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Los Angeles's skyline is iconic and instantly recognizable... for its painful drabness and underwhelming table-top aesthetic. It's an utter embarrassment for America's 2nd-largest city, an island of flat, unremarkable skyscrapers surrounded by a sea of urban sprawl.
Historically, building codes in Los Angeles required skyscrapers to possess rooftop helipads, which contributed to the table-top skyline we see today. The relatively recent repeal of this requirement might help Los Angeles develop a more architecturally diverse and interesting skyline in the future, assuming that NIMBYs don't get their way (which is a laughable assumption in California.)
The density and architectural diversity of San Francisco's skyscrapers combined with the Bay Bridge and San Francisco's peninsular geography ensure that San Francisco's skyline overwhelmingly outclasses Los Angeles's even though Los Angeles technically has more skyscrapers. Honestly, I would peg San Francisco's skyline as the 3rd-best in the US and the best on the West Coast, with Seattle's skyline close behind. However, San Francisco's skyline doesn't hold a candle to Chicago's or New York's, despite San Franciscans' delusions of Manhattanization.
The density and architectural diversity of San Francisco's skyscrapers combined with the Bay Bridge and San Francisco's peninsular geography ensure that San Francisco's skyline overwhelmingly outclasses Los Angeles's even though Los Angeles technically has more skyscrapers. Honestly, I would peg San Francisco's skyline as the 3rd-best in the US and the best on the West Coast, with Seattle's skyline close behind. However, San Francisco's skyline doesn't hold a candle to Chicago's or New York's, despite San Franciscans' delusions of Manhattanization.
I find the assumption that west coast cities are trying to emulate the skylines of legacy gatekeeper cities to be....amusing.
I can't speak for San Francisco or Seattle but I know that in Los Angeles, the fact that there is actual scenery not made of steel or concrete to look at within the city limits has both now and historically been regarded as a feature, not a shortcoming by city planners. DTLA is becoming a much more desirable place to live in recent years and the clip at which scrapes are shooting up reflects that demand. I doubt we'll see them being built in Hollywood or uptown for scenic reasons.
The reason why the aesthetic design of skyscrapers in places like New York and Chicago is given so much weight is because, well there isn't much else to look at.
I find the assumption that west coast cities are trying to emulate the skylines of legacy gatekeeper cities to be....amusing.
I can't speak for San Francisco or Seattle but I know that in Los Angeles, the fact that there is actual scenery not made of steel or concrete to look at within the city limits has both now and historically been regarded as a feature, not a shortcoming by city planners. DTLA is becoming a much more desirable place to live in recent years and the clip at which scrapes are shooting up reflects that demand. I doubt we'll see them being built in Hollywood or uptown for scenic reasons.
The reason why the aesthetic design of skyscrapers in places like New York and Chicago is given so much weight is because, well there isn't much else to look at.
The great lake or the the harbor? Why wouldn't you look at those?
I find the assumption that west coast cities are trying to emulate the skylines of legacy gatekeeper cities to be....amusing.
I can't speak for San Francisco or Seattle but I know that in Los Angeles, the fact that there is actual scenery not made of steel or concrete to look at within the city limits has both now and historically been regarded as a feature, not a shortcoming by city planners. DTLA is becoming a much more desirable place to live in recent years and the clip at which scrapes are shooting up reflects that demand. I doubt we'll see them being built in Hollywood or uptown for scenic reasons.
The reason why the aesthetic design of skyscrapers in places like New York and Chicago is given so much weight is because, well there isn't much else to look at.
OMG you are so insecure when it comes to LA. When anyone critiques LA you get so defensive and then have to bring down other cities to try to make some pointless point.
The reason the skyscrapers look the way they do in NYC and Chicago, is because those cities value architecture and aesthetics, they are KNOWN for their architecture, something LA does not invest as much in. To your point LA's selling point is the mountains and beaches, not the urban built environment. People don't go to LA to see the city, rather to see the more natural features. Where NYC and Chicago's selling point is their built environment were you get a very dynamic and rich urban experience, and in some places it's couples with natural scenery like Lake Michigan or the different waterways of NYC.
This doesn't mean that there is "nothing" to look at in NYC and Chicago when it comes to natural scenery, and that LA doesn't offer anything in urban build environment, it's just these cities invest in these areas differently. But I don't think either of the three are devoid of natural scenery or built environment. It's just each city invests in one more area than the other.
Downtown SFs population swells much more from outsiders coming in each day.
Change in Daytime Population Due to Commuting, 2017:
San Francisco City +240,967
Los Angeles City +169,778
In the case of SF, most of these^ people work in DT but as far as LA, the Westside is the principal jobs center, not downtown.
That’s because a lot of what is “outside commuters” for SF is people coming from outer neighborhoods in LA so city population change is apples to oranges.
That’s because a lot of what is “outside commuters” for SF is people coming from outer neighborhoods in LA so city population change is apples to oranges.
Yeah that's a horrible comparison. Many employees who work in the city of LA already live in the city of LA because the city of LA is so much larger in terms of both population and land area.
San Francisco is the best skyline in the West Coast. It’s only rival is Seattle.
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