List of the 25 Tallest US Skylines based on the average height of the 50 tallest buildings in the primary zone (central business district and extending out 10miles). Only cities with 50 or more buildings that are 200ft(61m) or greater were included.
This video is part of a series that explores several metrics for measuring skylines.
• Top US Skylines (Best...
Typically when ranking the tallest skylines most list primarily rank cities by the number of skyscrapers(492ft/150m) or alternatively by the average height of the tallest 5 or 10 buildings. Although these approaches are quick and easy, they easily skew the objective data. Using the first method , Honolulu , which has no building over 492ft (150m), would not make the list; yet it's avg height , far excels quite a few cities. It is also one of only 10 US cities (primary zones) with over 100 buildings surpassing 300ft. The alternative methods typically use small sample sizes which greatly skews the data. When using this method, Miami would rank significantly lower, even though it far excels the vast majority of cities in number of buildings over 492ft (150m). For example : The average height of Philadelphia's 50 tallest is 120feet lower than average of Miami's 50 tallest; Miami has 70 buildings over 492ft while Philadelphia only has 18 buildings over 492ft, yet when using a smaller sample Philadelphia would rank significantly higher due to the height of it's tallest three towers.
We also looked at the avg height of all the skylines using the tallest 5,10,25,50, and 100 buildings and decided 50-buildings was the best sample size to truly reflect the height of the skylines. There is no change in the ranking of the top 12 skylines when comparing the avg of the 50 tallest buildings versus the avg of the 100 tallest buildings. At the 50 building sample size, the average of all the buildings across all the cities listed was 486.24ft (148.02m). This value is closer to the 492ft (150m) used in the more popular method. So we assert that the 50-buildings sample size is a metric that allows the inclusion of Honolulu (typically excluded ) and allows some cities with quite a few buildings just below the 492 mark to be better reflected.
Some interesting notes:
-Only 10 core cities(primary zones) listed have over one hundred 300ft+ tall buildings (the top 9 as delineated in the video and Honolulu which replaces Dallas on the list).
-Only 4 core cities (primary zones) listed have over two hundred 250ft+ tall buildings (NYC,Chicago, Miami, Atlanta)
-Only 5 core cities ( primary zones) listed have over three hundred 200ft+ tall buildings (NYC,Chicago, Miami, Atlanta, San Francisco)
Zone are typically defined as followed:
Primary Zone (City Core)- 0-10miles from the CBD (CBD included )
Secondary Zone- 10-20miles from the CBD
Tertiary Zone- 20-30miles from the CBD
The majority of the metropolitan areas have most of their high-rises/skyscraper developments in the Primary Zone (City Core).
In the data presented, some large secondary business districts that exists within the primary zones are already included. Namely Jersey City, Long Island City Queens, Brooklyn, Atlanta Buckhead, and Houston-Uptown. All of these area have a minimum of 50 Buildings over 200ft and would replace several cities if listed separately. Jersey City-13, Brooklyn-15, Long Island City -16, Atlanta -Buckhead -24. and Houston-Uptown 26.
The data also includes high-rises and skyscrapers that are actively under construction as of July 2023 and that are scheduled to be completed by December 2025. Developments that have topped out but are currently stalled are also included. (example: Oceanwide LA)
There should be a global push amongst those who maintain skyline databases to standardize the terms used in the industry.
For all practical purpose, I suggest adding two new terms to the lexicon; "Skyrise " and also "Starscraper" instead of supertall.
Lowrise for buildings under 49m
Highrise for buildings 50m to 99m
"Skyrise" for buildings 100m - 149m
Skyscraper for buildings 150m-299m
"Starscraper" for buildings 300m and greater
Thanks for reading down this far. :-)
Please Subscribe, comment and provide constructive feedback.
Timecodes
0:00 - Intro
0:14 - St Louis skyline
0:25 - Phoenix skyline
0:37 - Cleveland skyline
0:48 - New Orleans skyline
1:00 - Pittsburgh skyline
1:12 - Nashville skyline
1:23 - Detroit skyline
1:34 - San Diego skyline
1:46 - Charlotte skyline
1:58 - Honolulu skyline
2:09 - Denver skyline
2:21 - Minneapolis skyline
2:32 - Austin skyline
2:44 - Las Vegas skyline
2:55 - Boston skyline
3:07 - Dallas skyline
3:18 - Philadelphia skyline
3:30 - Seattle skyline
3:41 - San Francisco skyline
3:53 - Atlanta skyline
4:04 - Los Angeles skyline
4:16 - Houston skyline
4:28 - Miami skyline
4:39 - Chicago skyline
4:51 - New York skyline