So, as Jakeline and I were driving into downtown Los Angeles this morning, we got into a discussion about the unique and readily-identifiable qualities of major cities’ skylines. For the record, neither of us feel that LA has a very distinctive skyline, but we could both pick it out of a lineup fairly easily because we’ve lived here all of our lives.
I haven’t traveled to too many big metropolitan areas in my life, but I’ve certainly hit a few (San Francisco, San Diego, St. Louis, Chicago, Phoenix, Dallas, Denver, Seattle, Portland and DC are the ones I can think of off the top of my head). I don’t know how many of those I would recognize from an anonymous photo, though. If it hasn’t already been done, I was thinking that would be an easy-to-make and entertaining online quiz.
At any rate, I guess I’m wondering what all of your opinions are on the distinctiveness of various skylines from the bigger cities in the country (and throughout the world, for that matter). Which of them do you think you could easily recognize, and why? And for those who have traveled a lot, are there cities that you think have very generic-looking skylines?
Personally, I think I’d have a very easy time picking out Chicago, New York (even though I haven’t been), Dallas and San Francisco.
Oh, and also, if anyone wants to link to cool photos of various skylines you want to point out, I’d appreciate it.
No distinctive skyline perhaps… or maybe too many possibilities for any to be really distinctive… not the great dependence on a “downtown” that there are in other large cities… we’ve got distinctive buildings, but they just aren’t part of a famous skyline.
A skyline with palm trees in the foreground, skyscrapers in the middle ground, and mountains in the background… beaches off to one side… hey, that’s LA! When the air is clear. Or maybe we should just acknowledge that that particular shade of brown is itself what make’s LA’s skyline distinctive.
Never been to LA, but I can pick out its skyline* (I quite like that round thing, whatever it’s called).
My home city of Sydney has a fairly recognizable one because of one or two prominent things, but my favourite view of it is from the west, and that’s never the postcard view because that slut the Opera House doesn’t get in it.
Melbourne’s skyline is pretty generic to me. This is odd, because some of the buildings are fantastic on their own, but somehow it all comes together as McSkyline.
Hong Kong is good because it’s unusual with the landscap dominating the skyscrapers rather than the other way around.
*Admittedly I might be cheating, because I’m a postal worker, and I’ve seen 32467687567462234655 postcards, so I could probably pick any major skyline in the world (and some of the minor ones).
I personally could pick out the skyline of almost any city I’ve been to or seen enough pictures of (LA being the latter), but that’s because I’m a city skyline geek. There are still a lot that I wouldn’t recognize, though.
Random thought: St. Louis should be an easy one for most Americans as long as the Arch is included in the view.
I don’t think there are “recognizable skylines,” just individual recognizable buildings. Any recognizable skyline becomes unrecognizable if you remove that one building (or maybe a couple). Case in point: NYC with and without the World Trade Center.
Actually even that is not quite true. When New Yorkers say it, it is The Skyline. You can hear the Capitol letters. Just yesterday, I was talking with my wife and BIL about wandering The Park this week, and my wife quickly said "He means Central Park. My BIL said, of course he did, I new that. There are certain things about NYC that just on the emphatic shortcut language. The City means NYC if you live near it and it means Manhattan if you live in the city. The Stadium means Yankee Stadium. The Zoo means the Bronx Zoo. The Statue means the Statue of Liberty of course. I am sure there are many other examples, but this is a common NY mode of speech.
Philly 30 years ago, maybe, till it was ruined by those damn crappy-looking skyscrapers they tossed up. They just don’t know their place, which is L.A. or Dallas: no building in Philadelphia should be taller than Billy Penn’s hat.
So far as recognizable skylines go, I don’t know how many people from outside the area would recognize Seattle’s without the Space Needle and/or Mt. Rainier, but I don’t think either element is the only attractive or distinctive part – just the most memorable. That’s true with a lot of places.
Nope, this one in the centre of the shot
Apologies for forgetting the name. All I remember from an SDMB thread is that it has an official name, but the locals call it something else.
Unless it’s changed since the mid-90s, I’ve always found the Minneapolis skyline distinctive, mostly because of the IDS Center, the Wells Fargo building and 225 S. 6th (the tallest buildings in that pic, from left to right). Minneapolis has such a compact and I guess I’d call it “cozy” downtown. I spent a lot of nights on a bench by the pond in Loring Park watching that skyline…
