Will Philly's skyline ever catch up to Chicago or NYC? (Philadelphia: best city, neighborhoods)

[bryson662001]

I don't know why this very silly thread was brought back but it doesn't take a scientist to know that anything that affects Philly's rate of growth will affect NY and Chi as much or more so short of a plague or some other unexpected disaster hitting either of those two cities Philadelphia will never "catch up". The good news is that they have both reached a slow growth period so Philly won't fall further behind them. All three cities have to look out for Dallas and Houston, maybe Miami and Atlanta.

[UDResident]

Originally Posted by bryson662001

I don't know why this very silly thread was brought back but it doesn't take a scientist to know that anything that affects Philly's rate of growth will affect NY and Chi as much or more so short of a plague or some other unexpected disaster hitting either of those two cities Philadelphia will never "catch up". The good news is that they have both reached a slow growth period so Philly won't fall further behind them. All three cities have to look out for Dallas and Houston, maybe Miami and Atlanta.

The only reason Dallas and Houston aren't so far in the rearview that Philadelphia can't even see them is because Philadelphia declined for as long as it did. Even if they build as many tall buildings as they can, they are still the antithesis of urban and thus they won't be able to build anywhere near as many as Philadelphia can unless the same trends as those of the latter half of the 20th Century happened again.

Miami though will probably be sort of like Vancouver on the Florida coast.

[john_starks]

Originally Posted by BillyJacc

What building is that and what street is it located on?

the pic was a rendering close to northern liberties i believe. i think it was planned for the general location of the old trump tower near the waterfront square..here's another rendering. i'm gonna stop now before i cry

[bryson662001]

Originally Posted by UDResident

The only reason Dallas and Houston aren't so far in the rearview that Philadelphia can't even see them is because Philadelphia declined for as long as it did. Even if they build as many tall buildings as they can, they are still the antithesis of urban and thus they won't be able to build anywhere near as many as Philadelphia can unless the same trends as those of the latter half of the 20th Century happened again.

Miami though will probably be sort of like Vancouver on the Florida coast.

Check your facts friend. Sad as it makes me, metro Dallas has already passed Philly and Houston is nipping at our heels..... that's in size. I wouldn't give you a quart of pee for either of those sorry towns but an awful lot of Americans seem to approve of them. As for skylines, Houston has way more tall buildings than Philly, Dallas I don't remember. Go ahead, check it out.

[gwillyfromphilly]

Originally Posted by bryson662001

Check your facts friend. Sad as it makes me, metro Dallas has already passed Philly and Houston is nipping at our heels..... that's in size.

Their metro areas are twice the size of the Philly MSA so it's sort of an apples to oranges comparison. The only reason Houston and Dallas caught up was because the Philly MSA shrunk in land size. It's not really anything to brag about surpassing a fragmented MSA. That would be like someone bragging about beating up a guy who was in handcuffs.

[UDResident]

Originally Posted by john_starks

the pic was a rendering close to northern liberties i believe. i think it was planned for the general location of the old trump tower near the waterfront square..here's another rendering. i'm gonna stop now before i cry

Oh my fault. I thought it was Bridgeman's. I personally liked Trump Tower, too. I'd rather they finished Waterfront Square though.

Originally Posted by bryson662001

Check your facts friend. Sad as it makes me, metro Dallas has already passed Philly and Houston is nipping at our heels..... that's in size. I wouldn't give you a quart of pee for either of those sorry towns but an awful lot of Americans seem to approve of them. As for skylines, Houston has way more tall buildings than Philly, Dallas I don't remember. Go ahead, check it out.

What gwillyfromphilly said. But also, this is about skylines. Dallas and Houston are not even remotely urban enough to promote that kind of skyline growth. People don't move to either for urban living unless they lived in some other non-urban place before. Houston maybe could become urban like that again because it's an older, Gulf city but Dallas? No way.

Originally Posted by gwillyfromphilly

Their metro areas are twice the size of the Philly MSA so it's sort of an apples to oranges comparison. The only reason Houston and Dallas caught up was because the Philly MSA shrunk in land size. It's not really anything to brag about surpassing a fragmented MSA. That would be like someone bragging about beating up a guy who was in handcuffs.

Exactly. Not to mention that both just keep annexing land to their cities, and even the surrounding "cities" do it too.

[PacoMartin]

Originally Posted by escilade18

It is not impossible, but it would likely take a huge boom in Philly to catch up to Chicago or NYC. I say that Philly is ahead of Houston and Miami, and could pull ahead of San Francisco with a few more super tall sky scrapers.

Just looking at number of buildings over 600' in cities, it looks like Philadelphia is well down the list

New York City (US) 96
Chicago (US) 44
Houston (US) 18
Los Angeles (US) 14
Atlanta (US) 11
Dallas (US) 11
Miami (US) 10
Las Vegas (US) 7
San Francisco (US) 7
Philadelphia (US) 6
Seattle (US) 6
Boston (US) 5
Pittsburgh (US) 5
Charlotte (US) 4
Denver (US) 4
Minneapolis (US) 4
Cleveland (US) 3
Detroit (US) 2
New Orleans (US) 2
Tulsa (US) 2
Atlantic City (US) 1
Austin (US) 1
Cincinnati (US) 1
Columbus (US) 1
Des Moines (US) 1
Indianapolis (US) 1
Jacksonville (US) 1
Jersey City (US) 1
Kansas City (US) 1
Milwaukee (US) 1
Mobile (US) 1
Nashville (US) 1
Oklahoma City (US) 1
Omaha (US) 1

San Francisco built it's most iconic building in 1972
1969 555 California Street
1972 Transamerica Pyramid
1982 101 California Street
1985 50 Fremont Center
1986 345 California Center
2008 One Rincon Hill South Tower
2009 Millennium Tower

Philadelphia built it's skyline in a four year period
1987 One Liberty Place
1990 Two Liberty Place
1990 Mellon Bank Center
1990 G. Fred DiBona Jr. Building
1991 Three Logan
2008 Comcast Center

So, yes one spectacular building in Philadelphia could put them on par with San Francisco. They could span the Schuylkill River at 100 yards wide. Then you could get people downtown with easy access to 30th street station.

While Houston is 3rd on their list, most of the buildings are old.
1963 606'
1970 714'
1974 741'
1978 678
1980 756
1980 685
1982 1,002
1982 901
1982 725
1983 992
1983 780
1983 691
1984 732
1984 662
1984 625
1987 762
2002 600
2011 632

[PacoMartin]

The rate at which we are building tallish buildings (over 600') has not changed much in the last 50 years. That is in marked contrast to Asia and the Middle East which is building tall structures in an unbelievable race.

18 1909-1933
12 1954-966
50 1967-1976
54 1977-1986
59 1987-1996
82 1997-present

[UDResident]

San Francisco's skyline is unbelievably overrated. TransAmerica belongs in Japan. There are no spectacular buildings in San Francisco. Philadelphia, on the the other hand, has buildings like the Leows, PNB, Divine Lorraine, the Drake, City Hall, the Beury building... I mean really, you're trying to compete with that? Good luck.

Actually, Philadelphia built its skyline over its history. It only built the ones most people (who have never actually been to the city) see in skyline pictures within a four year period. There are many skyscrapers in the city that don't show up in the typical Philadelphia skyline pictures. They've built multiple ones within the past year alone. They're building a 300+ ft residence hall at Temple University, are building a 300+ ft condo tower at 2116 Chestnut St, a Penn Medicine addition on top of a parking garage that puts the total height at about 265', as well as the conversion of the tiny AAA building into a 200+ ft tall apartment building just to name a few. There's also Waterfront Square and the other condo buildings on the Delaware River, 1706 Rittenhouse, and plenty more.

List of tallest buildings in Philadelphia - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The people at skyscraperpage (looking at you, summersm) need to get on it and update this list to at least the 50 tallest buildings in the city. Cutting it off at 400' tall really makes it seem like the city has many less skyscrapers than it actually does.

[foo cities]

The skyline of Philly looks puny from several directions: North and East. Not a fat chance until 2100.