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This argument started in another and we were beginning to jack it, so let's just move it here!
It was claimed that cities with larger skylines are more important than those with small skylines. This theory is only applicable towards American cities, and apparently Washington DC and Miami don't count either for some reason.
I started by listing Boston, which doesn't have a huge skyline, versus other cities which have more impressive skylines...so here's a continuation of that argument...
Other cities with larger/more impressive skylines than Boston:
Houston...Boston's equal.
Philadelpiha...Boston is more important
Atlanta...Boston is more important
Dallas...Boston is more important
Seattle...is this even a question?
Minneapolis...same as Seattle
Even with our "weak" skyline, our downtown dwarfs all 6 of those cities in office space. It's not even close. We even have more office space than San Francisco (only by about 1.5m sq ft, but still). Let's take a look, shall we? All info obtained from www.grubb-ellis.com
Atlanta (composed of Midtown, Downtown, & Buckhead): 46,570,472 square feet
Dallas: 36,201,161 sq ft
Seattle: 42,710,776 sq ft
Minneapolis: 37,258,281 sq ft
Philadelphia: 39,788,854 sq ft
Houston: 35,345,454 sq st .... if you include Galleria (a neighborhood 7 miles outside of downtown) in Houston's office space then that increases to 64,863,296
only on city-data is this the case, in some people's minds at least. Skylines are buildings and nothing more. A large skyline can indicate a large, important city but that's not always the case as Boston, LA, and DC show otherwise. To me a skyline is just scenery and doesn't mean a whole lot overall aside from being something nice to look at.
Washington, D.C. comes to mind as a definite example as to the contrary. It depends on the city...like Paris and London...until relatively recently...Moscow too, did not have taller skyscrapers.
San Jose, capital of Silicon Valley and a city of over a million people barely has a skyline to speak of with the tallest building being 286 feet tall. This is because San Jose International is nearby and heights are limited. Without those restrictions, rest assured you would see a skyline in the 600-800 foot range.
First thing that came to my mind is Washington DC. It is one of the most important cities in the world yet has no tall buildings. It is a very urban, large and "real" city yet does not have large buildings. Sure Atlanta and Houston have big buildings but DC is a much more important and urban place then those two cities combined.
Of course many cities with large skylines are important big cities too like NYC, Hong Kong, Miami, Sao Paulo, Chicago, Dubai but there are plenty of cities that have no sky lines that are more important and larger then Miami or Dubai.
but your data for Houston is questionable?
Im guessing thats only Downtown, but does it include the TMC, and if you add Uptown then Boston no longer dwarfs it.
I do not think they determine how important a city is but they are a major factor on how the city looks. Just compare El Paso Texas to Denver Colorado. Both large cities but Denver has a great skyline and El Paso does not.
First thing that came to my mind is Washington DC. It is one of the most important cities in the world yet has no tall buildings. It is a very urban, large and "real" city yet does not have large buildings. Sure Atlanta and Houston have big buildings but DC is a much more important and urban place then those two cities combined.
Of course many cities with large skylines are important big cities too like NYC, Hong Kong, Miami, Sao Paulo, Chicago, Dubai but there are plenty of cities that have no sky lines that are more important and larger then Miami or Dubai.
Dubai really? They are geting some of the worlds largest and most expensive sky scrapers.
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