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The answer is not any city in Missouri. The Arch still remains the tallest accessible structure in the entire state at 630ft. That being said, St. Louis' skyline is more impressive than most people realize. The traditional shot looking directly west at the Arch from the river and/or East St. Louis doesn't show much of the actual skyline at all since the skyline travels along a line westward throughout the central corridor of the city rather than going north/south along the river. These two aerials put it into better perspective:
I would not claim "it blows Pittsburgh out of the water." Baltimore's tallest high rises are a few hundred feet shorter than Pittsburgh's skyline.
As for Detroit, it is a bit too spread out and for a metro of 4.3 million people, it should have a skyline double Pittsburgh's, but it doesn't.
As of 2019 Baltimore has 30 completed buildings over +300’ (Emporis is missing some) and has another 3 that are within 20’ of that number and a 290’ apartment building currently U/C. I never said it blows Pittsburg out the water, I merely stated it currently has more high-rises/skyscrapers.
Baring Detroit & Pittsburg, Baltimore has the largest skyline in the thread by almost every metric
Detroit is undergoing a slow but steady revitalization and there throwing up a +900’ building sooo, this thread will soon have the hatchet buried
I agree with this. Pittsburgh wins on beauty. Indianapolis, Detroit, Cleveland, and St. Louis are lacklusters. Mikwaukee, Louisville, Cincinnati are ok. St. Louis is the worst in this group.
How Is St Louis the Worst of the group, It Gets Majjjor Points for having the Arch. In fact it's Probably the Most Iconic of the Group
Everybody's jumping on the Pittsburgh Bandwagon and totally discounting the other Cities
I believe Cleveland has a very Stately Skyline ( legacy of it's Hey Day)
Milwaukee's Skyline is on the Same Lake as Chicago's
Baltimore has the Potential to build a very Impressive Skyline with the Inner Harbor Included
St Louis' Skyline is Iconic
Louisville Columbus and Indianapolis don't really have a "Image" for their downtowns...When I think of Downtown Columbus, for example, my mind draws a blank
How Is St Louis the Worst of the group, It Gets Majjjor Points for having the Arch. In fact it's Probably the Most Iconic of the Group
The arch is beautiful, but St Louis has very few traditional high rises beyond a core 12-13 or so downtown. For a city that had such a huge city population in the 1950s (and of course has suffered major city population drain since) of over 900,000 +, you would have thought St Louis would have had a taller and denser downtown.
But there are just those 12-13 significant tall buildings downtown, with maybe 1 or 2 under construction. Underwhelming, despite the arch.
The arch is beautiful, but St Louis has very few traditional high rises beyond a core 12-13 or so downtown. For a city that had such a huge city population in the 1950s (and of course has suffered major city population drain since) of over 900,000 +, you would have thought St Louis would have had a taller and denser downtown.
But there are just those 12-13 significant tall buildings downtown, with maybe 1 or 2 under construction. Underwhelming, despite the arch.
If you look at most cities, even Rust Belt cities they build most of their highrises in the 70s-90s even as their city populations were decreasing, save Detroit which a lot of their core of their skyline was 1920s/1930s.
The arch is beautiful, but St Louis has very few traditional high rises beyond a core 12-13 or so downtown. For a city that had such a huge city population in the 1950s (and of course has suffered major city population drain since) of over 900,000 +, you would have thought St Louis would have had a taller and denser downtown.
But there are just those 12-13 significant tall buildings downtown, with maybe 1 or 2 under construction. Underwhelming, despite the arch.
St. Louis never hit 900,000. It peaked at just under 857,000 in 1950. Oddly enough, St. Louis also never ended up with a proper mass transit network beyond streetcars. The closest it's ever come is the modern MetroLink lightrail.
That aside, of the 15 structures 300ft or higher in the city proper, 11 of them were built post-1960.
What hurt St. Louis so much going forward was the focus on the rest of the central corridor and Clayton. This pulled midrise infill outside of downtown St. Louis. Downtown Clayton, for example, currently has 4 completed 300ft or higher buildings, with The Plaza topping out at 409ft. There's also multiple 20+ story buildings currently under construction there.
Downtown St. Louis is finally starting to see its day though. One Cardinal Way, for example, is expected to be 320ft and is currently under construction. The trouble is, until recently, the focus was on rehabbing the existing rather than building new.
Downtown St. Louis is finally starting to see its day though. One Cardinal Way, for example, is expected to be 320ft and is currently under construction. The trouble is, until recently, the focus was on rehabbing the existing rather than building new.
IMO that's actually great news. A city with a bunch of new modern buildings mixed in with a bunch of older neglected ones would be awkward. I think Detroit is going through a similar renaissance, but is starting to see a fair amount of new construction as suburban firms are heading back toward downtown. It's got several suburbs with high rises, but none of them are to the CBD level that Clayton is, so it doesn't have to compete with them as much for that type of infill. At one point Detroit had a half a dozen 400ft high rises that were empty. They have all been repurposed. It's my understanding that St. Louis even with its decline has not experienced blight to the level of Detroit. My guess is that it's strengths are more at street level.
I absolutely love Pittsburgh's skyline. The rivers than meet, the beautiful downtown park, and the buildings set that area so nicely!
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