Best North American Skylines - Ranked

D

DZH22

Superstar
Joined
Nov 13, 2006
Messages
11,612
Reaction score
28,795
For those of you who have an interest in skylines outside of Boston, here is my list I came up with for the best North American skylines, reposted from Skyscrapercity:
https://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=149124563&postcount=9628

It looks like it ends up being my Top 86.....


Here is my mid 2018 semi-comprehensive ranking. I am going to break it into tiers, and cities within the same tier will be alphabetized. Criteria considered included height, density, variety, mass, quality/design, and layout/organicness. This is current and not reflective of future potential/expectations. Suburbs are not included in the list.

Tier 1A: No peer, widening lead
NYC

Tier 1B: Huge with multiple massive supertalls
Chicago

Tier 1C: Clear #3 but lacks Chicago's firepower at the top
Toronto


Tier 2A: Biggest, tallest of the rest, have that wow factor
Houston
Los Angeles
Panama City
Philadelphia
San Francisco
Seattle

Tier 2B: Big city skyline, expansive
Atlanta
Boston
Calgary
Dallas
Mexico City
Miami
Montreal


Tier 3A: Best of the rest, most "complete" skylines remaining
Denver
Detroit
Minneapolis
Pittsburgh
Vancouver

Tier 3B: Very strong in certain areas
Charlotte
Cleveland
Kansas City
Las Vegas
New Orleans

Tier 3C: Good mid sized city skylines
Austin
Baltimore
Cincinnati
Columbus
Edmonton
Honolulu
Indianapolis
San Diego
St. Louis


Tier 4A: Got something, but missing something
Atlantic City
Guadalajara
Milwaukee
Monterrey
Nashville
Oklahoma City
Tampa
Tulsa

Tier 4B: Still substantial enough
Fort Worth
Hartford
Jacksonville
Louisville
Phoenix
Portland (OR)

Tier 4C: ...........
Albany
Buffalo
Des Moines
Little Rock
Niagara Falls
Omaha
Richmond
Saint Paul
San Antonio


Tier 5A: ...........
Hamilton
Memphis
Oakland
Raleigh
Salt Lake City
Washington DC (including Arlington + Beltline)
Winnipeg

Tier 5B: ...........
Corpus Christi
Dayton
Grand Rapids
Halifax
Orlando
Ottawa
Providence
Quebec
Rochester (NY)
Sacramento
Toledo
Winston Salem

Tier 5C: ...........
Baton Rouge
Fort Wayne
Greensboro
London (Canada)
New Haven
San Jose
Shreveport
Springfield (MA)
Virginia Beach

If I'm missing anything or you disagree with my list, please let me know with as many expletives as possible.

Most likely to take the next step over the next few years:
Mexico City and Miami from 2B to 2A
Austin from 3C all the way to 3A
Edmonton from 3C to 3B
Guadalajara, Monterrey, and Nashville from 4A to 3C
 
Nicely done.

Miami is ranked too low.

Stop after 4b include Albany in 4b.
 
Id put Miami and Atlanta in 2a and Seattle in 2b but to each their own. Good you added Panama city not many know how great that skyline is. LA as non expansive as it is I think punches way outside its weight class because even though its not a huge cluster the buildings are all very tall. Also the hills surrounding the city make it very visible from all around so its a very dramatic skyline. I agree with 2a just saying normally itd be even lower without this.
 
I think DC can be categorized as 4B (maybe even 4A). Tysons is starting to look pretty impressive with the new Capital One tower and some nice residential highrises. It is a bit suburban/spread out still but the new buildings are actually quite nice. Rosslyn, Arlington just opened a new tallest in the area. DC itself obviously has the height cap but the uniformly-dense 12-story area is quite big and continues to expand rapidly (NoMA, Navy Yard).
 
Hartford is a little too low, Providence is too. Not a huge skyline, but a never the less a gorgeous one (Superman, RI Capitol) Turks Head Building.
 
Currently visiting Houston for the first time since 1987. The skyline is beautiful and diverse. The street level is an utter sadness.

Urbanistically, we don’t know how good we have it.
 
Beton Brut said:
Currently visiting Houston for the first time since 1987. The skyline is beautiful and diverse. The street level is an utter sadness.

Urbanistically, we don’t know how good we have it.
Click to expand...

I have a friend in Dallas who came to Boston recently for business and we went out for a few beers. He was absolutely stunned by the street level. He kept saying he'd never seen another city like this one and that it was spectacular how much activity and interesting architecture would appear around every corner, down every narrow twisting street. Yeah, we definitely do forget to notice sometimes just how great our urban environment is.
 
^ I really want to like it here. The skyline is a bouquet of top flight classic modernism. Philip Johnson’s best PoMo tower (BofA) still looks handsome. There’s good contemporary work from Renzo Piano and Robert A. M. Stern. But the light rail system doesn’t go to either airport. And downtown is abandoned after dark.
 
HenryAlan said:
I have a friend in Dallas who came to Boston recently for business and we went out for a few beers. He was absolutely stunned by the street level. He kept saying he'd never seen another city like this one and that it was spectacular how much activity and interesting architecture would appear around every corner, down every narrow twisting street. Yeah, we definitely do forget to notice sometimes just how great our urban environment is.
Click to expand...

Yes, I had the exact opposite reaction seeing "Downtown Dallas" for the first time. I was expecting it to be dead compared to northeast cities (I think we all understand this to an extent), but was still shocked. It felt post-apocalyptic.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top