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  #1  
Old Posted Aug 3, 2020, 11:17 PM
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Steely Dan Steely Dan is offline
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Suburban Sore Thumbs

outside of a few little clumps in places like evanston, schaumburg, and oak park, suburban chicago generally doesn't do highrises.

but we do have a big one that sticks out like a sore thumb on the pancake flat topography of chicagoland's seemingly infinite sprawltopia.

"how did something that tall and expensive get built in the relative middle of nowhere?"


Oak Brook Terrace Tower | 418 FT | 31 FLOORS | 1986

google maps: https://www.google.com/maps/@41.8521.../data=!3m1!1e3


source: https://www.chicagobusiness.com/comm...ands-big-lease






how about your metro, do you have any lonely suburban sore thumb towers?
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Last edited by Steely Dan; Aug 4, 2020 at 5:46 AM.
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Old Posted Aug 3, 2020, 11:23 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Steely Dan View Post
outside of few little clumps in places like evanston, schaumburg, and oak park, suburban chicago generally doesn't do highrises.

but we do have a big one that sticks out like a sore thumb on the pancake flat topography of chicagoland's seemingly infinite sprawltopia.

"how did something that tall and expensive get built in the relative middle of nowhere?"


Oak Brook Terrace tower | 418 FT | 31 FLOORS | 1986

google maps: https://www.google.com/maps/@41.8521.../data=!3m1!1e3


source: https://www.chicagobusiness.com/comm...ands-big-lease






how about your metro, do you have any lonely suburban sore thumb towers?


All that building needs is a moat full of crocodiles and it would be perfect.
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  #3  
Old Posted Aug 3, 2020, 11:36 PM
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great idea for a thread, and I kind of love the Oak Brook tower.
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  #4  
Old Posted Aug 3, 2020, 11:50 PM
Buckeye Native 001 Buckeye Native 001 is offline
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Oral Roberts University near Tulsa, OK has one or two examples, iirc?
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  #5  
Old Posted Aug 4, 2020, 12:30 AM
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The NY area has a couple that I know of, but not many. You can spot some from the NJ Turnpike, like here and here.

Suburban Detroit is littered with them, so it would be a very time consuming to document them all. Most of the towers built in the Detroit area since the 1960s would qualify. I'd be surprised if the Detroit area isn't in the top 3 nationally for count of towers thrown up in random ass places. But here are some examples:

Southfield apartment tower: https://goo.gl/maps/e7JvmGMgGuLF9iUJA

Southfield Town Center: https://goo.gl/maps/sz3UCPvo1s89Fztq5

A sore thumb graveyard in Southfield: https://goo.gl/maps/B7dnz2TtC7c869N47

Two thumbs up in Southfield: https://goo.gl/maps/TmMvNWRAAgu49s186

My favorite suburban Detroit sore thumb is more like a middle finger to urban development: https://goo.gl/maps/b2g2ix4Da7oeFZqE9
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Old Posted Aug 4, 2020, 12:33 AM
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This is within Chicago city limits, but very isolated:

https://www.google.com/maps/@41.6937...7i16384!8i8192

And Wilson Hall must have been more impressive before the suburbs made it out to Fermilab:
https://www.google.com/maps/@41.8408...7i10240!8i5120
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Old Posted Aug 4, 2020, 1:54 AM
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A highrise with surface parking. Jesus christ.
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Old Posted Aug 4, 2020, 1:55 AM
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Most suburban towers in Toronto are in large clusters, but these new towers in Vaughan do have a sore thumb quality for now, although many additional new towers are going up all around the area now, so the sore thumb effect will be short lived.

https://goo.gl/maps/5r6HKgdCGQ83PHwe9
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Old Posted Aug 4, 2020, 2:12 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Buckeye Native 001 View Post
Oral Roberts University near Tulsa, OK has one or two examples, iirc?
Now called Cityplex Towers the tallest is 648 ft tall. Oral Roberts University is in the foreground.



https://tulsaworld.com/lifestyles/or...6132b34fb.html

From across the river you can also see the nearby 28 story River Spirit casino hotel tower


https://tulsaworld.com/archive/flyin...886ab5d6c.html
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Old Posted Aug 4, 2020, 2:16 AM
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^ Excellent example of a "suburban sore thumb".

Orel Roberts University, including the cityplex towers, has some truly strange and magnificent architecture.
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Old Posted Aug 4, 2020, 2:20 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by iheartthed View Post
The NY area has a couple that I know of, but not many. You can spot some from the NJ Turnpike, like here and here.
I've personally never seen those buildings as "sore thumbs". But maybe being used to using the NJ Turnpike, I never saw them as sticking out so much. I expect to see highrises here and there. These are not terribly tall, either. To me, in North Jersey, this building is more of a sore thumb.

I see those buildings you mentioned more as the natural product of "exit-oriented development", like transit-oriented development. Land next to an exit is going to have a high value, necessitating building upward. It reminds me of this development on the edge of Toronto.
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  #12  
Old Posted Aug 4, 2020, 2:42 AM
Buckeye Native 001 Buckeye Native 001 is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Steely Dan View Post
^ Excellent example of a "suburban sore thumb".

Orel Roberts University, including the cityplex towers, has some truly strange and magnificent architecture.
It all kind of looks like the Tomorrowland area of Disneyland to me. Like you said, strange, but fascinating even if I can't stand Roberts' beliefs.
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Old Posted Aug 4, 2020, 2:44 AM
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For the Bay Area, two immediately come to mind:

In Emeryville, est. 2019 population 12,068, there's Pacific Park Plaza, a residential tower of 318 ft. and 30 stories that definitely sticks out like a sore thumb despite a smattering of mid-rises on the nearby bay shore:


source: wikipedia


source: wikipedia

And in Campbell, est. 2019 population 41,793, there's the rather curiously-scaled Pruneyard towers, the tallest of which is 256 ft. tall with 18 stories. The tallest tower in Silicon Valley until 1996, it really stands out in such a suburban environment:


source: wikipedia


source
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Old Posted Aug 4, 2020, 3:08 AM
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This might not count (unless you stretch the definition of suburban Springfield to its max), but if we're doing Oral Roberts...


source

Not as tall, but seriously conspicuous out there in the middle of the Pioneer Valley, Umass Amherst's Du Bois Library always put a smile on my face. 300 feet, 30 stories tall. It was the world's tallest library when it was topped off in 1969. And back when I was there, the word was that Whitey Bulger was hiding out in the top 2 floors, which were mysteriously closed once his brother William Bulger became Umass' President.
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  #15  
Old Posted Aug 4, 2020, 3:18 AM
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https://www.google.com/maps/@34.2295...7i16384!8i8192


These two towers in Oxnard always seemed odd. One is 25 stories maybe?
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  #16  
Old Posted Aug 4, 2020, 3:18 AM
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Blue Hill Plaza - Pearl River, NY.



https://42floors.com/us/ny/pearl-river/1-blue-hill-plz

Sheraton Hotel - Mahwah, NJ


Sheraton Mahwah Hotel by Martin Jones, on Flickr
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  #17  
Old Posted Aug 4, 2020, 5:24 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by LA21st View Post
https://www.google.com/maps/@34.2295...7i16384!8i8192
These two towers in Oxnard always seemed odd. One is 25 stories maybe?
The taller Morgan Stanley building in Oxnard is 300ft, 22 floors. The City National Bank Building is just over 200ft, 14 floors.
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  #18  
Old Posted Aug 4, 2020, 5:38 AM
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For NJ, 2 Tower Center Blvd in East Brunsiwck comes to mind.

Its right off Turnpike exit 9.


Credit: https://njbiz.com/east-brunswicks-tw...-for-60m-plus/


Here's the streetview: https://www.google.com/maps/uv?hl=en...px8wE3oECBMQBg
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  #19  
Old Posted Aug 4, 2020, 7:46 AM
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Old Posted Aug 4, 2020, 10:42 AM
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Nashville's suburban office areas are generally midrise, but there is one building that, although it clocks in at just under 200 feet only, sticks out like a sore thumb as a result. This one does differ from most of these other examples because it's in the small but historic downtown Murfreesboro rather than an office park:

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