# Cities that should NOT have skyscrapers



## Xusein (Sep 27, 2005)

Quall said:


> Niagara Falls should have never had skyscrapers, but it's kinda cool to have a hotel room overlooking the falls.


NF has a horrible skyline. I can see it from my balcony. Reminds me of Vegas (and that's not a good thing to me).


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## Metsada (Oct 22, 2006)

Somehow I can't imagine Rome having skyscrapers.


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## jcarloschile (Jul 12, 2008)

I think London should not have so many skyscrapers in the City....that's my personal opinion.


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## the spliff fairy (Oct 21, 2002)

Athens, a brilliant 20th Century unison, skyscrapers would break up the amazing midrise density (once with some of the densest districts in the world),
a sea of 6-12 storey blocks:

(This is an old pic btw, the buildings have been cleaned since the Olympic makeover)









www.soest.hawaii.edu
















www.athensguide.com









www.airphotos.gr

zooming out:









www.airphotos.gr

and out:










and OUT. The area pictured above is circled in blue below:


http://asterweb.jpl.nasa.gov

rare lowrises near the Acropolis:









www.flickr.com









www.imageshack.us


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## Blackpool88 (Nov 15, 2007)

jcarloschile said:


> I think London should not have so many skyscrapers in the City....that's my personal opinion.


I think its quite a good example of how a mixture of old and new can be the perfect combination actually. 1000 year old churches next to the Gherkin.


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## WeimieLvr (May 26, 2008)

I can think of MANY U.S. cities that are beautiful the way they are...I can't really imagine skyscrapers in any of these:

Frederick, MD - pop. 59,000








http://www.flickr.com/photos/avi8tor4fn/2189894925/


Annapolis, MD - pop. 36,000








http://www.flickr.com/photos/taylorbunnag/2497742039/


Charleston, SC - pop. 127,00








http://www.flickr.com/photos/bobindrums/2493594780/in/photostream/


Charlottesville, VA - pop. 45,000








http://www.flickr.com/photos/madaboutcows/2745876644/


Key West, FL - pop. 26,000








http://www.flickr.com/photos/[email protected]/2355942520/


Juneau, AK - pop. 31,000








http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1263/532465162_6fca9cac48.jpg?v=0


Santa Fe, NM - pop. 72,000








http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Santa_Fe_NM.jpg


Wilmington, NC - pop. 100,000








http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Wilm4.jpg


Athens, GA - pop. 113,000








http://www.flickr.com/photos/panoryanama/339779858/sizes/l/


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## the spliff fairy (Oct 21, 2002)

Prague









www.landiss.com















Donald Roberts, http://www.isp.msu.edu, www.telegraph.co.uk








http://photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=4346391&size=lg








www.golftrotter.com









www.golftrotter.com
















www.come2prague.com, www.vrakastours.gr


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## bobbycuzin (May 30, 2007)

machu picchu
shangri la
atlantis


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## Persiancat (Jan 30, 2009)

^^Isfahan, Iran


















It's a musuim of Persian artitecture itself and skyscraper will just ruin its beauty


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## foadi (Feb 15, 2006)

unlike some ppl on here i actually like skyscrapers. i want the entire world to be one big city one day so i dont care where they get built.


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## the spliff fairy (Oct 21, 2002)

plurality my liege, plurality


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## Assemblage23 (Jan 6, 2008)

@the spliff fairy

Prague does have some highrises (don't know them by name, but when I was there I saw them from the distance), but they are far from the historic centre.


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## spongeg (May 1, 2006)

Blackpool88 said:


> I think its quite a good example of how a mixture of old and new can be the perfect combination actually. 1000 year old churches next to the Gherkin.


yeah i like the justoposition in london

I saw some rendering showing all the planned skyscrapers for London and it completely ruins it - in 10-20 years its not gonna be nice at all like it is now hno:


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## GENIUS LOCI (Nov 18, 2004)

Liwwadden said:


> Rome.
> ..


In Rome there are few 80m or so highrises and planned skyscrapers of 100+ m

Obviously no one of 'em is in the city center


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## nestor morales (Feb 1, 2008)

Jerusalem
Quito
Cuzco
Athenas
Praha
Budapest
Stockolme
Copenhaguen


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## taboe (Jan 30, 2007)

Hittite said:


> Istanbul,Athens and I can add so so many cities to that list..


I feel a lot of people just name cities they don't know at all... 
Rome, Istanbul, Athens, Munich???? What a ridiculous idea that they shouldn't have skyscrapers! As if the entire city is historic. 
This is the future skyline of Istanbul btw:










That doesn't seem like a bad thing, does it?

And if there's one thing Athens needs, it's skyscrapers instead of those millions of ugly appartment lowrises...


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## taboe (Jan 30, 2007)

nestor morales said:


> Jerusalem
> *Quito*
> Cuzco
> Athenas
> ...


Quito is already full of skyscrapers (albeit rather modest ones):










And I like images like this one:


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## Blackpool88 (Nov 15, 2007)

spongeg said:


> yeah i like the justoposition in london
> 
> I saw some rendering showing all the planned skyscrapers for London and it completely ruins it - in 10-20 years its not gonna be nice at all like it is now hno:


well it's a good job that 90% of what you saw will most probably never happen, and right now it already is a mix of old and new and as you say, it's nice, a couple more high quality scrapers isn't gonna change that.

And to WeimieLvr, why would those cities in the US ever get skyscrapers? they're absolutely tiny, they are hardly big enough to even be considered cities.


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## GENIUS LOCI (Nov 18, 2004)

taboe said:


> And I like images like this one:


I think New York should not have Skyscrapers


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## Mr Bricks (May 6, 2005)

Why Athens? Aside from Acropolis there seem to be hardly anything old left in that city.


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## dösanhoro (Jun 24, 2006)

Some of those cities thing which limits the usefulness of skyscrapers is their size and available land. In or outside of historic centers. Reykjavik can get decent density without skyscrapers really. 

Imo some small skyscraper agglomeration outside of historic center wouldn't be so bad in Vienna. Though I think something should be razed in that case. Viennoise can tell me more. I saw there some grittyish looking industrial/business development. 

Moscow is getting a lot of skyscrapers at the moment. 

My nomination is Dubrovnik .....


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## phillybud (Jul 22, 2007)

*Madison*



Squiggles said:


> Madison, WI
> 
> I know it's not exactly a big city, but it has incredible density downtown with buildings 8-15 stories high. There's scores of them, and to build taller than that would ruin the skyline.


I went to Madison for the first time two years ago. The state capitol building was very elegant and grand. It was the university campus that impressed me ... I went to the college of agriculture shop and bought lots of cheese! Yum! :lol:


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## ckm (Apr 7, 2006)

ØlandDK said:


> Why would a little town like Andorra la Vella need skyscrapers?


Andorra could have a few skyscrapers and I bet it would look way better. 

The city is extremely dense due to physical restrictions (built in a tiny valley surrounded by mountains). Many new residencial developments are directly built in the slopes, and the city-center is a mess of medium-height buildings (4-7 floors) with narrow (and jammed) roads.


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## ØlandDK (May 29, 2005)

D.D. said:


> Copenhagen, Stokholm, Moscow, kyoto, Raykjavik , Oslo, Paris, Beijin, cairo, Viena, Sofia, Amsterdam and Dublin.


Any reason why these cities shouldn't have skyscrapers?


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## D.D. (Nov 26, 2007)

Kyoto, Paris, Beijin, Cairo, and Sofia are and should be historic cities and must conserve their heritage. 
The rest of cities idk, is hard to explain, but i feel that they don't fit in the categories of having skyscrapers..


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## Hindustani (Jul 9, 2004)

*Istanbul* : Turkish minarets around the ottoman mosques & Hagia Sofia are wonderful to look at. They look like rockets about to be launched. so pointy. Looks absolutely breathtaking from a distance. nothin should come in the way & obscure it.

*Agra*: Must leave the city of Taj Mahal alone. No need to built anything higher than 3-floors. Nothing like looking at Taj at sunset from a roof top of every house. So heavenly. So Godly. so romantic. No need to dwarf it.


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## Küsel (Sep 16, 2004)

Bern









Unfortunatly he othskirts look like that... fortunatly not close to the old town:


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## Ribarca (Jan 28, 2005)

D.D. said:


> Kyoto, Paris, Beijin, Cairo, and Sofia are and should be historic cities and must conserve their heritage.
> The rest of cities idk, is hard to explain, but i feel that they don't fit in the categories of having skyscrapers..


I have been to Kyoto and Beijing and besides the monuments there is very little historic about these cities.


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## dösanhoro (Jun 24, 2006)

Reminds me of Zurich. Far away you could see commieblocks. Those are neither tall nor skyscrapers but they create a skyline. I think in that case maybe it could have been possible to get less skyscraperesque development with very similar cost.


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## D.D. (Nov 26, 2007)

Ribarca said:


> I have been to Kyoto and Beijing and besides the monuments there is very little historic about these cities.


exactly! they should conserve what ever little is left :|


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## AltinD (Jul 15, 2004)

^^ So to conserve that little left they should not upgrade the rest of the city?


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## AltinD (Jul 15, 2004)

Minato ku said:


> This is your opinion but fortunely for Parisian and french and unfortunely for tourist Central Paris is not a museum made for american wanting to see the old world.
> You couldn't tranform the center, the heart of public transportation of a 12 million metropolis in a museum.
> 
> Paris offert one of largest estate of office in the world with over 500 million sq ft and a low vacantie rate. Unfortunely half of these office are outdated.
> ...


I agree with this. We hear those kind of comments ebeerytime, often disguised behind the cloak of need for art, history, green parks or predominance of outdoor pedestrian lifestyle in extreme weather condition places.


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## brisavoine (Mar 19, 2006)

Minato ku said:


>





Mr Bricks said:


> ^Hopefully that will never happen


That's being discussed at the moment though. Jean Nouvel is advocating the building of skyscrapers next to the Montparnasse Tower, and he is quite right in my opinion.

Sooner or later, they will build other skyscrapers at Montparnasse. That's almost inevitable given the pressure on office real estate in Paris and the new dogma of preventing urban sprawl and densifying the central areas.


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## Saigoneseguy (Mar 6, 2005)

ALL cities should have skyscrapers, all built around the old town, itself enclosed in a glass dome of proportionate size.


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## sebvill (Apr 13, 2005)

Cuzco.









If they ever build skyscrapers here, I hope is away from the city center and also with bricks facade, like some buildings in Bogota... then the buildings will look orange-redish like Cuzco rooftops.


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## waccamatt (Mar 7, 2004)

I love this dog enjoying the view.


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## dösanhoro (Jun 24, 2006)

Like if the tourists cared about levelling mid rises from the 60s or 70s . Basically you all could agree with me. Build something like la defense. Are there any former industrial areas with industry being out of style nowadays to develop in Paris?

Maybe the ugly mid rises will be valued in 40 years more than people can ever imagine today. The 60s certainly lacked style. But a lot of the 'classical' architecture of the 1900s to 1930s period was basically outdated buildings a couple decades old for the 'futuristic' minds of the 60s. Today everyone condemns their will for destruction and lack of style. I don't think the 60s have a bad reputation because of it's relative age to this day but because of ita infamous lack of style and class.


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## manila_eye (Aug 12, 2008)

i hate it when london started accepting those boxes.


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## alheaine (Jan 11, 2009)

*Baguio City, Philippines: A Tribute*










Baguio City was established by Americans in 1900 at the site of an Ibaloi village known as Kafagway. Baguio City was designated by the Philippine Commission
as the Summer Capital of the Philippines on June 1, 1903 and incorporated as a city by the Philippine Assembly on September 1, 1909. 

There is a presidential mansion, as well as supreme court and legislative offices in Baguio. Baguio is the seat of government of the Cordillera Administrative Region.
The name of the city is derived from the word bagiw in Ibaloi, the indigenous language of the Benguet Region, meaning 'moss'.

The city is at an altitude of approximately 1500 meters (5100 ft) in a moist tropical pine forest
conducive to the growth of mossy plants and orchids.



1940s Baguio





















1980s Baguio




















Baguio Earthquake

Looking back, it was exactly 4:26 p.m. on Monday, 16 July 1990, that a killer earthquake unexpectedly hit and extensively devastated
the City of Baguio. As reported, the powerful temblor measured 7.7 in the open-ended Richter scale and lasted for 45 seconds.
It was said to be the most destructive earthquakeon record within the Cordillera Region.
There were numerous aftershocks that followed and the strongest, which occured at 3:15 a.m. of July 18, lasted for eight seconds...
and measured 5.3 on the Richer scale.
The five-star Hyatt Terraces Plaza sustained the worst damage when its terraced front collapsed onto the lobby area,
killing about 50 people. The Baguio Park Hotel along Harrison Road was a total wreck. 
The luxurious Nevada Hotel which is located right across from the main gate of Camp John Hay was ripped in half by the quake, 
leaving a huge gash in the middle of the structure. 
The Saint Vincent Catholic Church along Naguilian Road was spared by the strong quake, 
however a portion of its retaining wall and parking area was damaged and collapsed to the road below. 
The church, which has withstood typhoons, bombings during the 2nd World War, 
and other disasters, suffered only minor damage.































































































































The Philippine Military Academy at Fort Del Pilar was also one of the worst hit portions in the city. 
The parade ground mushroomed into a tent city where cadets pitched tents after their barracks was destroyed. 
There were many other buildings and familiar landmarks of Baguio which were damaged and classified as hazards. 
These included the Skyworld Condominium and Commercial Center along Session Road, 
The Royal Inn at Magsaysay Avenue, and the controversial Baguio Hilltop Hotel which was constructed on a hill behind the Baguio Public Market. 
Because of the extensive devastation, Baguio City was described to be a virtual "war zone." 
Also, it was running low on water, fuel, food, and other miscellaneous basic 
necessities to include much-needed medicines for the injured and sick people. 



21st Century Baguio


























































































^^
Due to its limited length the runway is restricted to commuter size aircraft. The airport is used primarily by helicopters, turbo-prop and piston 
engine aircraft, although on rare occasion light business jets (LBJ) have flown into the airport.























































































































































































The city of is known for its comparatively mild climate. It is because of this that Baguio is nicknamed the "Summer Capital of the Philippines". 
Owing to its high elevation and altitude, temperatures in the city are much lower than the norm for most of the country. 
During the year-end holiday months, temperatures regularly average from 13.8 to 23.3 degrees Celsius. 
The lowest ever recorded temperature was 6.3 degrees Celsius on January 18, 1961. 
This is in contrast to the all-time high of 30.4 degrees Celsius 
recorded on March 15, 1988 during the 1988 El Nino season.
















































According to the 2007 census, Baguio City has a population of 301,926.
The City of Baguio will be celebrating its Centennial on September 1, 2009. The celebrations will mark
the first 100 years of the Baguio City Charter, 
which was authored by former Philippines Supreme Court Justice George A. Malcolm.


















































Baguio Twilight


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## GENIUS LOCI (Nov 18, 2004)

I see people over here keep on naming cities which have skyscrapers yet...

And I dont' understand if they're meaning it would have been better not to build those skyscrapers in the past, or they mean they don't want to see skyscrapers just in city centers of those cities or they just don't want to see 'em built anymore, or simply they don't know the cities they're naming

It would be better for people to be more specific about the matter: just listing is someway confusing


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## christos-greece (Feb 19, 2008)

waccamatt said:


> I love this dog enjoying the view.


And few highrises/skyscrapers would be great in Athens skyline


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## Manila-X (Jul 28, 2005)

When I see it, Athens is better off without high-rises.


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## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

What is the approach the Greeks are taking on building skyscrapers? Are they moving all these new developments to a specific plot of land outside the historic core, much like La Defense, or are they in-filling?


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## OMH (Aug 21, 2007)

Minato ku said:


> La Defense is also surrounded by many old buildings and why you speak of great ancient building in the neirly area, I just see some average 19th early 20th century haussmannian buildings.
> 
> I don't know how boring would be rue de Rennes without Montparnasse tower.


Actually this, according to you "boring" Hausmannian buildings make Paris what it is...the ultimative, almost perfect urban city! 
Your pic shows it beautifully, they're of a perfect size-neither too high nor too low,(6-9 stories) , and with the cafés,restaurants & shops on the street level they create a very pleasurable, very urban (walking) experience that gives Paris it's unique, cosmopolitan feeling...skyscrapers can be very beautiful too, and Paris shows some examples with the planned towers in La Defense (Phare, Generali etc.)(ok, maybe they aren't beautiful but certainly they have interesting architecture).
You can't say that about the 13th arrondissement , though, and IMO would look much more beautiful if the buildings would be lower or at least of a more interesting architecture. So , this why i'm saying that highrises and esp. skyscrapers should be only build close to the Peripherique in Paris (not necessarily outside but close to it, let's say no farther than 1 km) , and should be of high architectural quality (which means not just commieblocks like in the 13. arr. ) . 
In the inner, historical city of Paris where most buildings are from the 18th century or older , which means around the Louvre, Montmarte, & Tour Eiffel, building heights should be kept under 40m to fit in with the Haussmannian buildings , and thus continue to create this perfect street-rows of midrise apartment buildings. 
This obviously applies to all other cities with lots of historical architecture, like Rome, Prague or Jerusalem.


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## Minato ku (Aug 9, 2005)

Actually most building are from the 19th century and early 20th century. Without forgeting the 1960-70's that is by far the most active construction decade after Haussmann. This decade create many building even in the center, even just near the Eiffel tower, even near Montmartre, even in the Champs Elysees...

We never speak of building high-rises near the Notre Dame or other (here modern building low-rises would be better).
It is in district where skyscraper or high-rises already exist that we want build it and Montparnasse is one of them.

I agree that most high-rises in the 13th arrondissement are ugly but these were build in the 1970's.
Today high-rises are not like that.


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## UrbanImpact (Jan 10, 2005)

I think highrises would look fine in the Montparnasse district of Paris. Modern day glass clad skyscrapers look fantastic along classical buildings. It's the 70s international style crap that looks bad.


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## PedroGabriel (Feb 5, 2007)

That paris pictures (la defense?) looks great, without the tower it would look really boring. That old late 19th century/early 20th cent architecture may look nice in one street, but street after street, it must be the most boring and depressing thing to live in such a city. Diversity, people!!!


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## Minato ku (Aug 9, 2005)

^^ Anyway Paris is far more diverse architecturally than people believe.


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## Occit (Jul 24, 2005)

All cities can, should and must have skyscrapers


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## aaabbbccc (Mar 8, 2009)

Occit said:


> All cities can, should and must have skyscrapers


NO !!! not marrakech morocco and that is major metro area of 1.3 million people it does not need skyscrapers


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## poshbakerloo (Jan 16, 2007)

new york, dubai, chicago, hong kong.


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## NorthWesternGuy (Aug 25, 2005)

San Francisco...


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## drunkenmunkey888 (Aug 13, 2005)

I think that no city should absolutely not have skyscrapers, just some shouldn't have them in the downtown historic area. Like even Lhasa or Thimphu can use a La Defense type cluster in an inner suburb


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