What do you think of Portland's skyline? (Burns: earthquake, living in)

[hamellr]

Originally Posted by urbanlife78

Portland also has much smaller city blocks than Seattle and Vancouver, thus making every building built in the city feel small in nature to limitations of the 200'x200' blocks and our FAR (Floor to Area Ratio) that is allowed for the sizes of the buildings in the city.

There is also fairly shallow bedrock under the entire downtown area that would make it hard to build many buildings larger then what we've already got.

[urbanlife78]

Originally Posted by hamellr

There is also fairly shallow bedrock under the entire downtown area that would make it hard to build many buildings larger then what we've already got.

Yes and no, mostly it would just make it more expensive, which with any building, it is all about the money.

[haggardhouseelf]

Originally Posted by urbanlife78

So what you are saying is that if there wasn't a giant beautiful hill behind the downtown, it would be much easier to draw?

The city I grew up next to, Norfolk, VA has an awesome skyline by that standards, but is puny when you compare it to Portland.

What I'm saying is... as far as interesting looking and predominant man-made structures and unique skyscrapers and so forth go... you just don't see it in Portland, because it's not there. That's all I'm saying. A lot of towns have hills, mountains, etc. Personally I don't think of those things when I think of a city skyline, regardless of the actual definition of the word.

One of the things I do think is great about Portland is that the few tall buildings it does have don't obstruct the view of the mountains in the distance and the river and bridges and all that. In larger cities, with more interesting skyscrapers and structures, you often have to get out of downtown for such views.

[drum bro]

ill never forget when i saw Chicago from a plain

when your up close it doesn't matter, portland doesn't look good from a plain

[EnricoV]

Originally Posted by haggardhouseelf

What I meant by my black and white idea, was to view skylines as a silhouette. I like to draw skylines, and it's hard to draw Portland's skyline because there's so little there. That's all I meant.

Top 15 Skylines of the World That website's criteria for judging a cities skyline sort of sums up my feeling about skylines as well.

It's all pretty subjective. Looking at their top-15 North America skylines ... I can see no reason why some of them are there, and Portland is not. Denver, Pittsburg, Los Angeles, Mexico City, Houston ... nothing distinctive or particularly attractive about any of them.

And some of the international ones as well. Portland doesn't have an majorly iconic feature like the Space Needle or the Eiffel Tower. But while Paris has some great buildings ... it doesn't have a great skyline. All those great buildings are so spread out, and its skyscrapers are all off in the outskirts ... doesn't make for your cohesive skyline. Same goes for London. What does stand out, and has stood out on the graphic images I've seen of the skyline is the KOIN tower, because of it's unique shape.

[beenhereandthere]

Portland has a good skyline, but not great, like Seattle's, or even Vancouver, BC. The skyline is more like Tacoma's, as opposed to Seattle.

[EnricoV]

I'm not crazy about Vancouver's skyline. I'm a touch claustrophobic, and when I look at it, it makes me kind of itchy ... I just imagine all those people packed into such a small area who don't need to be. I mean, I get New York, Seattle, San Francisco have physical constraints that make them build up in a major way, instead of out. But Vancouver doesn't have those.

[hamellr]

Originally Posted by drum bro

ill never forget when i saw Chicago from a plain

when your up close it doesn't matter, portland doesn't look good from a plain

Of course not! Portland is built on the plain, it's hard to see the cities skyline when you're in the middle of it.

[Nexis4Jersey]

Originally Posted by urbanlife78

I am confused by this, we need a bigger skyline, but we don't need taller buildings? You do know our urban districts downtown stretch from SoWa to Lloyd District. In pure size of our medium city, we already use the full amount of our downtown.

Also, Seattle and Vancouver are much bigger than Portland, so I am sure we would have a much more dense skyline if we had more matching populations.

Portland also has much smaller city blocks than Seattle and Vancouver, thus making every building built in the city feel small in nature to limitations of the 200'x200' blocks and our FAR (Floor to Area Ratio) that is allowed for the sizes of the buildings in the city.

Sometimes size in building numbers makes a skyline greater , like Vancouver... If Portland had a Vancouver sized skyline id be happy....

[urbanlife78]

Originally Posted by Nexis4Jersey

Sometimes size in building numbers makes a skyline greater , like Vancouver... If Portland had a Vancouver sized skyline id be happy....

But in Vancouver, most of the buildings are similar in height and have similar design to them, thus making it harder for anything to really stand out in its skyline, like Portland though, it is still a beautiful city.