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  #101  
Old Posted Dec 31, 2009, 7:13 PM
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Originally Posted by urbanlife View Post
No offense, but it is clear by this statement that you know nothing or very little about Norfolk and Hampton Roads. In most cases, you would be correct that beyond local governments, city boundaries are arbitrary to the overall population in the metro...what is different with Norfolk is that it is a small 250K city in the middle of a metro of 7 cities, all with their own downtown and skyline (well not every one of them.)

Virginia Beach has the tallest building in the state...Portsmouth, Hampton, Norfolk, Virginia Beach, Newport News...they all have at least one skyline in the metro...a couple of those cities have more than two...while at first glance this might not mean much, but you must understand that this is not a typical metro and there are a number of urban centers and skylines within this city...if they were all together, then it would be seen as a much larger city for its size, but Norfolk is not the center of Hampton Roads anymore...heck it is hard to argue where the center of the region is beyond the military bases.
my apologies...you are very right, i know nothing about norfolk at all....thats why i was so surprised to hear its CMA size....i didnt realize it is a different case.....sorry for the rant.

it makes me crazy when i read people on here so often claiming that a city is only 300 000 people when it is in the centre of a city 10 times larger....it even happened earlier in this thread....civic boundaries are meaningless, generally, but i didnt realize that this was a different scenario...thanks for the correction.
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  #102  
Old Posted Dec 31, 2009, 8:28 PM
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I definitely wouldn't call it the worst, but Birmingham's skyline isn't all that impressive...

Though there are one or to spots in the city where it actually looks respectable...


bjmillican


briantmurphy

Now, Huntsville's is completely lame for a city of nearly 200,000 and metro of 400,000.


Tyler P

Though, Big Spring International Park adds a lovely touch. Much like the lake does in Orlando.
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  #103  
Old Posted Dec 31, 2009, 8:28 PM
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wish it would have looked that nice when I was there 2 years ago!!
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  #104  
Old Posted Dec 31, 2009, 8:31 PM
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Birmingham has a very respectable skyline for a metro of ~1.2 million.
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  #105  
Old Posted Dec 31, 2009, 8:55 PM
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Tokyo for sure


http://chiri.xrea.jp

So huge and yet completely unmemorable.
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  #106  
Old Posted Dec 31, 2009, 9:08 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by trueviking View Post
my apologies...you are very right, i know nothing about norfolk at all....thats why i was so surprised to hear its CMA size....i didnt realize it is a different case.....sorry for the rant.

it makes me crazy when i read people on here so often claiming that a city is only 300 000 people when it is in the centre of a city 10 times larger....it even happened earlier in this thread....civic boundaries are meaningless, generally, but i didnt realize that this was a different scenario...thanks for the correction.
no worries, most people are surprised to learn about Hampton Roads, and Virginia for that matter....the state is really screwed up how it runs cities and counties. Once a town is classified as a city, it has to be an independent city from its neighbors, therefore Hampton Roads is a collection of 7 independent cities that all function as if they are the only city in the metro.

This is the same reason why Northern Virginia has some of the highest populations in the state, but does not have a big city, much of that area is all county because small towns and counties can still work together.

I have always found it to be a stupid way of doing things when every other state seems to function in a more normal fashion, like the way you understand metros where the city boundaries are more arbitrary beyond city politics, of course.


I have to agree with you about people talking about city size rather than metro size when trying to talk about a city. There is only very rare cases which this is not the case.
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  #107  
Old Posted Dec 31, 2009, 10:50 PM
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Originally Posted by Alabadrock View Post
I definitely wouldn't call it the worst, but Birmingham's skyline isn't all that impressive...

Though there are one or to spots in the city where it actually looks respectable...


bjmillican


briantmurphy

Now, Huntsville's is completely lame for a city of nearly 200,000 and metro of 400,000.


Tyler P

Though, Big Spring International Park adds a lovely touch. Much like the lake does in Orlando.


Yeah it's a nice downtown i've only been to Orlando once and I was little so don't remeber much about it except Disney World lol
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  #108  
Old Posted Dec 31, 2009, 10:53 PM
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Sorry replied to the wrong person lol
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  #109  
Old Posted Jan 1, 2010, 2:11 AM
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I like Birmingham's skyline...some nice buildings.
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  #110  
Old Posted Jan 1, 2010, 5:13 AM
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Originally Posted by mrnyc View Post
you probably couldnt say corpus christi texas has a bad skyline for 300+k, but it is irrevocably marred by the most hideous prominent tower in all of america's middle rung cities:





well, ok to be fair maybe amarillo's prominent tower is just as bad, but man that brutal corpus omni hotel is a monster.
That's not all of the Corpus skyline

Last edited by PartyLine; Jan 1, 2010 at 5:14 AM. Reason: Spelling
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  #111  
Old Posted Jan 1, 2010, 6:51 AM
ChiMIchael ChiMIchael is offline
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Originally Posted by Pinion View Post
Tokyo for sure


http://chiri.xrea.jp

So huge and yet completely unmemorable.
It isn't very cohesive by any means, but it isn't really different from some other Asian megacities. It's not bad if you zero in on some parts of it.

And I seem to really like Birmingham.
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  #112  
Old Posted Jan 1, 2010, 1:33 PM
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Those Tokyo skyscrapers are the biggest buildings in the world in terms of average floorspace.
Look again and youll see because of the earthquake height limits (about 750ft) they would have been so much taller
-in other words Tokyo would have had the world's tallest skyline if it weren't for the seismic zone.

Note how blocky and wide the major office buildings are, even though theyre still so tall:


http://image.blog.livedoor.jp


If these buildings were in NYC or HK they'd be twice as tall and half as wide,
with several verging on supertall in this shot alone:


http://building-pc.cocolog-nifty.com



Many are split into pseudo-'twin tower' forms (although actually conjoined).





The Ropponggi Hills Tower has almost the same floorspace as the Sears Tower in Chicago, but a fraction of the height:


www.wikimedia.org



http://tokyoyakei.jp


This blocky floorspace optimisation applies to minor highrises too when the height limits lower on more fragile, reclaimed land:


http://tokyoyakei.jp

Last edited by muppet; Jan 3, 2010 at 4:40 PM.
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  #113  
Old Posted Jan 3, 2010, 4:14 AM
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Poor Lubbock (Metro area: 290k but still this strikes me as a small skyline)



Source: Brad Johnson, Businessweek

Interestingly, I got this image from a slideshow of the best cities to ride out a recession (#12).

And nature doesn't help:



Source: www.aawe.org

That's tornado damage in 1970 to the tallest building. The pic doesn't show the blown-out windows.

And internationally, a clear case of quantity over quality.



Sao Paulo, infinite...ly monotonous.

Source: Jurema Oliveira, Wikimedia
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  #114  
Old Posted Jan 3, 2010, 5:15 AM
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Colorado Springs city pop:380,307 metro:617,714
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  #115  
Old Posted Jan 3, 2010, 6:23 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by PartyLine View Post
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/90/ELP_Skyline_New.jpg


How about El Paso it's metro population is 736,310
Oh yes. El Paso is an odd one.

Quote:
Originally Posted by bigcitydude View Post
what do those words on the side of the hill in the background of the El Paso picture say anyway?
That's not a hill, those are mountains. Not very tall, but they are around 5,000 feet above sea level. I believe they're about 2,000 feet higher than the city is.

Quote:
Originally Posted by PartyLine View Post
It all depends on where the photo was taken like this picture doesn't show the new grand Hyatt or the Marriott Riverwalk or Marriott Rivercenter buildings
That photo actually did include the Grand Hyatt. But yeah, the Marriott Rivercenter in that shot is blocked from view by the Weston Centre.

And I wouldn't beat up on San Antonio and Fort Worth too much when you have El Paso to compare them to. I mean, I even think that Corpus Christi has El Paso beat. El Paso, a city of 700,000 (metro) and it doesn't even have a 300 foot building.

Quote:
Originally Posted by vid View Post
It looks very Mid-Eastern. Corpus Christi has a very "un-American" skyline. (Not un-American "you hate liberty", but un-American "that architectural style on that scale is somewhat uncommon in this country".)
Yeah, the Shoreline Plaza Towers are some of the most unique. You either love them or hate them. I love them. I know they aren't the most pedestrian friendly or useful buildings at the street level, but they are a really cool pair of buildings and make for an interesting skyline.
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  #116  
Old Posted Jan 3, 2010, 6:53 AM
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el paso fo sho
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  #117  
Old Posted Jan 3, 2010, 10:56 AM
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Phoenix's size is about as large as LA in area, plus its metro. Phoenix is in an area with lots and lots of flat land to annex which is exactly what it has done; if you look at high aerial shots you can see just how large and spread out it is. This is a city with master planned communities as far as the eye can see, there is little demand for towers and the airport nearby limits the height as well. I really don't think its skyline is that bad considering everything that works against it. We were even going to get close to 700' twins as well as a number of 500' towers before the economy killed all that.
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  #118  
Old Posted Jan 3, 2010, 11:54 AM
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I think Colorado Springs is decent for its size, and also considering Denver is pretty close.
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  #119  
Old Posted Jan 26, 2010, 10:06 PM
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My vote goes to the San Bernardino-Riverside area in Southern California...when you consider this part of the SoCal megalopolis has some 4 million people, yet nary a highrise to be seen. May be part of the contiguous LA urban area, but is a good 40 miles from downtown LA. Honourable mention to Phoenix and Tampa - two large urban areas with skylines that are absolutely underwhelming for cities their size.

Re: Metro vs. city limits - obviously metro is the more accurate measure but in a lot of cases, such as Minneapolis-St. Paul, Hampton Roads, Greensboro-Winston-Salem and Raleigh-Durham etc, these metros have two or more core cities...so of course cities with one large urban centre are going to have better skylines and larger downtowns in a lot of cases, than similar-size metros composed of multiple cities. Speaking of Minneapolis, I think they have a pretty decent skyline when you consider Minneapolis and St. Paul each have sizeable downtown cores to service 3 million people between them.
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  #120  
Old Posted Jan 26, 2010, 10:13 PM
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Originally Posted by PhxPavilion View Post
We were even going to get close to 700' twins as well as a number of 500' towers before the economy killed all that.
Yeah, so were a lot of places.
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