Cities whose skylines make you cry

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by pj3000

I think John Hancock tower was already there before Sears though, wasn’t it? (I thought JH was built in the 60s). And the Standard Oil tower was built right around the same time as Sears, I think.

Just mentioning this because I don’t think Chicago was quite as tiny in comparison at the time?

JHC - 1969
Aon - 1973
Sears - 1974

so chicago's big early supertalls all went up in more or less in the same era, but they were also all just shy of a mile away from each other, so each one utterly dominated it's particular sub-section of the skyline when they were first built. at that time:

JHC was ~540' taller than anything within a half mile radius of it.

aon center was ~500' taller than anything within a half mile radius of it.

sears was ~600' taller than anything within a half mile radius of it.


so these 3 together, not only dramatically raised chicago's ceiling to heights never seen anywhere outside of manhattan, but they also really stretched the skyline out because they were all so far away from each other.

it would take the building boom of the late '80s to finally scale these massive towers back into the skyline when each of them sprouted 875'-1,000' neighbors (franklin center, 2 pru, 311 S wacker, and 900 N michigan)

pics of chicago's "big 3" back in their days of total domination:


source: https://chuckmanchicagonostalgia.wor...-photographer/


source: https://hiveminer.com/Tags/chicago%2Coil/Recent


source: https://www.som.com/projects/willis_...al_engineering

[Boisebro]

in Christmas Vacation, the scene where the Griswolds went on a journey to get their Christmas tree (presumably north to Wisconsin) was filmed in Colorado.

because Colorado, Wisconsin, same thing.

yeah.

[Buckeye Native 001]

You can see mountains in the distance in those opening scenes.

[Steely Dan]

hey now, wisconsin has mountains too.

i present to you wisconsin's magnificent Rib "Mountain" with all of its 750' of vertical glory!


source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rib_Mountain

[Buckeye Native 001]

So...a hill?

I tell you what: The design of that office campus makes me cry.

[Boisebro]

general rule of thumb: if the tower on the mountain is taller than the mountain, the mountain ain't a mountain.

I lived in northern Wisconsin for 17 years and made the trip south to Wausau a hundred times, but never skied Rib Mountain. instead, we'd head north and ski the Porkies or Whitecap to catch that balls-on-ice cold lake effect snow off Superior.

good times.

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by Buckeye Native 001

So...a hill?

of course, but here in the flatlands of the midwest, we feel the need to elevate such otherwise anonymous and forgettable landscape features to the status of "mountain".

i'm not joking, people in wisconsin really do call that modest little lump of granite in north central wisconsin pictured above a "mountain".

one of the more hilarious aspects about this region of the midwest is that illinois is somehow way more unrelentingly flat than even wisconsin, so among other pejoratives that the sconies like to hurl at us illinoisians (like the more well-known "FIB"), those silly cheeseheads actually have the gall to also refer to us as "flatlanders", as though they were living in the swiss fucking alps or something.

[Sun Belt]

Originally Posted by pj3000

Got it. I never really thought about that. Going to have to waste some time checking out old Sears tower pics now

My phone's wallpaper is a pic I took from the observation deck at sunset.

It is somewhat strange in that it's on the western edge of the Loop. Looking west is largely unobstructed and flat, offering great views of the Chicago street grid slowly illuminating as dusk settled in.

[Sun Belt]

Originally Posted by LosAngelesSportsFan

They always used long Beach for Miami too in dexter..

I think it worked well.

[lio45]

Originally Posted by iheartthed

Thanks for clarifying what you meant by LSD because my mind was in a totally different place. I was thinking... Of course that would be a scenic drive.

You won't see much of anything in Manhattan. Queens has a few good vantage points, such as Northern Boulevard, or the Triborough Bridge. Also, the BQE near the Brooklyn/Queens border, around the Koscziusko Bridge, are some of the views of the skyline to be had by car while in NYC. The better views of Manhattan are from the NJ side, though.

lol!

"When you take LSD... you're in for a ride you won't forget!"

"By which I mean: Lake Shore Drive south from Montrose Harbor at night to McCormick Place convention center, is a pretty exceptional and unforgettable drive!"

[iheartthed]

Originally Posted by edale

Not seeing it, unless I'm looking in the wrong parts of Flatbush Ave, or there are intact, commercially vibrant radial avenues in Detroit that I'm not aware of. Both could easily be true. But from my experience, Detroit's avenues are much wider than Flatbush, and there are basically no intact commercial districts remaining, let alone approaching the density and scale of Flatbush. I'd love to see some streetview links of these corridors if they do exist!

True, a lot has been lost, and Detroit's radials are a bit wider than Flatbush. But to satisfy the comparison, here's one example of some similarity between Brooklyn and one of the secondary arteries in Detroit:

Brooklyn: https://goo.gl/maps/k2VQwZTcxBWc8kg37
Detroit: https://goo.gl/maps/KDbGAStgC1BspVKr6

The way Flatbush traverses Brooklyn at an angle below Avenue D feels very similar to how Grand River on the west side, or Gratiot on the east side, traverse Detroit. The angles create similar architectural qualities. But it also helps to be able to recall when most of it wasn't abandoned.

I can recall when this intersection was still a fully occupied cluster of urban shopping that catered to the inner city:

https://goo.gl/maps/WrkRzMjvwFtnDvvv7

The new Target in Flatbush reminds me of the old Mammoth department store (on the left) from the above, particularly because of the wedge shape of the building:

https://goo.gl/maps/rJU4GG1PAs55bh8B6

[Crawford]

Originally Posted by iheartthed

True, a lot has been lost, and Detroit's radials are a bit wider than Flatbush. But to satisfy the comparison, here's one example of some similarity between Brooklyn and one of the secondary arteries in Detroit:

Brooklyn: https://goo.gl/maps/k2VQwZTcxBWc8kg37
Detroit: https://goo.gl/maps/KDbGAStgC1BspVKr6

This is a pretty tortured comparison. Vernor (Detroit's only immigrant retail corridor) is, by far, the most vibrant, pedestrian oriented neighborhood retail stretch in Detroit (which isn't saying much; it's still not really walkable) and you're taking basically the most autocentric, craptastic portion of Flatbush and saying they're vaguely similar. Yeah, the best neighborhood retail block in Detroit is vaguely similar to the worst in Brooklyn.

I'm sure back in 1940, when the trolleys were still running, and Detroit arterials hadn't all been widened to ridiculous capacity, and neighborhood retail was booming, there were some similarities. Southern Brooklyn arterials like Flatbush and Nostrand weren't that functionally different, back then.

But in 2019, typical Flatbush Ave. looks like this:
https://www.google.com/maps/@40.6568...7i16384!8i8192

And typical Grand River Ave. looks like this:
https://www.google.com/maps/@42.3656...7i16384!8i8192

And I'm not sure that Grand River-Greenfield ever looked like anything in Brooklyn, unless you're talking around Kings Plaza, in deepest southern Brooklyn. Grand River-Greenfield, back in its heyday, was built around the automobile, with surface lots in the back, like the major LA arterials. Brooklyn arterials were built around transit. That Target retail center on Flatbush sits on top of a subway station.

[the urban politician]

^ Yeah really, not sure how anyone can compare Detroit to Brooklyn

[Chisouthside]

joseph campau av in hamtramck is probably a closer comparison to flatbush

[iheartthed]

Originally Posted by Crawford

This is a pretty tortured comparison. Vernor (Detroit's only immigrant retail corridor) is, by far, the most vibrant, pedestrian oriented neighborhood retail stretch in Detroit (which isn't saying much; it's still not really walkable) and you're taking basically the most autocentric, craptastic portion of Flatbush and saying they're vaguely similar. Yeah, the best neighborhood retail block in Detroit is vaguely similar to the worst in Brooklyn.

I'm sure back in 1940, when the trolleys were still running, and Detroit arterials hadn't all been widened to ridiculous capacity, and neighborhood retail was booming, there were some similarities. Southern Brooklyn arterials like Flatbush and Nostrand weren't that functionally different, back then.

But in 2019, typical Flatbush Ave. looks like this:
https://www.google.com/maps/@40.6568...7i16384!8i8192

And typical Grand River Ave. looks like this:
https://www.google.com/maps/@42.3656...7i16384!8i8192

And I'm not sure that Grand River-Greenfield ever looked like anything in Brooklyn, unless you're talking around Kings Plaza, in deepest southern Brooklyn. Grand River-Greenfield, back in its heyday, was built around the automobile, with surface lots in the back, like the major LA arterials. Brooklyn arterials were built around transit. That Target retail center on Flatbush sits on top of a subway station.

We're talking about if you could plausibly create a movie set of the streetscape in Detroit to resemble Brooklyn. Nobody is saying that Detroit has subway stations and an abundance of rowhouses.

[JAYNYC]

Originally Posted by iheartthed

But to satisfy the comparison, here's one example of some similarity between Brooklyn and one of the secondary arteries in Detroit:

Brooklyn: https://goo.gl/maps/k2VQwZTcxBWc8kg37
Detroit: https://goo.gl/maps/KDbGAStgC1BspVKr6

Yeah, not seeing that.

[Crawford]

Originally Posted by Chisouthside

joseph campau av in hamtramck is probably a closer comparison to flatbush

Yeah, that's a good call. Still not really like a Brooklyn arterial, and not in Detroit proper, but Joseph Campau is probably the best example of an ungentrified, intact, walkable Detroit urban retail strip. It's kind of depressing but still functional and semi-vibrant.

https://www.google.com/maps/@42.3973...7i16384!8i8192

Also, West Warren, in East Dearborn, is a very vibrant/busy immigrant strip, but too auto-oriented.

[dave8721]

Originally Posted by Sun Belt

I think it worked well.

Long Beach and Miami have similar styled buildings, street lay out, typologies etc. Probably a good reason that it was used for Dexter and CSI Miami. The giveaway is the vegetation (which I guess only Florida natives would recognize). The palm trees look totally different as does most of the foliage.

Long Beach:
https://www.google.com/maps/@33.7651...7i16384!8i8192

Miami Beach:
https://www.google.com/maps/@25.7844...7i16384!8i8192

[Zapatan]

Good tears:

Chicago, NYC

Bad tears:

Phoenix

[Sun Belt]

Has anybody been to the new Drive Thru Starbucks on on Flatbush in Brooklyn? Notice the line of cars in the drive-thru.
https://goo.gl/maps/syR5fbmLadp2FYiz6