Here, the World Almanac hits book stores before Thanksgiving! As inaccurate as it can be sometimes, I still look forward to it just to see what they got right this time because those lists have to stand for a whole year. Emporis can be rather inaccurate as well, but at least they don't have to wait a whole year to correct their data.
So as far as what city has the most high-rises, there has to be a substantial difference between cities to account for the inaccuracies. Also according to the 2006 Almanac of Design and Architecture, Miami had more high-rise construction going on at one time than any other city in the world except Dubai. It has slowed just as the market has cooled, but it has not stopped just as Brickell said it has not. Have a look at the Miami page of Emporis to get an idea of what we might see.
I came to the conclusion that Miami already had the 3rd biggest skyline in the coutry over a year ago before anybody else ever mentioned it. The list of approved projects for Miami on Emporis had gotten so long that I thought if not even half of them got out of the ground, Miami would have the 3rd biggest skyline in the country by 2010. Then, I got to thinking, "You know, the World Almanac counts buildings in U.S. cities 400 feet tall and up (except for New York and Chicago where they count nothing below 500 feet tall), and we have a lot of buildings already built or under construction that are just over 400 feet tall. I wonder." So I got out my calculator, went onto Emporis.com and added up all the heights of all the buildings either already built or under construction in all the U.S. cities that were possible contenders for 3rd: Dallas, Houston, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. It was just an intellectual exercise, and it took me a whole Saturday afternoon with rechecking the numbers and other things that I had to do. I wasn't expecting the result I got. I mean I was shocked. "WHAT? WE ARE ALREADY THERE!!! Then, the 2006 Almanac of Architecture and Design confirmed what I had already shockingly concluded myself. It doesn't matter whether a skyscraper is fully occupied or not as long as it got built and it has stories. South Florida has long been a playground for the rich where they had winter homes that weren't even occupied for half the year. That is simply the nature of the beast here. The most famous skyscraper in history, the Empire State Building, was a total flop when it opened because right after construction began, we had the stock market crash of 1929 following by the Great Depression. Thus for a time, it was known as the Empty State Building. It went on to make money and become fully-occupied after World War II.
With the attention and interest brought to Miami by the recent "boom" here, I think Miami will eventually be halfway between Chicago and any other American city with tall buildings. That is how big this "boom" was. Miami wrote its own page in skyscraper history by blasting its way into 3rd out of nowhere when at the beginning of this decade, we only had 4 buildings over 500 feet tall. I don't think we will ever have as many tall buildings as Chicago though. I don't think any American city could ever approach New York and Chicago in the regard. I believe they are just that far ahead. We can't even have buildings here in Miami much more than 1,000 feet tall because MIA is in the middle of the city and planes simply would not be able to land safely, but check back in 3 years.
http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=501324
http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=564976
http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showth...477774&page=32
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What are the criteria for a skyscraper?
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