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  #61  
Old Posted Sep 7, 2009, 7:15 AM
Metro Matt Metro Matt is offline
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Originally Posted by Phil McAvity View Post
You made my point by contradicting yourself. You can't have tall buildings everywhere if they are lonely and scattered all over the place. The overwhelming majority of land in Houston has no skyscrapers. It's too bad too because Houston would almost be able to give Chicago's skyline a run for it's money if the CBD were focused instead of spread out over a huge area. Southmore got my point exactly, Williams is a towering beauty that belongs downtown, not out in the suburbs. The same with Maine Montparnasse in Paris.
Have you ever been to Houston at all? The city has both multiple skylines and lonely skyscrapers scattered about the city. Heck, even The Woodlands & Clear Lake with their much stricter zoning laws have lonely skyscrapers, The Endeavor & Anadarko Tower which both stand at an impressive 400+ feet tall.

Houston has many "lonely" towers that don't fit into one specific skyline per se.

Here are just a few...

The Huntingdon
2727 Kirby
The Spires
Warwick Towers
Memorial Hermann Tower at Memorial City (becoming a whole new skyline)

Last edited by Metro Matt; Sep 7, 2009 at 7:35 AM.
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  #62  
Old Posted Sep 7, 2009, 3:00 PM
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Originally Posted by Metro Matt View Post
The low rise density in Paris is just crazy, but its also a much older city so what do you expect, Houston is a young city in comparison. Nothing in Paris except the Eiffel Tower can compare to Houston's sheer height. The little cluster of buildings shown is about the same size as Houston's 3rd tallest skyline, the Texas Medical Center.
This threads a little out of control...

DT Houston is much taller & filled in than Paris' la defense, no question
Houston has multiple skylines, however, only downtown is comparable to la defense
The other two, uptown & med ctr are nice, but lets not over rate them....
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  #63  
Old Posted Sep 7, 2009, 5:58 PM
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Nix.

Last edited by ChiPsy; Sep 7, 2009 at 9:22 PM.
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  #64  
Old Posted Sep 7, 2009, 6:36 PM
betterthannothing betterthannothing is offline
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Agreed. The earlier comment that Houston's skyline, if condensed, would give Chicago's "a run for its money" was hard to swallow given that the most recent boom alone added to downtown Chicago the equivalent of every tall (>300') building in all of metropolitan Houston.

That said, Houston's a fun place to see: Any hill (or highway ramp) you climb reveals a 180 degree vista of glimmering, attractive tall buildings. It's probably as dis-similar from Paris in both built form and cultural consanguinity as a big city can be, but it's a great addition to the North American skyscraper landscape.
This thread is going downhill....what's up with all this absurd comparison...first trying to compare Paris with Houston which is beyond madness..now Houston and Chicago...
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  #65  
Old Posted Sep 7, 2009, 9:21 PM
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^^^

That was a response to an earlier comment -- plus a small contribution to the Houston/Paris topic. But thanks for the insulting emoticon; those are always appreciated.

You're right, however, that the thread seems exhausted, for whatever it was worth to begin with.
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  #66  
Old Posted Sep 8, 2009, 12:36 AM
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Originally Posted by ChiPsy View Post
^^^

That was a response to an earlier comment -- plus a small contribution to the Houston/Paris topic. But thanks for the insulting emoticon; those are always appreciated.

You're right, however, that the thread seems exhausted, for whatever it was worth to begin with.
Insulting????wait now, hold your horses my friend...i'm just using the good ol' common sense
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  #67  
Old Posted Sep 8, 2009, 4:42 AM
Dan Denson Dan Denson is offline
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Why do you say its a bad photo? Is it because of the power lines and billboards?
Yeah...it's not your fault...didn't mean to imply that. I just hate that photo. I do love a lot of the ones that have been posted in this thread, though.
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  #68  
Old Posted Sep 8, 2009, 4:48 AM
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Well, I'll say this (hopefully won't piss anyone off). Just my opinion.

I would have loved for Paris to stay like it was, with no modern skyscrapers. I feel the same way about London. But they are what they are.

Modern skyscrapers fit Houston just fine. I hope that eventually taller structures will fill in the spaces between the current clusters. It's happening, but ever so slowly.
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  #69  
Old Posted Sep 8, 2009, 4:58 AM
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Originally Posted by ()_T View Post
How could someone compar Paris...

to this.
-------------->

Flickr Highway6
well, i do see a hooters in there.
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  #70  
Old Posted Sep 8, 2009, 9:57 AM
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Paris 100 Km away Houston 100 km away
Paris 0 Km away Houston 0 km away
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  #71  
Old Posted Sep 8, 2009, 1:58 PM
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Yeah, I'm kinda surprised we're still doing this too...

Let's let Paris be Paris, let Houston be Houston... and stop this senseless back and forth.

Nous avons de la chance pours la villes de Paris et Houston.
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  #72  
Old Posted Sep 10, 2009, 11:33 PM
New Brisavoine New Brisavoine is offline
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Originally Posted by Phil McAvity View Post
They both stuck huge towers (Maine Montparnasse in Paris and the Williams Tower in Houston), outside their CBD's so they both got deprived of an important part of their skylines.
Actually the Montparnasse Tower wasn't meant to be an isolated tower. It is only because of the 1974 Oil Shock, the ensuing economic crisis + the new French president who was opposed to the skyscrapers of his predecessor + the Paris public who were shocked by the height of the Montaparnasse Tower that all new projects were cancelled, and skyscraper construction in inner Paris was frozen. Now, after more than 30 years of construction freeze, it seems things are finally changing. The new Paris mayor has allowed again skyscrapers in the inner city. Not yet at Montparnasse, but more and more people say the Montparnasse Tower shouldn't be standing alone, so I'm quite optimistic that at some point a cluster of towers will emerge at Montparnasse next to the Montparnasse Tower. The location is perfect: huge train and subway interchange station, lots of crappy 1970s buildings that are only waiting to be demolished. In my opinion, Montparnasse has even more potential than La Défense, because it is more central, and built over streets like Manhattan or downtown Chicago (quite different from La Défense which doesn't have any streets and feels like an island disconnected from the city).

So the Montparnasse Tower should probably not stand forever alone. Even Jean Nouvel, the famous architect, argues that the Paris authorities should be bold and allow new towers at Montparnasse.
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Originally Posted by Phil McAvity View Post
New Brisavoine, good job. You have made a compelling argument in comparing two cities that are completely different.
Actually it is the forumer Substructure at Skyscrapercity who made the comparison between the Paris and Houston skylines. I merely posted his photomontage here, because I was curious what people thought about it.

A funny thing is Substructure probably didn't know it when he made his photomontage, but it is actually *I* who took the picture of the Paris skyline that he used in his photomontage. Since I took that picture 2 years ago, I've shown it to several American friends (I used to live in the US) and told them to guess the city. Well, most of them had no clue. Some asked me: "Is it Denver?" Others asked me: "Is it Houston?" Absolutely none of them guessed it was Paris, yet they know I now live in Paris. A funny experience really. It's just a picture that doesn't conform to what people expect Paris to be.

Anyway, here is another great pic of Paris La Défense which was found by the French forumer Cyril. It's already impressive enough today when you stand at ground level on the avenue in the middle of the picture, so I can't imagine how crazy it will be when the 5 planned supertalls are completed (it will be like adding 5 Eiffel Towers in that picture).

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  #73  
Old Posted Sep 11, 2009, 12:10 AM
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Originally Posted by Phil McAvity View Post
The one thing the two cities have in common? They both stuck huge towers (Maine Montparnasse in Paris and the Williams Tower in Houston), outside their CBD's so they both got deprived of an important part of their skylines.
I wouldn't want the Williams Tower in the CBD. First off, being in the CBD it would lose some of its awe as it would be surrounded by 500-700ft buildings. I'm sure it would definitely add to the CBD but it would really lose its iconic feel. Secondly, the Williams Tower reminds of a lighthouse (not because of the rotating light at the top) and is very iconic in the Uptown area. I live approximately 10 miles SW of it and I can see the top of it poking through the trees at certain places. I think it is perfect where it is.

I haven't been to Paris and have only seen pictures but it already has the Eiffel Tower as an iconic landmark.
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  #74  
Old Posted Sep 11, 2009, 1:48 AM
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the eiffel tower has a rotating beacon like the williams tower.

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  #75  
Old Posted Sep 11, 2009, 7:49 PM
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[/QUOTE]

That's a great photo...la defense is looking pretty good...a couple more talss i would consider moving to paris
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  #76  
Old Posted Sep 12, 2009, 4:48 PM
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what is that massive groundscraper on the right?
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  #77  
Old Posted Sep 12, 2009, 7:12 PM
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Montparnasse railway terminal.


Picture by Pline
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  #78  
Old Posted Sep 13, 2009, 11:17 AM
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Originally Posted by muppet View Post


what is that massive groundscraper on the right?
the highest skyscraper in france and paris since 1972 ! tour maine-montparnasse : 209 meters !
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  #79  
Old Posted Sep 13, 2009, 3:24 PM
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Originally Posted by i_am_hydrogen View Post
Not quite. According to Emporis, Houston has around 365 buildings completed and under construction. Chicago, on the other hand, has 1,138 buildings completed and under construction. Having said that, I still do like Houston's skyline.
If all of Houston's skylines were formed together, it would give Chicago a run for its money. They weren't talking about density, or amount of buildings, both of which Chicago would win, but just the length of the skyline. Put Houston's 3 "major" skylines(Downtown, Uptown, Texas Medical Center) next to each other or combine them and it will easily be the nation's 3rd best skyline.
Does anybody have a good picture of most of Houston's skyline from the ship channel bridge to prove my point??

And this really doesn't apply to other cities, because Houston has many minor "skylines" that can be added as well. Such as Greenspoint, Greenway Plaza, Upper Kirby/River Oaks, the Museum District's high-rises, Westchase, Energy Corridor, Memorial City, Allen Parkway's high-rises, and i suppose Midtown's buildings.
And most of these are at the least semi-dense clusters, and none of these are those airport low-rise districts, where there are many more of these in those forms scattered throughout the city.

Probably the only other cities might be LA or ATL, but im sure HOU has more "minor skylines/dense clusters" than they do. And ATL is really the only other city with 3 "major skylines". Correct me, if i exaggerated/am wrong.
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  #80  
Old Posted Sep 13, 2009, 4:56 PM
Phil McAvity Phil McAvity is offline
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Originally Posted by SouthmoreAve View Post
If all of Houston's skylines were formed together, it would give Chicago a run for its money. They weren't talking about density, or amount of buildings, both of which Chicago would win, but just the length of the skyline. Put Houston's 3 "major" skylines(Downtown, Uptown, Texas Medical Center) next to each other or combine them and it will easily be the nation's 3rd best skyline.
Eggzactly!

It's no different in Paris, if all of the residential high-rises in the city were built in and around La Defense, it would look more impressive than downtown Vancouver.

Last edited by Phil McAvity; Sep 13, 2009 at 5:25 PM.
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