Which American city has the best skyline?

Pick your favorite, bitches!

• Atlanta is a joke.

• love NYC hate Chicago, but it has a better skyline.

• I voted New York, which is beyond compare in the US. \ \ I live in Houston, where the skyline is getting bigger as I type (3 new office towers under construction), though not necessarily more beautiful. Who are the tenants for all these buildings? Does this mean the two Enron towers are at capacity, that there now need to be more skyscrapers? \ \ One of the buildings under construction is on the site of a former flophouse hotel. I was so glad to see that thing imploded, not realizing that it meant that the homeless would now have nowhere at all to go downtown at night. Instead of abandoning downtown alltogether, they just sleep rough and extort "bus fare" even more aggressively.

• I can''t believe SF is so low. \ \ It gets my vote.

  http://cheapoair.files.wordpress.com/2009/03/san-francisco.jpg

• what about dallas?

• R1 you have shitty taste. Atlanta''s skyline is regarded as one of the most impressive in the country. The view of the buildings shooting up from the thick forest greenery is beautiful.

  http://i28.tinypic.com/2cejys.jpg

• Washington DC has no skyline to speak of. Their stupid building height laws make it impossible to build anything tall enough to give them a decent skyline.

• Missoula, MT

  http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/f1/Missoula.jpg

• [quote]Atlanta''s skyline is regarded as one of the most impressive in the country.%0D\ %0D\ Link?

• r8. I lurvveee it.lol

• I''d agree that NYC and Chicago both have more impressive skylines than San Francisco. SF''s downtown is too small to compare to the size and grandeur of the other two.\ \ However, as R4''s pic illustrates, if you place the skyline and the setting together -- the skyline as seen from the beyond the Golden Gate Bridge, or the view of the skyline with bay and the hills as you drive over the East Bay Bridge into SF at night, that''s hard to top. But that has more to do with the picturesque setting rather than the skyline itself.

• R6 needs to travel more

• The Dallas skyline is okay, but not all that special, R5.

  http://lcregatta.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/DallasSkyline.jpg

• NYC by a mile.%0D\ %0D\ To broaden "best skyline" to cityscape, San Francisco comes into play, as does, say, Pittsburgh. Neither has a huge range of great skyscrapers, but the skyscrapers they do have lend much to the cities.%0D\ %0D\ Chicago has lots of skyscrapers, certainly, but it lacks the rich variety of time periods that makes New York''s great.%0D\ %0D\ Atlanta might as well be Houston, or a big Charlotte or maybe a giant Wilmington, Delaware. Its skyscrapers are too much of a narrow time frame and lack distinction, and the broader cityscape is undistinguished -- it could almost be anywhere.

  http://snarking.files.wordpress.com/2008/08/pittsburgh_view-from-incline_sm.jpg

• People used to say that the World Trade Towers fucked up NY''s skyline, but, to me, the skyline looks like a jumbled mess without them.

• Whut about Faynecks?

• New York - not so much with the twin towers missing.

  O.B. Laden

• Toledo Ohio.

• Chicago and New York, tied for 1st. Seattle and S.F., tied for 3rd.

• "Atlanta" ?\ \ REALLY?

• I had to vote New York also because it''s THE iconic American city. I don''t think it''s necessarily the BEST or #1 in plenty of areas, but New York is, just, New York. It generally comes to mind first among most of the world''s population when you say "big city" or "city skyline". Yeah, Paris might compete, but as skylines go, I think NYC is the hands-down winner.

• Atlanta.

• The tropical Miami skyline

  http://imagecache6.allposters.com/LRG/26/2685/WRXUD00Z.jpg

• Toledo, here. You''re welcome:

  http://media.photobucket.com/image/toledo ohio skyline/Decker9999/FullSkyline.jpg

• Another vote for Atlanta. What sets it apart, as another poster mentioned, is that these gleaming skyscrapers rise up out of one of the greenest major cities in the country. It''s beautiful. Plus, the skyscrapers are somewhat spread out and not all in one clump.

• You can have Atlanta.

  http://www.sfphotorama.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/san-francisco-skyline-2000.jpg

• I prefer Los Angeles''s skyline.

• Still much better than Atlanta.

  http://fabandfru.com/new/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/SanDiegoSkyline_gde.jpg

• [quote]Which American city has the best skyline?%0D\ %0D\ Gee, we haven''t done THIS in a while. . .%0D\ %0D\ No, really. We haven''t done this in a while. At least a few years. Thank you, OP. Let''s see if the Atlanta guys go insane again.

  Pulling up my chair.

• Atlanta.

  Not really. But the anti-Atlanta troll is funny when she''s angry.

• It''s Chicago by a mile. No other city has anything close to the view of the nighttime Chicago skyline along the outer drive.

• Charlotte

• [quote]It''s Chicago by a mile. No other city has anything close to the view of the nighttime Chicago skyline along the outer drive.\ \ Especially after Oprah has climbed the Sears Tower.

  Fay Wray

• I voted for NY but I always thought Miami had such a beautiful skyline with the tropical waters, cruise ship port and the downtown buildings.

  http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8c/Miami_skyline_20080328.jpg

• I love Seattle''s skyline.

• Are we really discussing skylines now? You bitches are really that boring.

• I prefer the photos taken from ground, water, or an observational place (like from an existing a building with a view). If you have to rent a helicopter to get a photo that makes the skyline look good, it''s not all that.

• I would say Miami too but I think the buildings in a skyline ought to be occupied for it to count.

• Port of Miami

  http://andrzejaniol.demodigitalis.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/miami.jpg

  Horatio Caine

• I know I''ll rile up the Texas haters, but Dallas gets my vote. Oil boom of 80''s led to post-Modernists and developers trying to outdo each other. It''s a great one.

  http://lcregatta.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/DallasSkyline.jpg

• New York wins. Chicago second, San Francisco, third. \ \ Everyone else is an also-ran. \ \ The city of Boston is gorgeous, but the skyline barely makes a blip. Part of the problem is that the two tallest buildings, the Prudential and the Hancock Tower are far away from the rest of the downtown cluster of tall buildings...so any photos gets one or the other view but not both.

  http://www.pullmanadventures.com/bostonSkyline.jpg

• Dallas has the ugliest buildings of any city. I''m a Chicagoan and love architecture, but I picked Houston because of the way the buildings are grouped (ironic in a city with no zoning)and there are few real clunkers. Atlanta''s is an ugly strip of buildings, Waffle House post-modernism, for the most part. New York is filled with ugliness and Chicago has ruined theirs in the last thirty years. Seattle has an outstanding skyline but nobody will vote for it until the Alaska Way is torn down. Some smaller cities like Tulsa have nice groupings, and the drama of downtown Pittsburgh and downtown Cincinnati cannot be beaten. Miami''s skyline is unattractive and very public sector oriented, suggesting that Miami is not so much a great city but a Potemkin scheme.%0D

• The Houston skyline is sort of T-shaped (north/south along Louisiana/Travis, east/west along McKinney), so it''s hard to view and photograph from an angle that takes it all in. It''s usually photographed from from the west, maybe because the park along Allen Parkway is the easiest place to set up a shot. It really looks most dramatic from the northeast as you drive in along the Eastex Freeway, an angle that also gets the baseball and basketball arenas and the convention center, but I can''t think of anywhere a photographer might stop and set up a shot there. \ \ I used to laugh at the canonical view of downtown Houston from the west standing in for "L.A" at the beginning of each Melrose Place episode.

• It is time to bring Canada into this mix: Any average Canadian city has a skyline more attractive than Atlanta''s or anywhere in Texas.

• New York. No competition.

• %0D\ I can''t believe this is Phoenix:

  http://www.bva.org/images/phoenix.jpg

• Philly?

• "It is time to bring Canada into this mix"%0D\ %0D\ Oh, NOW you''ve done it. I give you: Calgary. Pretty buildings, but they''re all filled with assholes.%0D

  http://www.calwestcaulking.com/Calgary Skyline.jpg

• If get to head North, I get to hunt for South American skylines.

  looking for giant jesus statue as I type

• Chicago by far has the best skyline. Not looking at the people or the food or the city as a whole, Chicagos definitive has the most architectural creators. More sculptures have been through there and left their mark. It has some of the oldest still standing buildings in the country. If you look at chicago from N-S not E-W... you will see why!

  http://cache2.artprintimages.com/p/LRG/26/2678/V6AUD00Z/art-print/chicago-skyline-at-sunset-il.jpg

• I like Los Angeles' skyline because of the mountains back drop.

• Houston from the NE

  http://graphics.fansonly.com/photos/schools/hou/sports/genrel/on-campus/skyline-school-500.jpg

• Oops no that the SE but at least it's east.

• Salt Lake City

• Chicago?!?!?! Are you fucking kidding me? Who knew DL was infested with so many delusional Chicagoans?

• I remember on Obama's election night looking at the glittering Chicago skyline in the background of the park, it was beautiful, so I vote for Chicago, NYC, San Francisco, Seattle (I love the Space Needle) Las Vegas and D.C.

• Chicago's skyline is beautiful, easily the most beautiful in the country. New Yorkers loudly assert NYC is the best at anything before they even know the topic. That's not civic pride, it's bombast, every bit as irritating as anything coming from an overbearing Texan. Talk about delusional. "Having a lot of tall buildings" does not equal "beautiful". The NYC skyline is a jumbled mess, with lots of attractive buildings dwarfed by their (even taller!) surroundings.

• Chicago filmed from the L train at the link here. I love seeing the skyline from inside.

  http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DGRULpL5aEyw

• Miami might have the only convincing skyline that was left out of OP's list.

  http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DMyHQQIZ-k04

• I'm a New Yorker. I've been here 33 years. I love new York. But I voted Chicago. However, I think R59 has a very good point about Miami. The skyline shimmers.

• Chicago from the ground. New York from the air.

• R61 has it right after all.

  R60

• Everyone pick Atlanta, just to piss off all the right people.

• I love Atlanta's skyline. Growing up in the burbs, rounding that hill and seeing it was like seeing Oz. The foothills make it. Chicago has its lake but it's seriously in the middle of cornfield otherwise.

• Christ, the anti-Chicago troll R55 is back.

• The reason Miami's awesome skyline was left out was because this poll was probably made by some dumb hick american who wouldn't know anything about Miami.

• My favorite skyline view of Miami.

  http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_4_P_zLDtWW4/S75qwwmhxUI/AAAAAAAAATM/JjLdhusfL4Q/s1600/miami+tornado.jpg

• Well, of course it's New York. But New York no longer has the best skyline in the world--it's been surpassed by Hong Kong.

• I heart R33. Especially because she refuses to call it "Willis" Tower.

  Slats%20Grobnik

• NYC by far is the best skyline evah!

• Driving south down I-75 into Atlanta, the Atlanta skyline is fabulous and Atlanta has some of the nicest new architecture in the US. Chicago and New York have by far the most impressive skylines in the US, and I love both cities. Chicago is a rich city architecturally, but I do love that incredible view of Manhattan from NJ or Brooklyn. San Francisco is my favorite city in America but its skyline is unimpressive. Even Nashville's skyline is more impressive than SF's. Washington DC has no skyline by law. No building over approx. 10 stories high may be built in the District of Columbia. That law was passed about 100 years ago. They don't want any building in the District to be taller than the Capitol building. This is a good thing.

• There is a height restriction D.C. but some buildings have twelve stories. Ornamental features like turrets can extend above the limit as long as they are purely aesthetic and aren't used for residences or offices.

• I voted for NYC, but my god this shot of LA is beautiful!

  http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2580/4096117441_f0d5620650_z.jpg%3Fzz%3D1

• LA, hands down.

• Detroit has a receding skyline

• Los Angeles

• I love the shots of L.A. at night from an elevated place . It really does look like tinseltown then.

• I know I'll summon the haters, but Dallas's skyline is incredible.

• .

  http://www.bigskyline.com/images/Skyline-Los-Angeles-Night.jpg

• r79, Boring. Lots of the same kinds of buildings...just different heights. I'll give you points for the palm trees though.

  Try harder next time....

• Paris is the only city that has the sophistication of an aerial view. No city in America can compare to the Arc De Triomphe and Eiffel Tower. So the basic question is invalid

• Australian here - but travelled quite a bit in the US - and always enjoy spending time there... Love New York of course - but I'm gonna hafta cast my vote for Chicago. Please don't tell my friends - both American and Australiansvwould probably disown me. They're all very NYC-centric - And the skyline there is amazing - and there is so much of it! But Chicago takes my breath away. It just has such an incredible array of truly wonderful buildings. Every time I go there I do a couple of tours/walks with Chicago Architectural Institute people - and I'm never disappointed. Beautiful skyline. AND I have a blast there - great city.... It's a toddling town :)

• LA, there is a point when you are driving down the Hollywood free way, and the downtown skyline comes into view. Awesome.

• [quote]Paris is the only city that has the sophistication of an aerial view. No city in America can compare to the Arc De Triomphe and Eiffel Tower. And don't forget everyone's favorite, the lovely Tour Montparnasse!!

  http://www.reuters.com/article/2008/11/14/us-travel-picks-ugly-idUSTRE4AD2V720081114

• Merde !

• As impressive as Chicago's is, "New York City takes my breath away," to quote the Ramones song. I consider myself to be lucky to be living on the other side of the Hudson. Unfortunately, all NJ has to offer is this . . .

  http://www.ronsaari.com/stockImages/newJersey/NewarkNJSkylineAtDusk1.php

• Why is Las Vegas even a choice? That skyline is a joke.

  http://peripheralvisionblog.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/lasvegas-pano.jpg

• Another view of Houston so you can feel the colors.

  http://www.ballardnatgas.com/images/houston_skyline.jpg

• Dallas has an amazing "blah" factor Minneapolis is pretty good.

  http://cbsdallas.files.wordpress.com/2010/11/img_5934.jpg%3Fw%3D420%26h%3D315

• Toledo, Ohio.

  Toledo%2C%20Ohio

• It's not fair to show Toledo, Ohio without the bridge. I like Toledo. You know they used to have a Steve's Ice Cream at Portside?

• At least Toledo doesn't put on any airs.

  Des%20Moines

• A quarter million people attended the opening weekend of Portside Toledo in 1984....

• R81, Paris doesn't have much of a skyline 'cause its foundation can't support skyscrapers.

• Arriving at Laguna Beach by sea always makes me finish my joint and just allow my awe struck eyes to absorb the THC.

• How can anyone from New Jersey neglect to mention the spectacular Jersey City on the Hudson's night skyline?

  http://rjdibella.com/pic/new_york_city_spring_2011/rjdibella_jersey_city_new_jersey_skyline_at_night_2011.jpg

• Houston? Atlanta? Haha! I laugh at your anonymity. Everyone in the world knows who I am by sight.

  http://www.flickr.com/photos/photopro/3758579613/lightbox/

• We all know that the "arch" is really a symbol of mockery toward the whores of East St. Louis.

• Pittsburgh by a mile.

  http://rwrant.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/Pittsburgh-Skyline.jpg

  Anonymous

• More Pittsburgh.

  http://www.ronsaari.com/stockImages/pennsylvania/PittsburghSkylineAtDuskPanoramic.php

  Anonymous

• These Pittsburgh skyline shots put other cities to shame.

  https://www.google.com/search%3Fq%3Dpittsburgh+skyline%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Doff%26prmd%3Dimvns%26tbm%3Disch%26tbo%3Du%26source%3Duniv%26sa%3DX%26ei%3DUiL3T9i0OKWO6AHLpvS5Bg%26sqi%3D2%26ved%3D0CHEQsAQ%26biw%3D1600%26bih%3D732

  Anonymous

• NYC until the construction of the twin towers in the 60's -- that threw everything off balance, and the skyline never recovered. The rectangles that followed eclipsed the wonderfully romantic shapes that had echoed the city's aspirations. Then again, those aspirations changed too, so perhaps they are reflected in the banality of the new additions to the skyline.

• houston or chicago new is not what it use to be.

• Whoever makes these lists has obviously never been to Pittsburgh

• Charlotte

• Cincinnati, when served over spaghetti.

• Minneapolis

• Pittsburgh has the perfect American city skyline. Other cities should strive for its beauty and balance.

  Philadelphian%2C%20bored%20by%20our%20skyline

• Chicago in the lead? Please. Nothing of note has been built in Chicago for 40 years. And nothing compares to the multi-sided, diverse, extensive and complex Manhattan skyline in America. As for other nations, well, new money always is cheap and overextends itself. Asian cities look like a cross between Vegas and a close-up of the dirty bristles of a hairbrus

  St.%20Louisan%2C%20and%20therefore%20humbly%20impartial

• Pittsburgh looks like something you'd see in a generic skyline snowglobe at the Goodwill store. Itsy, precious and over-controlled, because the lack of dynamics allowed it.

• h. Closing out R109.