50 Best US Skylines

[TWAK]

Oakland should be higher just for the setting:


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[IluvATX]

Originally Posted by JManc

Dallas or Austin over Houston?







Banned...

This is supposed to be opinion. Houston may have a large skyline, but it’s a swampy, ugly, polluted, sprawled out mess of a city.

[austlar1]

Originally Posted by IluvATX

This is supposed to be opinion. Houston may have a large skyline, but it’s a swampy, ugly, polluted, sprawled out mess of a city.

That may all be true, but Houston certainly feels like a ginormous honest to god real city compared to Austin or even Dallas. It's called grit, and Houston has plenty of it.

[bilbao58]

Originally Posted by IluvATX

This is supposed to be opinion. Houston may have a large skyline, but it’s a swampy, ugly, polluted, sprawled out mess of a city.

And 26 years ahead of Austin in creating housing density.

It's going to be a loooong time before NYU and UT Austin do a study on housing changes in Austin. https://furmancenter.org/files/Here_...Houses_508.pdf

[Emprise du Lion]

Originally Posted by goat314

The St. Louis skyline slander is crazy. The Arch alone should give it some points.

The standard western facing shot of the Arch from East St. Louis doesn't do the skyline justice. An eastern facing shot from Clayton does it more justice. It also puts it into perspective just how close downtown St. Louis and downtown Clayton are actually to each other. Example:


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[Altoic]

They always forget about Sunny Isles

6456658534567659879678563557568 by Shlomo Shaul, on Flickr

[IluvATX]

Originally Posted by austlar1

That may all be true, but Houston certainly feels like a ginormous honest to god real city compared to Austin or even Dallas. It's called grit, and Houston has plenty of it.

No city in Texas feels like a “ginormous honest to god real city” and if I want grit I’ll go to India. Y’all have strong opinions on a topic that’s based on opinion yet won’t list your own favorites or participate in the actual question. Only to dismiss others opinions and post shitty pics of Houston. So troll along…

[craigs]

1. New York
2. Chicago
3. Philadelphia
4. Houston
5. Los Angeles
6. San Francisco
7. Seattle
8. Atlanta
9. Boston
10. Dallas
11. Minneapolis
12. Miami

[mhays]

It appears that suburban/edge/secondary skylines are omitted except in the San Francisco area. I can see a skyline that's often in the same picture being part of the main one, like Jersey City. But Bellevue, Sunny Isles, Century City, Houston's Uptown, and others deserve consideration in their own right, with more mass than a number of the skylines in the OP's 50.

[Maldive]

I wouldn't include any Canadian cities on the list as suggested earlier except for one.

It's a little-know fact that most Torontonians now have AmeriCanadian passports issued recently by a reliable web-site on the dark net. So T.O. deserves a spot on the list.

Toronto at 3# seems fair (until 2026 ;-).


https://www.instagram.com/remi_berthalon/

[Nouvellecosse]

Hmm, the 50 US skylines that I consider "The Best?" Well a lot of the top 50 are very small skylines I'm not that familiar with and have no strong opinion on but I gave it a go.

I tried to balance impressiveness (mainly size) with layout (how buildings relate to each other and to the settings) and with my taste in architecture.I only considered secondary skylines that are in a separate municipality than a larger skyline on the list. For any not included, it may simply be that it's not my personal taste, or more likely that I forgot (or didn't know) about it.

1) Chicago
2) NYC
3) Seattle
4) SF
5) Philly
6) LA
7) Atlanta
8) Minneapolis
9) Boston
9) Miami

11) Houston
12) Pittsburgh
13) Jersey City
14) Dallas
15) Cleveland
16) Denver
17) Detroit
18) Charlotte
19) San Diego
20) Portland =
20) Indianapolis

22) Kansas City MO
23) Buffalo
24) Cincinnati
25) Baltimore
26) Austin
27) Las Vegas
28) Saint Paul
29) Tampa
30) Nashville
31) St. Louis
32) DC
33) Milwaukee
34) Louisville
35) Hartford
36) OKC
36) Columbus
38) New Orleans
39) Salt Lake City
40) Tulsa
41) Omaha
42) Memphis
43) Phoenix
44) San Antonio
45) Raleigh
46) Jacksonville
47) Ft. Worth
48) Albany
49) Bellevue
49) Tacoma

[meh]

Originally Posted by BlueDot

Don’t think this has ever been discussed before...

Really? You don't think this has been discussed before? On SkyscraperPage?

Anyway, I know the standard shot of St. Louis' skyline from the east is underwhelming, but there is no objective reality in which New Orleans is 13 slots higher.

[craigs]

Originally Posted by meh

Really? You don't think this has been discussed before? On SkyscraperPage?

Anyway, I know the standard shot of St. Louis' skyline from the east is underwhelming, but there is no objective reality in which New Orleans is 13 slots higher.

This thread isn't about "objective reality," though. This thread is about what skylines forumers like and rank highly.

[twinpeaks]

50 is a lot, I can do top 5.

1) New York
2) Chicago
3) San Francisco
4) Seattle
5) Philadelphia

[bilbao58]

Originally Posted by Maldive

https://www.instagram.com/remi_berthalon/

^^^ Amazing how a long lens in Etobicoke can make Humber Bay and Toronto look like Manhattan as seen across the Hudson from Jersey City.

[url=https://flic.kr/p/2pTuHQL]

[jbermingham123]

Originally Posted by Maldive

Toronto at 3# seems fair (until 2026 ;-).

I gotta say, I think it acutally blew past that threshold in the last year and a half or so without us even realizing. So, I know this is controversial, but I'm calling it now:

1. NYC
2. Toronto
3. Chicago
4. Seattle
5. SF
6. Vancouver
7. Houston
8. Miami
9. Philly
10. Dallas = Atlanta

[BlueDot]

Originally Posted by craigs

This thread isn't about "objective reality," though. This thread is about what skylines forumers like and rank highly.

Which is what I was aiming for when I started this thread. Everyone coming up with their own version of the 50 best American skylines.

[meh]

Originally Posted by craigs

This thread isn't about "objective reality," though. This thread is about what skylines forumers like and rank highly.

so each forumer just regurgitates an arbitrary list of 50 cities. got it.

[homebucket]

Originally Posted by Crawford

And I know it's all subjective, but it's hard for me to envision a reasonable ranking that doesn't have NYC at 1, Chicago at 2, and Philly, Seattle, SF and LA in some order for the next four. And then Dallas, Houston, Atlanta and Miami in the next group.

Yes, this seems to track with a similar exercise we did 18 months ago. It's pretty hard to do a top 50, but so far the results coming in over the past couple days seems to reinforce the previous power rankings.

I would say that NYC, Chicago, and SF have a pretty secure grasp on the 1, 2, and 3 rankings, respectively. LA and Philly are pretty close at 4 and 5, then some order of Seattle, Pittsburgh, Miami, Houston, and then Atlanta, Boston, Dallas.

Originally Posted by homebucket

1. NYC - 1.36 (SD = 0.95)

2. Chicago - 2.13 (SD = 1.01)

3. SF - 4.09 (SD = 1.78)

4. LA - 4.90 (SD = 2.07)
5. Philly - 5.23 (SD = 1.54)

6. Seattle - 5.84 (SD = 2.32)
7. Pittsburgh - 6.22 (SD = 2.64)
8. Miami - 6.40 (SD = 2.10)
9. Houston - 6.47 (SD = 2.03)

10. Atlanta - 8.42 (SD = 1.83)
11. Boston - 9.00 (SD = 0.89)
12. Dallas - 9.11 (SD = 1.27)

[craigs]

Originally Posted by meh

so each forumer just regurgitates an arbitrary list of 50 cities. got it.

So what are you rolling your eyes at, then, if you get it? You are not required to read this thread, let alone participate in it.