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It would be my assessment, and one I'm comfortable relying on, that the skylines people like most are those that abut a body of water.
That water could be ocean, sea, gulf, lake, and it could be a river, too, if that river is wide enough to showcase the skyline. If a river goes through downtown, it could never qualify. Thus the Mississippi, Ohio, Hudson, Delaware, Detroit, and Columbia count. The Los Angeles, Chicago, Trinity, and Schykill don't count.
No city with a watery skyline could be what it is without that body of water. How essential would the following be:
The East and Hudson Rivers and Upper NY Bay to New York
Lake Michigan to Chicago
Lake Erie to Cleveland
Inner Harbor to Baltimore
SF Bay to San Francisco
Delaware River to Philadelphia
All three of Pittsburgh's three rivers
Biscayne Bay to Miami
Puget Sound to Seattle
I have tried my best to include all the skylines that have a "major" identity, being cities that (IMHO) legitimately belong on the list of being those with a legitimate view from across the water. Which one has the best ability to be right up there with the best of the waterfront skylines?
Judgement calls on what was not included: Austin (Lady Bird Lake counts), Washington (capital city is different, DT has height limits and is removed from Potomac)
Possible mistakes on my part for not entering: Oklahoma City, Tulsa, Boise
I'll go with LA and Atlanta as both of their skylines have a nice geographic setting to work with. LA has the mountain backdrop and Atlanta's skyline is set among a dense tree canopy,
Los Angeles. Palm trees framing a skyline with 10K ft snow capped mountains in the background is hard to beat.
there is one classic view, going way, way back of palms in MacArthur Park with the LA skyline behind. (That one has worked for more than half a century)
Nashville (Batman building is just cool)
Dallas
Los Angeles
Phoenix has the backdrop but for such bland buildings.
Salt Lake City will look great if it can get some more buildings.
San Jose and Sacramento are truly pathetic.
Milwaukee is too small but it really helps to have that water. It just makes skylines look so much nicer.
Small...but it is growing. And the growth definitely is to the east on the shores of Lake Michigan (above them actually)...so it is residentially generated to a large degree.
If you like the idea of a major city downtowns looking out on open water, you pretty much have to look at the Great Lakes: Milwaukee, Chicago, Cleveland, and Buffalo. Oceans cannot give you a downtown on the water because such a location would be subject to waves and other ocean disturbances. Oceanfront give you no shelter. And no US city really has a downtown on the ocean. If you take the ones were the city itself is on the coast, the downtown isn't: downtown (and obviouiously midwest) Manhattan is far removed from the ocean. Boston looks out on sheltered Mass Bay whose islands also cut the city off from open waters. Miami is on Biscayne Bay, San Diego has the shelter of its bay and the narrow strand to its west for protection, downtown SF is on the northeast side of the city, located on the bay and away from the Pacific.
So to me, the Great Lakes cities offer the best of open water. And two of these cities stand out: obviously Chicago, but Milwaukee counts as well: both neighboring cities, the Lake Michigan pair, have their downtown areas pretty much given over to pleasure purposes....beach, park, marina, cultural attractions and the like. Sure, there are parts of Cleveland and Buffalo that have nice Lake Erie frontage, but too many areas are not the inviting zones that Chgo and Mile have.
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