Battle of the Upstate WNY skyline: Buffalo or Rochester (moved from city vs. city) (money, buildings)

[Buffalonian4life]

Originally Posted by Newarkbomb

Rochester.

Thorough input is appreciated. Thanks.

[Buffalonian4life]

Would Buffalo's South half of the skyline be better if.....


From This:



To THIS:

[Buffalonian4life]

Or even this.....

[cheese9988]

[Buffalonian4life]

Some more Buffalo for thought...

Coming in: (I took a pic of the more taller half)

[cheese9988]

Nice photos!

[LINative]

Originally Posted by Ben Around

As a native son of Rochester, I'd still have to go with Buffalo! No, it's not a very "modern" skyline, but it's a classy, classic one! Buffalo's sky line evolved over the years when its population exceeded 500,000. Rochester has much less classic archtiecture, and is smaller, as its population zenith was only ~330,000. Also, Rochester has proportionally more generic, modern buildings than Buffalo.

Thoughtful and well said, being fair to another city - rate up!

Buffalo has some really nice older architecture. So it got my vote. Rochester from photos on the other hand seems to have more modern and at least more plain buildings.

Take a look at the Rochester photos of the Gensesse river and the waterfalls. Dramatic scenery like waterfalls are rare in a city - especially in a downtown. But IMHO the buildings in the downtown waterfall area are disappointing, even down to the little square box in the park (?) down by the waters edge.

For starters some of the factories should be demolished for some small parks to create better downtown access to the river and the falls.

Rochester might be the better city as a whole - I am not sure between the two. I am only talking about the skylines so please do not get offended. Clearly Rochester has great potential and a unique scenic opportunity to build around the downtown area.

But for now I will take Buffalo's quality older buildings. Look up Buffalo architecture and you will see what I am talking about.

[SlickRick1]

I like Rochester's downtown for its size. I like the waterfall within it. I think it makes it look different towards many other cities. However. I do like Buffalo as well, and it is bigger. It think the problem some have with Buffalo's skyline is the fact that two of their apartment complexes blocks out the skyline from many of the pictures used to show it off. If someone would take a picture of that area past those two condo's many would see what someone from Buffalo see's all the time. I also wish someone woud post a pic of downtown Buffalo from the eastside or seneca, south park or anywhere over by that area. I think you get the best view of their downtown from those vantage points. Or coming into downtown on the 33. That would work as well. To many photo's of Buffalo have been shot from the same view point. Show some other angles and I bet the responses are better. I could also probably make that same claim about Rochester. How about showing Rochester from their one grand bridge. Dont know the name of the bridge. The one that you catch somewhere around monroe where it takes you to Buffalo. When you enter that bridge and look back over your shoulder. I believe that is the best view of downtown Rochester. While Rochester has very cool aestethics to some parts, ex waterfall, and the view from the Bridge, I still like Buffalo a bit better. There are more taller buildings in Buffalo and the skyline is larger and longer. I love the Buffalo architect. Some of their architect is very nice. They have a building downtown that I believe is part of ECC which looks like a building that you would find right out of London. Very cool architecture.
They both have nice downtown's. I would give the edge to Buffalo though. They just have quite a few more taller buildings. I also like the way Main Street in Buffalo looks.

Actually I just noticed when I looked back at this last page that the the first pic is shot from the 33. Too bad more of that pic couldnt be shot with that camera. Some of the trees hide some of the buildings too. I have always liked that angle but not much is captured within the frame of the camera. You see much more with your eyes coming through there than what any camera can capture. Buffalo's skyline is too long to put into a picture from a camera from that distance.

[JAB27]

I will admit Buffalo has some nice architecture, and that Rochester's is more modern. However, Rochester shouldn't be penalized for that. But to each his own, I guess. Still, the actual skyline itself, Rochester's is more impressive, especially for a smaller city. And so far the votes reflect that.

[cheese9988]

I don't think art-deco and post modern architecture are exactly apples to apples either. The older Buffalo buildings have alot of style. If someone could get a close up of the detail in the cement or the detail of the city hall. It really is a long lost art. The inside of Buffalos city hall is lined with paintings, murals, stone and marble that you really are only returning in expensive high rises. Art-deco buildings were designed to look like temples, you can really see this in Buffalo city hall or the Empire State building, Chrystler building etc. Art-deco usually tapers toward the top and the top is decorated beautifuly with sculptures, artwork etc.

However, Rochesters high rises do have some class. Lets face it, both the HSBC and Xerox buildings are expensive candy bars, I'm sure they both have nice offices, but nonetheless. The Bausch and Lomb building is designed very nice, the windows, peaks and brick give it a nice style. Not to mention the conservatory attached. The Chase building is actually stripped and tapers toward the top, only building like this I have personally seen. The Hyatt building is one of the nicest hotels I have been in. Rochester does have some art-deco buildings, Eastman Kodak, Times Square, Buffalo and Rochester both have gothic style buildings as well.

Then there is also layout of the buildings etc. You can see most of Rochester from the i490 bridge. We need someone from Buffalo to give some additional views of Buffalo other than Main st and the waterfront.