What do you think of Portland's skyline? (St. Helens, Rainier: how much, live)

[puerco]

Beautiful shot, MimzyMusic!

[BruceB17]

Portland's Skyline, its lack of reasonably quantified ethnic and cultural diversity, and its inability to build a major viable sports venue (a real stadium, not PGE/ Jeld Wen Field), oh yeah, and its two lane freeways, are the only frustratingly horrible things about this otherwise great city and metro area. We only need five buildings between 500 and 700 or so ft strategically placed to solve this gravely important issue. Can you hear/ read me ... Nike, Addidas, Precision Castparts, Richard Wendt, Bob (Robert) Pamplin Jr?

[Mezter]

For a city of 2mil +, its on the small side, but it looks good.
Portland Oregon - City Skyline Pictures, Prints, Canvas, Digital Stock

[pdxMIKEpdx]

Originally Posted by BruceB17

Portland's Skyline, its lack of reasonably quantified ethnic and cultural diversity, and its inability to build a major viable sports venue (a real stadium, not PGE/ Jeld Wen Field), oh yeah, and its two lane freeways, are the only frustratingly horrible things about this otherwise great city and metro area. We only need five buildings between 500 and 700 or so ft strategically placed to solve this gravely important issue. Can you hear/ read me ... Nike, Addidas, Precision Castparts, Richard Wendt, Bob (Robert) Pamplin Jr?

I don't think re-arranging the buildings is going to help out Portland in the ways you seem concerned about.

How many of the businesses or people you mention even have physical locations in the City of Portland itself?

They're not that stupid.

Maybe Portland residents should "re-arrange" the people who run this city and then we'll see what Portland "skyline" can become.

[suncat]

I think Portland has a beautiful skyline. I like the different vantage points from the I-5 along the East Bank, coming over the top of the Fremont Bridge, and from the West Hills.

[ramedud]

Originally Posted by iPwn

I actually find it surprisingly impressive. I mean it's nowhere near San Francisco or Seattle big, but it's big enough. Especially now that they're building new apartment high rises along the river and such.

I honestly haven't read anyone's posts, here are my thoughts:

Simply put: quality over quantity. The buildings in Portland aren't very tall, but they don't have to be to have a big-city feel. I love the skyline because its high rises are dispersed in three distinct clusters, very unique. Those buildings across the river almost look like office buildings. With the exception of the Transamerica building, SF's skyline is blah. It's pretty when framed by either bridge, but aside from that it's... eh. It just doesn't excite me like it used to.

What I'm saying is: what goes on in a city and the view of its skyline go hand in hand. It's like meeting that really attractive person, but it turns out they have really bad breath and their armpits smell like refried beans. No thanks, I'm going to go visit greener pastures... oh Hello Portland, how are you doing? Aren't you looking cute today, and you're so sweet and beautiful!

As you can tell I'm in love with that girl... err I mean city.

Seattle's skyline is accented by the space needle, and I'm going to say it, it's WAY more interesting to look at than SF's Transamerica building.

LA is well... LA. It needs to visit the proctologist.

[Squidlo]

Call me biased, but Portland's "skyline" is a lot prettier than most cities of its size. The hills and mountains help a lot. In the south you don't get the back drop usually. I've driven all over the west and only a few cities even stand out for me. I like Salt Lake, San Francisco and Santa Fe all are in hill-mountainous areas. Really hard to beat Portland on aesthetics alone. If you don't feel Portland is at least mildy attractive try another vantage point to get her "good side".

[doity]

From a life-long Portland resident (who can remember when the Hilton Hotel was the tallest building.....imagine that) I really like Portland's skyline. While I was excited about SOWA, the buildings are just too far removed from downtown to add anything, let alone even being visible to someone in the core downtown area.

The best view of Portland is driving west over the Fremont bridge. There you can see the magnificent density, that is not really visible if viewing the city from the waterfront. It is hard to believe but there was a time in the early 1970's when some developers wanted to turn downtown into a little Manhattan. You can see a sketch of at least one of their ideas in the book "Frozen Music". But then the First Interstate tower was built and the height restrictions were put in place.

I think a lot of the problem with the skyline is that the tallest buildings in town are kinda jumbled and not really concentrated in a single area that would look impressive to tourists. Maybe someone with Sim City or similar software could experiment with this

[ramedud]

Originally Posted by doity

Maybe someone with Sim City or similar software could experiment with this

Hehe, I used to play this game all the time on the SNES. In retrospect I should've built a Portland, that would've been fun.

I appreciate your insight on what the skyline looked like in the past. I actually like the sporadic nature of the skyline. It's very unique and sets it apart from being like everyone else. The fact that it's spread out more means your eyes have a whole lot more to look at too.

[urbanlife78]

If you take just the skyline, it is on the boring side, but if you go up to any high point in the hills anywhere in the city on a really clear day, the skyline because so much more impressive when you include the natural surroundings and the hills around it as apart of the overall view.

I think the best way to describe the skyline, Portland is a city too busy focusing on its street life to worry about having an impressive skyline.


I will say I would of rather seen all the buildings built in the SoWa area built downtown and along the waterfront rather than down where it is now, but that is a minor complaint I have.