Better skyline Houston or Dallas? (Austin, Cleveland: real estate, condominiums, vs.)

[atxcio]

Originally Posted by Angel713

Houston has a building right now under construction that is 650 feet tall.

That's good. What's it called an when is it supposed to be done?

[Trae713]

Originally Posted by atxcio

That's good. What's it called an when is it supposed to be done?

It's called MainPlace and is suppose to be complete next year I think. It's on the Red Line along Main Street.

[atxcio]

Originally Posted by Angel713

It's called MainPlace and is suppose to be complete next year I think. It's on the Red Line along Main Street.

Ok, I did know about that one - very nice looking tower. I think it's about 630 ft though. I wish they'd add about 100 ft to get it up there with some of the older downtown towers!

[()_T]

Originally Posted by atxcio

Ok, I did know about that one - very nice looking tower. I think it's about 630 ft though. I wish they'd add about 100 ft to get it up there with some of the older downtown towers!

Correct. 630ft to be exact.

[Metro Matt]

Originally Posted by atxcio

I agree. It's not like we're talking NYC and Chicago here... Houston and Dallas are very similar when compared to cities across the U.S... Dallas' skyline looks better at night, Houston's is taller and looks better during the day. That's all there is to it, really. I'd say comparing Dallas to Houston is like comparing one neighborhood in Chicago to another one, but that isn't fair to Chicago... Neither Dallas nor Houston has even built a building taller than 650ft in over 20 years!! It's just a matter of which 80's skyline you like better.

Ummm...actually there is a rather significant difference in the skylines of Houston & Dallas that could be like comparing NYC to Chicago. Houston's 4th tallest skyscraper Williams Tower in the Uptown/Galleria area is almost the same height as downtown Dallas' tallest Bank of America. Houston also has the 3rd tallest US skyline after Chicago. Dallas is somewhere down the list at number 8 or below.

Top 5 tallest buildings in Houston:

1. JP Morgan Chase Tower - 1,002 ft.
2. One Shell Plaza - 1,000 ft.
3. Wells Fargo Plaza - 992 ft.
4. Williams Tower - 901 ft.
5. Bank of America Center - 780 ft.

Top 5 tallest buildings in Dallas:

1. Bank of America Plaza - 921 ft.
2. Renaissance Tower - 886 ft.
3. Comerica Bank Tower - 787 ft.
4. JP Morgan Chase Tower - 738 ft.
5. Fountain Place - 720 ft.

[atxcio]

Originally Posted by Metro Matt

Ummm...actually there is a rather significant difference in the skylines of Houston & Dallas that could be like comparing NYC to Chicago. Houston's 4th tallest skyscraper Williams Tower in the Uptown/Galleria area is almost the same height as downtown Dallas' tallest Bank of America. Houston also has the 3rd tallest US skyline after Chicago. Dallas is somewhere down the list at number 8 or below.

I have to respectfully disagree. Even by your own lists, the difference between the tallest and 4-5th tallest in each city is a mere 60-80ft. In office tower terms, that's probably not even 4-5 floors difference. Not noticeable to the average viewer.

Furthermore, none of the top 5 in either city is less than 20 years old. In the meantime, how many 650 ft+ towers have been constructed in Chicago and NYC? And not just those cities -- Vegas, Charlotte, Philly, Nashville, Cleveland -- all have built taller towers in the past two decades while Dallas and Houston have built NONE.

It just serves to point out how silly this thread really is, as Synopsis pointed out... but hey, it's smackdown, so --

commence the jigglin'

[Metro Matt]

Originally Posted by atxcio

I have to respectfully disagree. Even by your own lists, the difference between the tallest and 4-5th tallest in each city is a mere 60-80ft. In office tower terms, that's probably not even 4-5 floors difference. Not noticeable to the average viewer.

60-80 ft. is a noticable difference between tall buildings. Almost any non-skyscraper fanatic who has been to both Dallas & Houston could tell you which skyline is superior. 90% of the time you'll hear Houston.

Originally Posted by atxcio

Furthermore, none of the top 5 in either city is less than 20 years old. In the meantime, how many 650 ft+ towers have been constructed in Chicago and NYC? And not just those cities -- Vegas, Charlotte, Philly, Nashville, Cleveland -- all have built taller towers in the past two decades while Dallas and Houston have built NONE.

Houston doesn't need to build 1000 ft. structures anymore to prove its power & worth as a world class city. None of those cities listed besides NYC & Chicago will ever be in the same league as Houston anyways when it comes to skyscrapers or skylines. Whats needed in Houston are infill towers (300, 400, 500, 600 footers.) to close the gaps in the skyline. Such towers have & continue to be built in Houston. I can think of 7 right off the top of my head in downtown alone that have been built in the past 9 years with more being constructed & planned as we speak.

You have to understand that in places like NYC & Chicago a newly built tower doesn't even get a second glance unless its 1,000 feet or higher as where a 650 ft. tall tower in Houston or Dallas would make a significant impact on the skyline.

Obviously you're in Austin where even a 300 footer means a whole new skyline.

[Trae713]

Hell, there is a new 500 footer just down the freeway from my house in Houston in the Memorial City area.

[atxcio]

Originally Posted by Metro Matt

Houston doesn't need to build 1000 ft. structures anymore to prove its power & worth as a world class city. None of those cities listed besides NYC & Chicago will ever be in the same league as Houston anyways when it comes to skyscrapers or skylines. Whats needed in Houston are infill towers (300, 400, 500, 600 footers.) to close the gaps in the skyline. Such towers have & continue to be built in Houston. I can think of 7 right off the top of my head in downtown alone that have been built in the past 9 years with more being constructed & planned as we speak.

You have to understand that in places like NYC & Chicago a newly built tower doesn't even get a second glance unless its 1,000 feet or higher as where a 650 ft. tall tower in Houston or Dallas would make a significant impact on the skyline.

With all due respect, this sounds like a bunch of excuses. You can be an apologist for Dallas and Houston if you want, but the fact is they have shamefully dated skylines. None of the older towers like NYC, Philly, or Chicago; and no signature towers built after the 80's. The infill that is happening is good, but unremarkable -- during the same time the small amount of infill has happened, a HUGE amount of cheap, suburban sprawl has been allowed to occur.

Bottom line, MONEY is the reason you haven't seen a 650+ ft tower built in Texas in 20 years. And the ONE 650ft+ skyscraper currently under construction in Texas isn't in even Dallas or Houston.

Houston and Dallas have been building on the cheap, I suppose because the demand in their CBD doesn't warrant the kind of rents or purchase prices it takes to build a tall skyscraper. All the while it has only become more expensive to build tall, something that will probably guarantee that the look of Dallas and Houston skylines will remain largely the same.

Obviously you're in Austin where even a 300 footer means a whole new skyline.

You are correct, our little skyline here is VERY new. I'm pretty sure Austin leads any other city in Texas in terms of 500+ footers, 40+ story buildings and 50+ story buildings u/c or built since 2002, and of course the tallest building under construction in Texas in 20 years. I'm not saying that makes Austin's skyline anywhere in the league of H-Town or Dallas; I'm just saying it shows both those big cities have been stagnating in terms of their real skylines. That's largely why those two cities skylines are more similar than different, really.

[Metro Matt]

Here is a list of completed or under construction towers & their respectable heights in Houston since 2000.

Main Place (uc) - 630 ft.
1500 Louisiana - 600 ft.
Reliant Energy Plaza - 518 ft.
One Park Place - 501 ft.
Memorial Hermann Tower - 500 ft.
Discovery Green (uc) ~ 500 - 450 ft.
717 Texas - 453 ft.
Memorial Hermann Medical Plaza - 430 ft.
2727 Kirby - 405 ft.
The Mercer - 400 ft.
Harris County Civil Justice Center - 378 ft.
5 Houston Center - 376 ft.
Royalton at River Oaks - 360 ft.
1200 Post Oak - 359 ft.
Mosaic 1 - 358 ft.
Mosaic 2 - 358 ft.
Dominion Post Oak - 351 ft.
The Mark - 334 ft.
Montebello - 330 ft.
Hilton Americas Hotel - 324 ft.
T. Boone Pickens Academic Tower - 324 ft.
City West Place 4 - 316 ft.
Cosmopolitan - 315 ft.
TCH Clinical Care Center - 313 ft.
One Briar Lake Plaza - 311 ft.
Villa d' Este - 308 ft.
City West Place 2 - 306 ft.

All of those buildings completed in Houston alone during that 9 year time span would easily equal or beat the current Austin skyline & thats not even counting the towers in The Woodlands, Clear Lake, or Galveston. You can't tell me those have not changed Houston's "outdated" 80's skyline. Comparing Austin's modern little skyline that finally hit a growth spurt to Houston's or Dallas' is just a tad bit silly IMO.