Favorite city skylines

[english si]

London.

It has the mix of old and new, tall and small that gives some variety in there. My biggest problem with it is that it's very tricky to get all the accenting buildings (St Pauls, London Eye, Canary Wharf, Shard, Gerkin, St Stephens Tower (Big Ben), The O2 (Millennium Dome), etc) in one shot (there's a predicted 2012 skyline on Skyscrapercity that gets them all, though not accurately as schemes have changed/not been built).

Doesn't help that some hide others and St Brides, one of my favourite buildings - while taller than the buildings around it, is masked from panoramas by buildings between you and it when you've climbed a building/hill with a decent vista that covers a wide spread of London. Tower Bridge often suffers a similar fate, but you can get some shots of it looking along the river (though the river bends quite a bit, which doesn't help).

[kurumi]

I'm gonna vote for (not "best", but quite interesting): Pyonyang and the unfinished Ryugong Hotel.

[empirestate]

Chicago's is very good, as is Hong Kong's, particularly viewed from above on Victoria Peak. Those two, along with New York, are often ranked among the best in the world. Shanghai can't fail to impress, either, and is rapidly changing. Other impressive American ones would be Seattle, Atlanta and Denver. And Wilmington, DE has to get extra credit for even having a skyline, being a city of only some 70,000.

But Pittsburgh's has consistently had an effect on me, for all the time I lived there. All of the bridges add immensely to the effect, along with the setting among hills and rivers, giving not only added visual interest to the skyline itself, but a myriad of different vantage points from which to view it.

[hobsini2]

Chicago's is very good, as is Hong Kong's, particularly viewed from above on Victoria Peak. Those two, along with New York, are often ranked among the best in the world. Shanghai can't fail to impress, either, and is rapidly changing. Other impressive American ones would be Seattle, Atlanta and Denver. And Wilmington, DE has to get extra credit for even having a skyline, being a city of only some 70,000.

But Pittsburgh's has consistently had an effect on me, for all the time I lived there. All of the bridges add immensely to the effect, along with the setting among hills and rivers, giving not only added visual interest to the skyline itself, but a myriad of different vantage points from which to view it.

Agreed with you on HK's skyline from Victoria Peak. I was there in 1996 when they just finished the Bank of China Tower. I haven't seen it since but the pictures of the skyline are impressive.

As for Pittsburgh, I was there on a road trip about 5 years ago and the thing that impressed me was how cleaner the city looked from the last time i was there about 20 years prior. We came in thru the Ft Pitt Tunnel and took the West End Bridge over the Ohio.

[jwolfer]

I like the skyline of Jacksonville.  A good view from I-95 over the St Johns River.  On a clear day you can see the skyline from Green Cove Springs  down( north) the St. Johns River

http://www.slrobertson.com/galleries/usa/jacksonville/jax-skyline2.htm

There are  a couple of downtown Jax on the website.  The first one is taken just east of the I-95(fuller warren).  You can also see the Acosta Bridge(the white one)( SR 13) and Main St Bridge (the blue one)( US 1 & 90)

[triplemultiplex]

I'm gonna vote for (not "best", but quite interesting): Pyonyang and the unfinished Ryugong Hotel.

This photo shows they've gotten around to finishing the exterior of that hotel.


Pyongyang always reminds me of depictions of the Klingon home world, Qo'noS, in the Star Trek universe:
Qo'noS


Pyongyang

[Landshark]

I'm very fond of Portland's, especially since the towers in the South Waterfront District have gone up.

I hate Portland's puny skyline.   Seattle and Vancouver, BC both put it to shame.  Seattle suburb Bellevue competes with Portland. 

[Sanctimoniously]

Pyongyang always reminds me of depictions of the Klingon home world, Qo'noS, in the Star Trek universe:
Qo'noS

+1 for the Trek reference.

As far as my contribution to the topic, I've always liked Chicago. It seems to have a different tone of building and street lighting that I haven't seen anywhere else.

And while it's not very substantial or important by any means, I like Monroe, Louisiana's (the companion to my hometown), if only because I used to see it every day from my front porch.

[achilles765]

New York's is great even if overrated, Chicago's is very pretty but I do love the one here in my city of Houston.  It's big, the buildings are mostly more modern and beautiful.  I don't find Dallas' to be too impressive, even if it does have unique buildings that they alight for Christmas.

[Road Hog]

On a clear day you can see the Dallas skyline from Little Elm, which is about 30 miles.

[Henry]

It's nice to see all that love for my hometown!


Seattle's skyline is among the best in the West. Not just because of the Space Needle, but also the accompanying skyscrapers behind it and the always-spectacular Mount Rainier further back.

[roadman65]

I think the skyline of Cincinnati as seen from across the river in Kentucky is nice to look at.
The best shot of it is the vantage point the producers of the sitcom WKRP in Cincinnati used in the opening credits on that particular program.

NYC
Dallas
Orlando
Tampa
Miami
Pittsburgh (best seen on I-376 EB emerging from the Fort Pitt Tunnel)
Jacksonville
San Fransisco
LA

[KEVIN_224]

Taken from about the mid-span of the Ben Franklin Bridge (I-676/US Route 30), on the southern sidewalk. This was on my last visit to Philadelphia, February 23, 2012:

[allniter89]

Taken from about the mid-span of the Ben Franklin Bridge (I-676/US Route 30), on the southern sidewalk. This was on my last visit to Philadelphia, February 23, 2012:

Unimpressive skyline for a city the size of Philly IMO. Maybe they build more horizontally than vertically? What is the building that looks like an arc on the left side of pic?

[DeaconG]

It would have been more impressive if he'd taken it from the Belmont Plateau in Fairmount Park, but you take what you can get.

Do you mean the Liberty Towers?

[CentralCAroadgeek]

I really like the SF, especially seen from NB 101 going into the City.

LA has a nice skyline.

Austin's and Portland's are pretty nice as well.

The Seattle skyline is great overall, and it's nice from NB I-5. It's even better from the top of the Space Needle.

[kendancy66]

I've always wondered about seeing cities like Denver and Colorado Springs from the mountains.

You can also see New Orleans' skyline from quite a distance, particularly coming from the west on I-10. But you are talking about a city below sea level, so that shouldn't be too hard to see.

There's a rural area not too far from where my mom lives and if you hit the right spot, you can see downtown Jackson. It's at least ten miles away,  as the crow flies. It's not like Jackson has an impressive skyline.

Colorado Springs's skyline is easier to see from the mountains because the mountains(such as Pikes Peak) are closer to the city than they are to Denver. Colorado Springs has a pretty low skyline with few distinct buildings though, so there isn't a whole lot to see in terms of a skyline. There are some lower mountains closer to Denver like Lookout Mountain outside of Golden where the Denver skyline can be more easily viewed than from the taller peaks.

If I remember correctly, the New Orleans skyline can barely be seen from the other side of Lake Pontchartrain. Unfortunately, the 1 time I've been on the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway, I was on it going NB, but I imagine going SB that's a pretty impressive approach as the skyline gets closer and closer with nothing to block your view.

You get a real good view of downtown New Orleans buildings and Business US-90 bridge, from Algiers Cutoff Canal Bridge.  It's like it almost appears out of nowhere as the bridge transitions from semi rural on the east side of canal, to crossing the bridge west bound to Gen Degaulle Dr.

[Ian]

I guess I'm a little partial to my home city's skyline:


(my photo. This was taken at the Camden waterfront)

[CL]

Salt Lake isn't necessarily impressive for the scale of its buildings, but rather what dominates the background:



(or alternately, this more snow-capped version: http://www.flickr.com/photos/utahimages/6326105264/in/faves-countylemonade/)

I'm also a fan of Los Angeles's skyline.

[Dr Frankenstein]

I would say that Philadelphia is my favourite, but I'm not basing this on any set of criterion. Just... feeling.

[empirestate]

Pittsburgh (best seen on I-376 EB emerging from the Fort Pitt Tunnel)

Negative; from center grandstand at PNC Park:

IMG_0262 by NateOMatic, on Flickr

[Mr_Northside]

Pittsburgh (best seen on I-376 EB emerging from the Fort Pitt Tunnel)

Negative; from center grandstand at PNC Park:
IMG_0262 by NateOMatic, on Flickr

Empirestate could be right....  The view from the Ft. Pitt Bridge actually isn't my favorite vantage point of the downtown PGH skyline.  (I'm not sure I could decide what exactly is, but it would be from somewhere else....)

However, the experience (as opposed to a single view) of emerging from the Ft. Pitt Tunnel and crossing the Mon into downtown can't be beat.

[empirestate]

Pittsburgh (best seen on I-376 EB emerging from the Fort Pitt Tunnel)

Negative; from center grandstand at PNC Park:
IMG_0262 by NateOMatic, on Flickr

Empirestate could be right....  The view from the Ft. Pitt Bridge actually isn't my favorite vantage point of the downtown PGH skyline.  (I'm not sure I could decide what exactly is, but it would be from somewhere else....)

However, the experience (as opposed to a single view) of emerging from the Ft. Pitt Tunnel and crossing the Mon into downtown can't be beat.

For sure, as far as a dramatic approach to a city, that's hard to beat. Yet it isn't even the best view you can get of that city's skyline. (I mentioned above that I prefer the view from I-579 to that from I-376; it just doesn't have the surprise factor.)

[ghYHZ]

Halifax, NS......with a Queen Mary 2 sail-past.

[kj3400]

Baltimore's small, but imo, it has a pretty impressive view, especially from where I live in the south near I-895 in Brooklyn.