old.

Steely Dan · #6 Posted **May 30, 2014, 1:10 PM**

the chicago i was born into in 1976, or at least close enough to it. water tower place, completed in 1976, is there peeking out behind big john, so it's at least from 1976, but it could be from '77 or '78. can't tell for sure, but like i said, close enough.

source: http://chuckmanchicagonostalgia.wordpress.com/

Evergrey · #7 Posted **May 30, 2014, 1:21 PM**

Ex-Ithacan · #8 Posted **May 30, 2014, 3:10 PM**

This is part of downtown Ithaca shortly after I was born in late November:

Ex-Ithacan · #9 Posted **May 30, 2014, 3:17 PM**

Actually I was born between this 1940s era shot (from the south):

and this one from the 60's (shot from the east):

SignalHillHiker · #10 Posted **May 30, 2014, 3:24 PM**

These are from 1971, a decade before I was born. But they're the closest I can find, and little changed since then until very recently - certainly almost nothing at all changed from 71-81.

Photos from Vintage St. John's on Facebook:

The railway is now gone, replaced by a provincial highway system. On the far right you can faintly make out a tall, red building. This is Southcott Hall, still among the tallest in the city. To the far left is St. Patrick's Roman Catholic Church. Even today, with dozens of modern buildings, it still remains the third-tallest building in the city:

http://skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?searchID=51712854

This view has a couple of tall buildings off to the right-hand side now. But mostly remains unchanged.

Boisebro · #11 Posted **May 30, 2014, 4:16 PM**

tough to find images from the exact year, but here's a shot.

minneapolis, 1960s:

minneapolis, todayish:

boise, 1960s:

boise, todayish:

emathias · #12 Posted **May 30, 2014, 4:28 PM**

I can't find a skyline photo of Boise, Idaho in exactly 1973. It was probably close to the same as the one Boisebro posted. The tallest building from 1930 until 1975 was the Hoff building, at 14 stories. I don't think Boise really had a skyline in 1973 and to the extent that it did, nobody really cared about it given I think there were only two buildings over 10 stories at the time.