[Miami skyline]

who ever said Tampa skyline looks better than miami skyline has to be out of there minds My opinon is Miami#1 jacksonville#2 FT.Lauderdale#3 Tampa#4 ST.Petersburg#5 westpalmbeach#6 Orlando#7 thats my opinon and who ever else said Jacksonville is Florida largest city Miami is the 3rd largest city in the U.S and largest in the southeast miami population is 12.5 million Jax probably no more then a million and miami tallest building is the tallest in the state 794 feet with so 1000 footers on the way so make sure what your saying is true go look it up

[Miami skyline]

Nice picture of FT.Lauderdale it looks nice because it's close to miami

[jsimms3]

Miami no doubt has a larger and most likely far more noteworthy skyline than any other city in FL (many consider it to be the 4th largest in the North America behind Chi, NYC, and Toronto, but that is debatable). Obviously Miami is numero uno for Florida. In terms of size, architecture, spacing, and density (as well as history), Tampa and Jacksonville are quite close. I have a bias for Jacksonville because I think it is more balanced (between old and new, tall and short, glass/steel and stone), but Tampa is right there. The difference is that Tampa is the lead city of a 3 million person metro and Jacksonville is the lead city of a 1.4 million person metro. Tampa's skyline should be at least twice as large and twice as noteworthy as Jacksonville's. I know it has St. Petersburg's, but that's no excuse considering Jax has its own secondary smaller skylines (not like St. Pete's, but once you get close to 3 million, you build up not out and Tampa keeps building out not up). Either way, I would put Ft. Lauderdale and Orlando in the same league right behind Jax and Tampa. Everything else is smaller to such a degree that really anything compared to Miami's skyline is peanuts.

I will say Miami has too many residential buildings with unsold or undersold condos and not enough office space. To me signature skyscrapers are almost always office buildings, which is why I think Atlanta's skyline schools Miami's.

[Miami skyline]

I voted for Miami it has the best skyline in Florida 3rd best in the u.s miami has a population of 12.5 million thats why there are more office and condos buildings being built because it skyline looks like a populatation of 5 or 6 million people

[Miami skyline]

Miami has office buildings Brickell distric and the new buildings under constrution are going to be office building not condos jsimms3 i agree that Atlanta has a nice skyline i used to live so i seen it in person i moved back to miami it is terribaly cold there i had friends from minnesota complaining about the winter the thing i disagree about is that Atlanta skylines schools miami's don't get me wrong because Atlanta does have a nice skyline i just prefur miami's

[MiamiRob]

Originally Posted by Miami skyline

I voted for Miami it has the best skyline in Florida 3rd best in the u.s miami has a population of 12.5 million thats why there are more office and condos buildings being built because it skyline looks like a populatation of 5 or 6 million people

Miami skyline not to pick on you but you need to get some of your facts straight! Miami's metro has about 5.5 million people in it not 12.5 million! The city of Miami itself only has around 433,000 people and about another 100 municipalities make up the metro population from Dade, Broward & Palm Beach counties.

That being said this is how I would rank Florida's cities:

1: Miami
2: Tampa
3: Orlando
4: Ft. Lauderdale
5: Jacksonville

Jacksonville being Florida's largest city has a puny skyline. With nearly 800,000 residents (which is equivalent to the population of San Francisco) has only two buildings over 500 feet.

Ft. Lauderdale & Orlando may not have a lot of tall buildings but the ones they do are cohesive & compact.

Tampa looks great on the water and is a compact skyline.

Miami ranks fourth in the nation in the amount of buildings over 500 feet after NYC, Chicago, Houston with 27 towers exceeding that height. Some say Miami has too many condo towers mixed in with office buildings! Don't most major cities like NYC or Chicago? As it stands Miami's downtown population now ranks in the top 5 nationally giving the city a vibrancy that many other cities don't have. Of course we will have to wait for the Census to release those figures next year to verify this.

Jsimms? I would rather have a vibrant 24/7 downtown than a vertical office park that shuts down at 6PM!

[jsimms3]

Skylines are reflections of metro populations my friend, not city populations. Miami's downtown does not serve "just Miami", it serves the region. Tampa's skyline serves its region. Orlando's skyline serves its region. How you don't understand that is beyond me. Also, Jacksonville's downtown has some work, sure, but to say it completely shuts down at 6 tells me you haven't been. Also, to say it's the only one that needs work tells me you haven't been. Orlando's skyline, serving a metro of 2.1 million (as opposed to Jax's 1.355 million), and serving a metro with 48 million tourists, needs some work. It's just as "dead" as Jacksonville's and is smaller. Orlando and Ft. Lauderdale have "0" buildings over 500 feet, even though Orlando is the center of 2.1 million people and there are 1.8 million people packed into Broward. Also ranking a skyline based purely on buildings over 500 feet is a little naive. Finally, Orlando's skyline is hardly compact. It is one of the most spread out skylines in the state. Ft. Lauderdale's downtown is far more like an office park than the Northbank of Jacksonville's. Las Olas and Riverwalk are apart from downtown and don't bring people into "downtown".

Jax downtown nightlife (apologize for fuzziness...it was a while back before I got a good camera):













Nightlife map (colors denoting when opened up):

These photos are of locations merely a half mile to mile from the downtown "core" (roughly equidistant to Las Olas or Riverwalk in Ft. Lauderdale):






Finally some newer (Winter 2010) skyline shots:





The bridges are very much a part of our skyline:

[jsimms3]

Just to reiterate:

Originally Posted by MiamiRob

Jacksonville being Florida's largest city has a puny skyline. With nearly 800,000 residents (which is equivalent to the population of San Francisco) has only two buildings over 500 feet.

Skylines reflect age of development and size of metro. Jacksonville is much newer than SF and has a metro of only 1.355 million. Bad comparison. Jacksonville is a much smaller city than Miami, Orlando, or Tampa.

Ft. Lauderdale & Orlando may not have a lot of tall buildings but the ones they do are cohesive & compact.

Orlando's skyline is very very spread out, what are you talking about?

Tampa looks great on the water and is a compact skyline.

True...but I guess you haven't really seen Jacksonville's from the water then because it looks pretty damn good.

Miami ranks fourth in the nation in the amount of buildings over 500 feet after NYC, Chicago, Houston with 27 towers exceeding that height. Some say Miami has too many condo towers mixed in with office buildings! Don't most major cities like NYC or Chicago? As it stands Miami's downtown population now ranks in the top 5 nationally giving the city a vibrancy that many other cities don't have. Of course we will have to wait for the Census to release those figures next year to verify this.

I'm down in Miami pretty frequently. Its vibrancy has picked up significantly just in the past 3 years. I'll give it that. Brickell is no more vibrant than Midtown Atlanta and Downtown Miami is no more vibrant than downtown Atlanta. Without as many highrises (many of which in Miami/Brickell are gated and secluded from the street), Atlanta has close to 100,000 people in Midtown, Downtown, and within a mile in all directions, as well as a 35,000 student university downtown and a 20,000 student university between downtown and midtown. Also, Atlanta has tens of thousands more office workers. Neither city can even be called vibrant compared to this long list: NYC, Chi, Boston, Philly, Pittsburgh, DC, Seattle, Denver, SF, SD, or any of the major Canadian cities.

Jsimms? I would rather have a vibrant 24/7 downtown than a vertical office park that shuts down at 6PM!

Once again, see my photos. Downtown Jax has come a long way and is continually improving its nightlife scene. You obviously have never even been there. Downtown Miami/Brickell aside from 11th street where "Space" is (if that's what you're into...and that area is dead during daylight hours), is far far far from 24/7. Most of NYC isn't even 24/7 like what Madrid is. Brickell has a few restaurants and bars open kinda late. So what? Midtown Atlanta has better nightlife with more clubs and more bars and at least as many restaurants open til 3.

[Jax904boy]

Jax is way better than Orlando and tampa, The skyline is more spread out, has bridges, and has more buildings and looks way better at night... Also jax looks way bigger in person

[PeteU]

Originally Posted by GR82BAGATOR

ahhhh don't rain on our parade....we are flat-landers here and all we have are steel mountains to look at! he he I just got back from Oregon and it was absolutely gorgeous....I still find myself looking for mountains in the distance!

Florida's "mountains" are its summertime clouds:



I'm convinced no other state has as beautiful a skyscape as Florida.