Worst skyline

[pj3000]

Originally Posted by trueviking

pj, i really dont get your argument....winnipeg competes with calgary and toronto for commerce the same way jacksonville does with atlanta and orlando....its just that there are hundreds of miles of nothing in between....being a hub for thousands of kilometers of tundra doesnt create wealth....i would think that having 1.3m people living right next door would do more for a city than being a hub for that same amount of people spread across a thousand kilometers.

i wont argue that winnipeg is more important to canada than jacksonville is to the US and that it has a greater proportion of its commerce, but that is a percentage of a much smaller total...skylines are caused by total commerce, not percentage of commerce.

i was including florida state college in my numbers...maybe thats not a university...i dont get the american system.

i wont say any more on the subject....thanks for the debate.

No it doesn't... not at all. Maybe Calgary to a small degree, but Winnipeg competing with Toronto for commerce?... no way it is analogous to Jacksonville being in close proximity and competing with cities like Atlanta,Orlando, Tampa. Sorry, that's just not true. Jacksonville is just one city in a region dominated by other metro areas.

And, we already went through the GDP numbers. Skylines are built by concentration of commerce, not total commerce specifically. There are many examples within the US of smaller cities having more impressive skylines than larger cities due to their locations and concentrations of commercial/institutional/educational activity.

Florida State University is in Tallahassee. There's a small branch campus in Jacksonville, I think... that's probably where you might have gotten the high number... it may have listed all of Florida State's student population, but it's definitely not in Jacksonville.

It's an interesting debate and I acknowledge and respect your ideas, though we disagree on some of the specifics. All in all, good conversation... not always easy to come by on here. For what it's worth, every Canadian city that I've been too is way cooler than Jacksonville.

[Evergrey]

I would have to say Jacksonville takes the cake for "Worst Skyline".

[village person]

Originally Posted by pj3000

Florida State University is in Tallahassee. There's a small branch campus in Jacksonville, I think... that's probably where you might have gotten the high number... it may have listed all of Florida State's student population, but it's definitely not in Jacksonville.

He was right to include Florida State College (different from FSU), which was formerly called Florida Community College at Jacksonville (FCCJ), a junior college that is in the process of reinventing itself as a 4-year. Hence the name change (and yes, it has a ton of students but still operates mostly like a junior college at this point, so.... its inclusion is debatable.)

[initiald]

A couple of photos I snapped of Jacksonville from I-95:

[pj3000]

^ Those actually look pretty good, in my opinion.

While I definitely don't think Jacksonville's skyline is terribly impressive, it does have a 600 footer and a 500 footer and a few 400 footers... not too bad, really. I think that most cities would love to have the 600 ft tall pyramidal Barnett Bank bldg (or whatever its called now) in their downtown. Hard for me to call it the "worst".

[pj3000]

Originally Posted by village person

He was right to include Florida State College (different from FSU), which was formerly called Florida Community College at Jacksonville (FCCJ), a junior college that is in the process of reinventing itself as a 4-year. Hence the name change (and yes, it has a ton of students but still operates mostly like a junior college at this point, so.... its inclusion is debatable.)

Didn't realize that. I've always known it as Florida CC, must have changed its name like Miami Dade College did. And didn't realize it had so many students... lots of technical training I assume. Thanks for the info!

[village person]

^^Now if the BofA Tower had had trees up in the rectangular indentations at the top, and on the floor above them a lit-up sign reading "Barnett Bank" as originally planned in the 1980s, then it would be pretty friggin awful! I really don't know if those were ideas of Helmut Jahn himself or things the bank wanted and he talked them out of. Would be interesting to know the history there.

[Lakelander]

Here are some more Jacksonville skyline images:







For a metro with 1.3 million residents, I'd say its on par with those of similar size (ex. Hartford, Louisville, Memphis, Birmingham, Nashville, etc.).

[urbanlife]

Jacksonville has a pretty impressive skyline, it just doesnt look like it when you get that waterfront shot of the city because it is hiding all its older urban buildings behind it. Which we can really see more of in those non-waterfront shots.

If I was forced to live in Florida, Jacksonville would be about the most I could handle...plus I at least know a few people in Jacksonville.

[Phil McAvity]

I don't understand why Jax keeps getting mentioned in this thread since I can think of numerous cities with worse skylines.

[Crawford]

Ciudad Juarez has the worst skyline I can think of. There is none.

2 million people and I don't think there's a building of even 12 floors.

[BrandonJXN]

If Jacksonville didn't have that ugly ass Modis Building, then it would have a nice skyline.

[northbay]

Originally Posted by ThreeHundred

If Jacksonville didn't have that ugly ass Modis Building, then it would have a nice skyline.

naw, just reclad it. either way, jacksonvilles isnt too bad. ive seen it in person many times

[initiald]

Originally Posted by Lakelander

For a metro with 1.3 million residents, I'd say its on par with those of similar size (ex. Hartford, Louisville, Memphis, Birmingham, Nashville, etc.).

Finally, an image that shows both halves of the skyline. I think the problem is too many people think Jacksonville is bigger than it really is due to the city and county being merged or whatever. Technically, I think Jax has a larger city limit population than Miami, but in reality it is close to Birmingham or Nashville.

[Wheelingman04]

In no order: any florida city except Miami and Jacksonville, Raleigh, Sacramento, Salt Lake City, LA(for the metro's size) Phoenix, Albuquerque, Las Vegas (so fake). Indianapolis (small compared to Columbus), Norfolk, Greensboro, DC(I hate the rules) Baltimore(too short) Boston for many reasons. The big industrial cities like Detroit and Cleveland have small skylines for their size because of their declines but are still nice.

[Phil McAvity]

Here's another city with an abysmal skyline:



San Jose, California.

Metro population: 7,354,555

[FFLush]

Yeah seriously, I think Jacksonville's skyline is pretty cool with the river splitting it. There are much worse.

[UglymanCometh]

Metro wise, Jacksonville's on par with Grand Rapids-Muskegon-whatever else... as well as Sacramento, Columbus, etc...

Or so I thought. #kanyeshrug

[JoePDX]

I always thought the Portland skyline was pretty underwhelming for a metro area of 2.2 million, but then again its not the Portland style to build tall skyscrapers. The downtown is nice though. Lots of street life and clean. I even thought it was one of the best downtown areas I've ever seen when I first visited here in 1983...now I live here.

[lfc4life]

Originally Posted by Phil McAvity

Don't those 2 million people need doctors, bankers, lawyers and accountants like the rest of us? A lot of people think Phoenix has the worst skyline but at least Phoenix has lots of mid-sized office towers. Las Vegas doesn't even have that.

yes vegas does have those, maybe not manhattan tall but taller than you will find in most european cities of the same size

the clark county regional justice center is 311 feet tall


source:lasvegasmercury.com

wells fargo tower is 280ft

source:flickr.com

bank of america is 250ft, Molasky Corporate Center is 230ft

and of course vegas has a small thing called the strip which of course is invisible

the chase tower would be an average sized tower on the strip