What are your favorite skylines and why? Mine are: from three up to one:
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[li]tie for number three: Seattle and Pittsburgh [/li]
two: Chicago
one: New York
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Chicago and New York are self-explanatory. I like Seattle because it’s almost in layers. Mount Rainer in the back, cool-looking skyscrapers in the middle, and the Space Needle in the front. Pittsburgh’s is cool because it is all neatly in one place near the Point, where the Allegheny and the Monongahela join to form the Ohio. So, what are yours?
It’s pretty, but I take “Skyline” to necessarily require skyscrapers, otherwise it’s just a plain old landscape.
My top 3:
Chicago
The sheer size and density of the buildings is amazing and they are laid out almost artistically with the similar Sears Tower and Hancock Buildings bracketing it at either end. The new Trump Tower going up along the river looks to be a fantastic compliment too. The contrast of the lake and the parks in the foreground and the glass and steel in the background is gorgeous. It looks fabulous from every angle, be it from the Adler Planetarium to the east in the lake, driving south from the North Shore on LSD, looking north past Soldier field or in from the west seeing it all cradled by the river with it’s signature draw-bridges.
Honk Kong
It has the grandeur of Chicago’s and has the geographic contrasts of the harbor and the mountains. The only thing that makes it second to Chicago in my book is that so many of the structures are brand new and it doesn’t have that iconic status yet, also the mass of buildings overwhelms any signature shapes. Also I prefer Chicago in that so many of the buildings have a distinct color palate where Honk Kong is a mass of glass and silver.
San Fransisco
San Fransisco is greatly helped by the number of signature landmarks. The topography of peninsula does wonders to give it an inflated look of grandeur. The business district with it’s Transamerica Pyramid is complimented by the view of mansions and single family residences in the classic SF style climbing the hills, rarely do smaller buildings compete with skyscrapers, and I think SF’s topography makes that unique. You can’t overlook the greatness of the Golden Gate and Bay Bridges on either side of the city and the fact that you have the Bay and East Bay and North Bay hills in the background.
Pittsburgh’s skyline is phenomenal from Mt. Washington. It’s one thing to see a city from ground level, yet another to look over it from Grandview Avenue.
Coming into Pittsburgh from the airport is spectacular…you pop out of the tunnel and there it is, stadiums to the left, the Point and downtown ahead of you.
No creeping up on it from afar, just “Wham”, it’s there!
I don’t know if it counts as a skyline (and I can’t find a really good photo of it online) but Tallinn can resemble an over-the-top Disney backdrop (in a good way).
I grew up 45 minutes from Midtown Manhattan, so of course I love the New York skyline.
Having lived in Boston for many years, I love its skyline, too. Both Hancock buildings, the Pru, the Citgo sign (last of the now-dead breed of colored city signs) and the Custom House Tower…
And, although I don’t care for the city, I really do like Rochester, N.Y.'s wacky skyline – the Lincoln First tower, the rotating restaurant that looks like a flying saucer perched atop the building, and the truly weird Art Deco “heat fins” atop the Times Square Building make this wonderfully weird:
New York is my favorite, particularly from Liberty State Park in Jersey City.
One that surprised me is Cincinnati. I can’t find a photo of the view that struck me, but when you approach the city during the day on the interstate from Kentucky, you get a view of the river and the downtown area that is awesome.
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