Skylines: Paris vs. Houston

[New Brisavoine]

Paris vs. Houston. Courtesy of the French forumer Substructure at Skyscrapercity. Note that there is no photo manipulation whatsoever. These are real pictures of the two cities.

[Dan Denson]

I don't know the Paris skyline very well (looks great, though), but the there are other angles of the Houston skyline that show it to be more massive than the photo shown in the post.

[ady26]

My vote goes to...Paris

[TXLove]

Whoa those look so simular.... That Houston photo seems dated though because One Park Place isn't there or Hess tower which is under contruction would be visible from that angle! My vote hometown bias HOUSTON!

[Troyeth]

I think the more difficult question is which skyline is less visually boring.

[Exodus]

Originally Posted by Troyeth

I think the more difficult question is which skyline is less visually boring.

Spot on

[diskojoe]

this is such a silly thread. i love houston but would drop everything fora chance to move to paris. the city is lovely and has everything. Houston is an infant when it comes to cities and if given a another 1000 years to advance would still not compare to paris.

sorry guys.

[urbanlife]

plus Paris's skyline sits on the edge of the city and from what I have heard is very corporate and boring...besides, who wants to see a collection of office buildings in Paris?

[Troyeth]

Not me.

These types of comparisons continually reaffirm my core belief that skyscrapers are nothing to truly write home about. It is about the cities in which they are located!

[Phil McAvity]

Originally Posted by Troyeth

These types of comparisons continually reaffirm my core belief that skyscrapers are nothing to truly write home about.

If you believe that why would you join a site called skyscraperpage?

That first pic shows what an impressive and usually overlooked skyline Paris has. One of our city councillors here in Victoria once said, "Paris has no tall buildings" at which point, not surprisingly, some laughed at her. Yes, these are the kind of people we have as civic leaders in Victoria. I believe that Paris' skyline is more impressive and has better architecture than Houston's, even if Paris' buildings aren't as tall.

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.

New Brisavoine, good job. You have made a compelling argument in comparing two cities that are completely different.

[Metro Matt]

Originally Posted by Phil McAvity

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.completely different.

How is Houston deprived because it has a 900 ft. tall buildings located several miles away from its CBD? I find it quite amazing a city like Houston can have such large multiple skylines & lonely skyscrapers scattered all over the 500+ sq mi landscape. Everywhere you look in Houston you see tall buildings, not just in one confined area like most cities.

Houston's 2nd tallest building in Uptown & near the Williams Tower, San Felipe Plaza is 650 ft. tall. It tends to get over looked though because of its location in Uptown right next to residential neighborhoods, a school, & church.

[SouthmoreAve]

Originally Posted by Metro Matt

How is Houston deprived because it has a 900 ft. tall buildings located several miles away from its CBD? I find it quite amazing a city like Houston can have such large multiple skylines & lonely skyscrapers scattered all over the 500+ sq mi landscape. Everywhere you look in Houston you see tall buildings, not just in one confined area like most cities.

Houston's 2nd tallest building in Uptown & near the Williams Tower, San Felipe Plaza is 650 ft. tall. It tends to get over looked though because of its location in Uptown right next to residential neighborhoods, a school, & church.

what i took from it is that their main skylines got deprived of such a tall/prestigious buildings. Have you imagined how DT Houston would look with another 900 footer?

But then we couldn't really have such an awesome 2nd skyline that makes other cities jealous.....

[Phil McAvity]

Originally Posted by Metro Matt

I find it quite amazing a city like Houston can have such large multiple skylines & lonely skyscrapers scattered all over the 500+ sq mi landscape. Everywhere you look in Houston you see tall buildings, not just in one confined area like most cities.

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 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.

[New Brisavoine]

Originally Posted by Phil McAvity

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.

Originally Posted by Phil McAvity

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).

[betterthannothing]

[/QUOTE]

That's a great photo...la defense is looking pretty good...a couple more talss i would consider moving to paris

[TexasPlaya]

Originally Posted by Phil McAvity

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.

[Minato Ku]

Originally Posted by urbanlife

besides, who wants to see a collection of office buildings in Paris?

Paris is full of office buildings with over 500 million sq ft.
The only city with more offices in the whole north and south american continents is New York.
La Defense is only a small part of this huge amount. (7%)

[urbanlife]

Originally Posted by Minato Ku

Paris is full of office buildings with over 500 million sq ft.
The only city with more offices in the whole north and south american continents is New York.
La Defense is only a small part of this huge amount. (7%)

I should rephrase that, I mean office towers, not buildings in general.

[Minato Ku]

Yeh I understood but many people tends to confuse office with skyscrapers or glass building and in Paris many office building are 19th and 20th century building or at least the facade (facadism is really common in Paris).

Anyway Paris needs more office space and also needs to rebuild a large part of its stock but inside the well served by transportation district the place lacks.
You don't have many other choise to build taller, so I think that in future we will see many new skyscrapers outside la Defense, especially in district Montparnasse, Issy les Moulineaux, Bercy...

Tourists will maybe be upset but the industries that need office space are much more important for our economy, employ far more people than tourism related industries.

[Bailey]

Originally Posted by urbanlife

plus Paris's skyline sits on the edge of the city and from what I have heard is very corporate and boring...besides, who wants to see a collection of office buildings in Paris?

Houston also has two other rather large clusters of buildings so I'm not sure if this is true for Paris.