Skyline Growth in Your City since the 1960s

[CaliNative]

In the early 1960s, the tallest buildings in Chicago were barely 600' tall (Prudential Tower and I believe the Board of Trade). In L.A., only one building was over 400' (City Hall), and another started construction in 1963 (Occidental Life). In San Francisco, only two were over 400', or three if you include the Hartford building completed in 1964. Wells Fargo and BA didn't start construction until the late 1960s. Minneapolis had only one (Foshay). St. Louis none over 400' (although the arch was under construction). Houston and Dallas just a few, Atlanta none. Miami, perhaps one. Boston one. Philadelphia and Pittsburgh a few. Seattle two over 400' (Smith tower, and the Space Needle if you want to include that). Toronto, one or two. The tallest building outside NYC was Cleveland's 720' Terminal Tower (Moscow Univ. Tower and Warsaw's Palace of Culture might be almost as tall).

San Diego CA, where I now live, now has a far bigger skyline than nearly all cities did in the early 1960s except for NYC and Chicago. That boggles my mind.

How has the skyline changed in your city since the early 1960s?

[JManc]

Houston had four over 400' as of 1963: 606' (Exxon), 502' (EP Energy), 428' (Chase) and 410' (N. Esperson). Exxon building is now the 19th tallest in Houston.

[Nite]

Toronto buildings over 400ft

1960: 2
1970: 7
1980: 20
1990: 26
2000: 33
2010: 58
2020: 154
2022: 228 (includes 59 U/C)

[CaliNative]

Originally Posted by Nite

Toronto buildings over 400ft

1960: 2
1970: 7
1980: 20
1990: 26
2000: 33
2010: 58
2020: 154
2022: 228 (includes 59 U/C)

Exponential growth.

[wwmiv]

Austin:




1960: 0
1970: 0
1980: 0
1990: 1 (in 1984)
2000: 1
2010: 8
2020: 16
…
2022: 18
…
~2024: 29 (including topped out and under construction)
…
~2026: ~32 (roughly including the three in site prep or demo)
…
2030: ~50 (there are over 20 active projects moving through the development process, some will not be built but many will and there will likely be new projects undoubtedly announced as well)

[CaliNative]

Originally Posted by JManc

Houston had four over 400' as of 1963: 606' (Exxon), 502' (EP Energy), 428' (Chase) and 410' (N. Esperson). Exxon building is now the 19th tallest in Houston.

Is the EP Energy building the one that used to be Tenneco? Are the Chase and N. Eperson 1920s buildings?

[CaliNative]

Originally Posted by wwmiv

Austin:




1960: 0
1970: 0
1980: 0
1990: 1 (in 1984)
2000: 1
2010: 8
2020: 16
…
2022: 18
…
~2024: 29 (including topped out and under construction)
…
~2026: ~32 (roughly including the three in site prep or demo)
…
2030: ~50 (there are over 20 active projects moving through the development process, some will not be built but many will and there will likely be new projects undoubtedly announced as well)

Austin may challenge Houston and Dallas eventually. I don't understand why San Antonio lags in skyscrapers. It is a big city, and a charming one too. Plus my mom was born there, so I have a warm spot in my heart for it. Perhaps San Antonians prefer suburban houses to hi rise living. Most new skyscraper construction in most cities is residential or hotel rather than office. San Antonio has a few hotel towers

[Yuri]

São Paulo

1 Platina 220 ——————— 172m — 2022
2 Mirante do Vale ————— 170m — 1960
3 Figueira Tatuapé ————- 168m — 2021
4 Edifício Itália ——————- 165m — 1965
5 Edifício Altino Arantes —— 161m — 1947

From having one of the tallest in the world outside the US in 1947 when the city had only 2 million people to having a tallest with only 170m till 2020 when had 21 million people…

[TempleGuy1000]

Philadelphia had a height limit that was called 'The Gentleman's Agreement' that said no building would be taller than the William Penn statue atop city hall. So for much of the city's history and especially in the 60s era, the skyline was relatively 'flat'.

The evolution:
1898 (I love this poster and just wanted to share. City Hall was the tallest building in the world at this time)




Philly's skyline looked more like Boston back in 50s/60s





Then the breaking of the agreement in 1987 and the birth of the modern skyline:


Center City West Now:

[Innsertnamehere]

Ah yes, the 1960’s.. the era of the Black Monolith in Toronto:

[TempleGuy1000]

Originally Posted by Innsertnamehere

Ah yes, the 1960’s.. the era of the Black Monolith in Toronto:

Incredible lol. I love old pictures like that. I'm sure the NIMBYs of the day were losing their minds.

[MolsonExport]

Originally Posted by Innsertnamehere

Ah yes, the 1960’s.. the era of the Black Monolith in Toronto:

[Innsertnamehere]

Originally Posted by TempleGuy1000

Incredible lol. I love old pictures like that. I'm sure the NIMBYs of the day were losing their minds.

it was the start of the race for the big Canadian banks to build their new HQs.. including one with real gold integrated into the windows to give it a gold colour..



today, the Black Monolith has multiplied with smaller siblings and is in itself largely dwarfed by the other Bank's eventual new HQs... but it's Mies Van Der Rohe design remains the most stately in my opinion:



The race by the big banks to build their new mega-complexes did lead to a NIMBY explosion - by the mid-1970's the City had instituted a strict 40-foot height limit citywide. It didn't last very long, but Toronto tried to direct growth away from the downtown for decades in the 80's and 90's, trying to push growth to the inner suburban centres like North York Centre. It didn't really work, but the NIMBYism was strong in it's intent. Other than Scotiabank building it's building (The big red one) in the late 1980's, Growth didn't really return to the core in large numbers until the 2000's.

[edale]

Originally Posted by wwmiv

Austin:




1960: 0
1970: 0
1980: 0
1990: 1 (in 1984)
2000: 1
2010: 8
2020: 16
…
2022: 18
…
~2024: 29 (including topped out and under construction)
…
~2026: ~32 (roughly including the three in site prep or demo)
…
2030: ~50 (there are over 20 active projects moving through the development process, some will not be built but many will and there will likely be new projects undoubtedly announced as well)

Austin's skyline boom makes no sense to me. It had such a small and weak skyline forever, and then it's like the city woke up one day and learned about skyscrapers and they just started sprouting all over the place. Still feels like a sleepy small city despite the high rise boom, which I guess is probably part of its charm. I don't get it though.

[pj3000]

Originally Posted by CaliNative

In the early 1960s... In L.A., only one building was over 400' (City Hall), and another started construction in 1963 (Occidental Life). In San Francisco, only two were over 400', or three if you include the Hartford building completed in 1964. Wells Fargo and BA didn't start construction until the late 1960s. Minneapolis had only one (Foshay). St. Louis none over 400' (although the arch was under construction). Houston and Dallas just a few, Atlanta none. Miami, perhaps one. Boston one. Philadelphia and Pittsburgh a few. Seattle two over 400' (Smith tower, and the Space Needle if you want to include that). Toronto, one or two. The tallest building outside NYC was Cleveland's 750' Terminal Tower (Moscow Univ. Tower and Warsaw's Palace of Culture might be almost as tall).

Pittsburgh had more than "a few" over 400' in the early 1960s.

It had 6, or 7, if you include One Oliver Plaza, which was U/C at the time.

Gulf Tower - 582'
Cathedral of Learning - 535'
Mellon Bank - 520'
One Oliver Plaza - 511'
Grant Building - 485'
Koppers Building - 475'
Alcoa Building - 410'

[pj3000]

Originally Posted by CaliNative

How has the skyline changed in your city since the early 1960s?

Like the case in many US cities, Pittsburgh saw its skyline shoot exponentially skyward in the 1970s and 80s. The city's tallest was the Gulf Tower at 582' from the 1930s until 1970, when it added the US Steel Tower at 841'. Also added 3 over 400', 3 over 600', and 1 over 700'.

Then... basically nothing too substantial in height for the next almost 30 years until the PNC Tower in 2015 at 564'.

* Interesting note about the US Steel Tower: was the tallest building in the world outside of NYC and Chicago for a couple years until the Transamerica Pyramid was completed in San Francisco.

[iheartthed]

Using the Wikipedia page for Detroit:

1920: 6
1930: 0
1940: 0
1950: 0
1960: 1
1970: 5 (all part of Renaissance Center)
1980: 1
1990: 1
2000: 0
2010: 0

So, 7 before 1970, and 7 completed since 1970. The Hudson's tower will be the first +400' building completed in Detroit since 1993.

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by pj3000

* Interesting note about the US Steel Tower: was the tallest building in the world outside of NYC and Chicago for a couple years until the Transamerica Pyramid was completed in San Francisco.

additionally, US Steel Tower remained one of the 10 tallest buildings on the planet outside of NYC and Chicago all the way until the late '80s when the explosive growth in 800+ foot towers really started to take off, both in North America and over in Asia.



as for Chicago, these kinds of tabulations are always a bit blurry because the stats are never 100% accurate/complete for buildings as low as 400', but the below is close enough for government work:

Chicago 400+ footers 1960: 24 (2nd most on the planet after NYC at the time)

Chicago 400+ footers today: 235 (includes U/C)

source: SSP diagrams


so roughly a 10x increase!



also, Chicago's tallest building in 1960 was the 605' tall art deco masterpiece, the CBoT Building, and today it doesn't even rank as one of the 50 tallest buildings in the the city (it's currently #54, and falling).

[JManc]

Originally Posted by CaliNative

Is the EP Energy building the one that used to be Tenneco? Are the Chase and N. Eperson 1920s buildings?

Yes and yes.

[Obadno]

I didnt do any counts and I wanted the same angle but here:

The new "city hall offices" in the early 1960's


And this is from maybe 4 years ago? missing some new residential 20stories in the back but good enough. Skyline is set to double again in the next 5 years roughly



Of course we could look at the suburban development but thats practically cheating.