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Another thread got me curious about this group of cities. How would you rank their skylines considering overall appearance, new construction activity, and vibrance? I used Emporis and Wikipedia to compile the below information, if you notice innacuracies I apologize, please feel free to state the correct. Emporis was missing a couple from the cities that I was more familiar with. I also excluded things like church spires from my counts.
Also I excluded Honolulu from this comparison to avoid a lopsided discussion. Tulsa was by far the Tallest skyline in the group. (I tried to find the best pictures for each city that showed the scope of the skyline *links* it wasn't easy in all cases. Please feel free to share better angles.)
For me, I'm one of those people who value architecture and density over height. I don't include mountains, as I don't think they should be enough to compensate for weaker skylines. I'd rank them as follows:
11 Bridgeport - too small for its size--needs several 200-300 foot towers
10 Bakersfield - very small and short. Needs growth
9 Fresno - Decent skyline, but definitely needs height and density
8 Tucson - similar to Albuquerque--smaller, shorter and compact skyline, helped by the surrounding stunning landscape
7 Albuquerque - Beautiful skyline, if smaller, shorter and not super dense. The landscape and mountains help bigtime
6 Greenville - Needs to add several between 200-400 feet to really elevate it. Surprisingly decent skyline though
5 Worcester - Similar to Rochester, but seems to be better positioned to grow a bit more.
4 Rochester - Decent skyline, needs a few more to add density. Older and classic, but feels dormant
3 Grand Rapids - most promising growth and development in this group. Nice, growing skyline
2 Omaha - good 200-300 foot density, great tallest tower. Needs 3-4 skyscrapers btwn 300-500 feet
1 Tulsa - best skyline of the bunch--decent density and great height for its size
Beautiful skyline along the Genesee River. The arched “Freddie-Sue” bridge makes for a very picturesque view from south of downtown. Despite no new high rise construction since 1995 (just some recladding and low rises), the skyline still manages to appear very clean and relatively modern by Upstate New York standards. The recent addition of LED lights are wonderful to see at night. Not only is it the best small-mid metro skyline, IMO it’s one of the best in the entire Rust Belt region.
Grand Rapids is probably my 2nd favorite from this list. Almost like a modern version of Rochester’s with the glass towers along the river. Tulsa is nice and quite dense too.
I think Tulsa punches well above with its skyline.. in terms of height, density, and architecture. OKC is much bigger, but I prefer Tulsa's by quite a big margin. I really enjoy the view at night:
Tulsa is adding a few 8-12 story buildings on the north and northeast sides of the CBD. Doesn't add a ton to the skyline, but should add some more night light/density.
Edit: First time posting.. not sure how to make the imgur link work correctly.
Last edited by whaletown; 02-09-2022 at 02:30 PM..
I think Tulsa punches well above with its skyline.. in terms of height, density, and architecture. OKC is much bigger, but I prefer Tulsa's by quite a big margin. I really enjoy the view at night:
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I don't actually think OKC is much bigger. Yes it has the Devon Tower, but that looks almost absurd to me as it just dwarfs anything else in the skyline. If anything the Devon Tower hurts OKC because it creates such an imbalance. There's a couple other cities that I might put ahead of OKC for aesthetics and balance as well. In terms of volume OKC has 19 buildings over 200 ft, Tulsa has 18. I think Tulsa more than holds its own in that comparison. It definitely punches above it's weight.
I don't actually think OKC is much bigger. Yes it has the Devon Tower, but that looks almost absurd to me as it just dwarfs anything else in the skyline. If anything the Devon Tower hurts OKC because it creates such an imbalance. There's a couple other cities that I might put ahead of OKC for aesthetics and balance as well. In terms of volume OKC has 19 buildings over 200 ft, Tulsa has 18. I think Tulsa more than holds its own in that comparison. It definitely punches above it's weight.
You're right, I should've referred to population. I think Tulsa's downtown skyline density makes it seem slightly bigger than OKC's (imo). I think Devon Tower is ahead of OKC's curve... if they can continue to grow they'll potentially see a couple similar buildings within the next 10-15 years.
When you look at buildings on Emporis, you also need to check for buildings with estimated heights. They are listed after all the buildings with known heights. These buildings do exist, but specific heights are not known.
That would leave Tulsa with:
800+ - 0
600-800 – 2
500-600 – 2
400-500 – 2
300-400 – 6
200-300 – 16
Total Buildings over 200 feet – 28
Oklahoma City
800+ - 1
600-800 – 0
500-600 – 0
400-500 – 4
300-400 – 6
200-300 – 13
Total Buildings over 200 feet – 24
I’ll include Grand Rapids, but it’s really not in the same class at all:
800+ - 0
600-800 – 0
500-600 – 0
400-500 – 1
300-400 – 2
200-300 – 5
Total Buildings over 200 feet – 8
Rochester does have a pretty nice, more classic skyline. I do like it. But it could use several more in the 200-400 foot range.
Tulsa has the best skyline for its size of city, in this group with 12 skyscrapers over 300 feet high. VERY impressive for a city that size.
As someone else mentioned, I almost like Tulsa's skyline better than Oklahoma City's.
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