I've never been able to understand how a city the size of Phoenix with such a booming population and economy (generally speaking) could have such a dismal skyline. Frankly, it's a complete mystery to me why a city like Phoenix isn't kicking ass in the skyline department. I understand that Sky Harbor presents some difficulties with building heights but even with that, there are so few towers in downtown Phoenix when compared to many cities that are much smaller.
Thank god Phoenix is finally appearing to get it's well-deserved skyline. Congratulations on the boom !
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i think it's because phoenix was not consedered a big enough city during the era of the skyscraper boom. we didn't become a big enough city until after the skyscraper boom slowed down. it is because of our fast growth that we have become as big as we are.
skyscraper growth will never be like it was in the early and mid 1900's, where all the cities got their skyscrapers. so phoenix skyline is growing but it will take some time before we're finally up to the amount of skyscrapers a city of our size should have.
Well, then there's also the issue of the proximity of Sky Harbor Int'l Airport to downtown. There are limits to height that have hindered the growth up.
true that sky harbor restricts the downtown from being as tall as other cities. but the amount of skyscrapers in the downtown area (not meaing they have to be tall, but more of a large cluster of skyscrapers) is nothing compared to the amount of skyscrapes in other cities.
for instance, in seattle there are hundreds of skyscrapers. you can walk for miles and see nothing but highrise buildings.
There is also Uptown to consider, not that all of those building would have been built if they had to be downtown but most of them probably would have and that would add another, 10?, high rises to downtown.
I've never been able to understand how a city the size of Phoenix with such a booming population and economy (generally speaking) could have such a dismal skyline. Frankly, it's a complete mystery to me why a city like Phoenix isn't kicking ass in the skyline department. I understand that Sky Harbor presents some difficulties with building heights but even with that, there are so few towers in downtown Phoenix when compared to many cities that are much smaller.
Thank god Phoenix is finally appearing to get it's well-deserved skyline. Congratulations on the boom !
Like sundevil mentioned, there is also the midtown section of the Phoenix skyline, separated from the downtown skyline. It is up Central Ave.
Here is a picture by don that shows them together. I think we all wish Central Ave was never planned to become a high-rise area in the city, rather, keeping downtown the main area for high-rises. It would have made downtown much more "impressive".
there are some good reasons for having a lot of tall buildings on central ave though.
for instance, the light rail. i think it will be cool to ride the train all the way up and down central ave heading to and from downtown. also, most of the highrise buildings have large parking lots behind them, something u wouldn't see in downtown.
and thirdly, when the downtown does finally develop to even bigger, we will still have all the highrises on central. Oh and it also relieves some of the traffic downtown.
One of the main reasons that Phoenix for its population size does not have mid rise or supertall high rise buildings is the availability of wide expanses of cheap land. Why build a high rise when building a 2 to 4 story structure over a large area is so much cheaper? I don't comment a great deal on these threads but one thing that is interesting to me is that I perceive many folks on these pages thinks that a particular city, ie Phoenix, is dull because of the lack of a beautiful skyline. Does anyone consider how many millions of dollars it costs to even design these structures let alone the cost of construction. Companies just don't build high rises just for the heck of it. There has to be a need and there needs to be tenants. The horrible urban sprawl of Phoenix is finally making many companies thinking that perhaps it is more cost effective to build high rises in the various Phoenix city centers. People are finally realizing that commuting to work 45 minutes to an hour and a half everyday is not a great lifestyle. Many people are now thinking that living close to work is a better option. Regardless, the sprawl of Phoenix continues and I for one would like to know how we are going to maintain the high cost of the infrastructure as time goes on?
Don B. and HX GUY, I want to thank you both personally for all your hard work and time for keeping us well informed about the activity going on there in Phoenix. I for one and very interested in all the projects going up there. I know Phoenix is finally beginning to grow up and hopefully will get past that 483 foot curse, lol...
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