Skyline Killers

MolsonExport · #1 Posted **Nov 21, 2022, 4:20 PM**

Skyline Killers: those wretched buildings that (partially) wreck the skyline.

Most often, you see them on the waterfront. Hence their killer ability, as they cannot be easily covered up without land reclamation in front of these skyline killers.

Prototypical exemplars:
Toronto's Harbour Castle and adjacent fugly concrete monstrosities (to the left), right on the waterfront, which act like a wall, Kowloonian-style.

tripadvisor

Toronto's skyline has transformed over the past twenty years, but those fuglies still mar the waterfront.

images c/o BlogTO

Lower Manhattan. You know which buildings I am talking about. Those fugly hulking things, to the right, on the waterfront. Blocking the view of the lovely lower Manhattan beauties from the 1920s/30s.

pond5

poo

Montreal: Palais de Justice. Rising like some dystopian monolith from the otherwise lovely Vieux Montreal.

laPresse

MAC123 · #2 Posted **Nov 21, 2022, 4:25 PM**

Even ignoring the silly idea of a building ruining a skyline, your first example doesn't work at all.

Not only do they not ruin the skyline, they're barely noticeable at all especially right now during the boom Toronto is undergoing. Plus CN tower and the stadium take up most people's attention when looking at the skyline, and will probably continue to do so after the big skyscrapers around it are complete.

As for downtown Manhattan, those buildings have become part of that area in their own right.

MolsonExport · #3 Posted **Nov 21, 2022, 4:27 PM**

It isn't a silly idea, and I am not the first one to raise the issue. There are buildings that significantly detract from the skyline. This is the subject of this thread. Those buildings in Toronto are extremely conspicuous on the waterfront. I live near Toronto and I see them regularly in the flesh.

Nouvellecosse · #4 Posted **Nov 21, 2022, 10:44 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

It isn't a silly idea, and I am not the first one to raise the issue. There are buildings that significantly detract from the skyline. This is the subject of this thread. Those buildings in Toronto are extremely conspicuous on the waterfront. I live near Toronto and I see them regularly in the flesh.

I've complained about those brutalist monstrosities before. I often like brutalism but not those examples. I wouldn't say that they kill the skyline, but they're sort of like pimples on an otherwise attractive face. The person is still attractive but the pimples sure don't help things. No offense to anyone with acne of course. I'm sure you're still gorgeous.

bilbao58 · #5 Posted **Nov 21, 2022, 4:57 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

My sister recently made a comment about the Royal York being visible from the lake. I was like: “Not anymore!”

As for skyline killers in New York, I am not at all fond of the skinny supertall sticks on “Billionaire’s Row.”

Rico Rommheim · #6 Posted **Nov 21, 2022, 7:03 PM**

Shame about the hidden Royal York. It's a gem.

llamaorama · #7 Posted **Nov 21, 2022, 7:27 PM**

I think the calatrava bridges over the glorified drainage ditch known as the trinity river spoil the look of Downtown Dallas. They aren’t even real suspension bridges they have supports under them. I think they are a hideous waste.

Also nearly all the newer tall buildings in Austin are ugly to me. I don’t like the trend of buildings looking like asymmetrical jumbled boxes with cutouts for sky patios or whatever they call those.

AviationGuy · #8 Posted **Nov 22, 2022, 1:15 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by llamaorama

I think the calatrava bridges over the glorified drainage ditch known as the trinity river spoil the look of Downtown Dallas. They aren’t even real suspension bridges they have supports under them. I think they are a hideous waste.

Also nearly all the newer tall buildings in Austin are ugly to me. I don’t like the trend of buildings looking like asymmetrical jumbled boxes with cutouts for sky patios or whatever they call those.

Like most people I know, I like the bridges you mentioned in Dallas.

I also like most of the new talls in Austin. But not all.

MolsonExport · #9 Posted **Nov 21, 2022, 9:04 PM**

Many have complained about the emerging walls of blue glass (condo towers sprouting like toadstools after the rain) spoiling Vancouver and Toronto's skylines.

Rico Rommheim · #10 Posted **Nov 21, 2022, 10:34 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

Many have complained about the emerging walls of blue glass (condo towers sprouting like toadstools after the rain) spoiling Vancouver and Toronto's skylines.

My apparently constant complaining of Toronto's blue-green-generic-tower overkill got me in trouble with what's left of SSP's TO memebers. Fuck it. I love Toronto's skyline before it got clumsy and weird. I love Toronto's classic mid-century skyline, even though I concede that TO's urban fabric was full of holes.

xzmattzx · #11 Posted **Nov 23, 2022, 2:50 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

Many have complained about the emerging walls of blue glass (condo towers sprouting like toadstools after the rain) spoiling Vancouver and Toronto's skylines.

I was going to mention this. I used to like Toronto's skyline 15 years ago. You could see the Financial District. Now those distinctive Modernist and Postmodern commercial buildings, and the Royal York, are buried behind cookie-cutter condos.

xzmattzx · #12 Posted **Nov 23, 2022, 2:57 AM**

If tall buildings right on the waterfront tend to be the common skyline killers, where do the Purdy's Wharf buildings in Halifax stand as killers? Is their skyline not big enough to ruin things?

(Purdy's Wharf is such a hillbilly name, too. "You sure do have a purdy mouth!")

Nouvellecosse · #13 Posted **Nov 23, 2022, 3:28 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by xzmattzx

If tall buildings right on the waterfront tend to be the common skyline killers, where do the Purdy's Wharf buildings in Halifax stand as killers? Is their skyline not big enough to ruin things?

(Purdy's Wharf is such a hillbilly name, too. "You sure do have a purdy mouth!")

Purdy's Wharf basically is the centre piece of the skyline. It's the largest and one of the most distinctive elements. If a skyline killer is like an ugly pimple or wart on the skyline's face, Purdy's Wharf is like... the eyes.

MolsonExport · #14 Posted **Nov 23, 2022, 1:39 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by xzmattzx

(Purdy's Wharf is such a hillbilly name, too. "You sure do have a purdy mouth!")

SIGSEGV · #15 Posted **Nov 21, 2022, 10:52 PM**

Boston's Rowe's Wharf doesn't look that great IMO.

dc_denizen · #16 Posted **Nov 22, 2022, 12:17 AM**

The Verizon building next to the Brooklyn bridge , nyc

ChiSoxRox · #17 Posted **Nov 22, 2022, 12:29 AM**

These lovelies just east of downtown Minneapolis:

Which stick out in shots from the east:

(Augsburg U)

The worst angle is right by Augsburg's campus.

MolsonExport · #18 Posted **Nov 22, 2022, 2:01 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by ChiSoxRox

These lovelies just east of downtown Minneapolis:

Which stick out in shots from the east:

(Augsburg U)

The worst angle is right by Augsburg's campus.

ah yes, the infamous Crack Stacks of Minneapolis. I remember them well from my visit in 2003

Steely Dan · #19 Posted **Nov 22, 2022, 2:04 AM**

I love the Crack Stacks of Minneapolis!

Besides, they're both too small and too far removed to "kill" Minneapolis' absolutely gorgeous mid-size skyline.

Nite · #20 Posted **Nov 22, 2022, 2:27 AM**

As Toronto waterfront skyline gets wider and tall you hardly notice the Harbour Castle buildings

next year at this time this skyline view will have 2 new large peak at either end of this photo which will yet diminishing the effects of Harbour Castle.

They still also add to the night time waterfront skyline however