Houston Skysrapers Vs L.A.'s

[nolaboy]

I made a quick chart to compare 400ft+ buildings in Houston vs L.A., and realized that Houston has alot more taller buildings.

 

Few observations:

-- L.A.'s US Bank Tower is a mere 16ft taller than Houston's tallest JP Morgan Chase.

-- Houston has 49 buildings vs 34 in L.A.

-- Houston only has 3 buildings shorter than LA's shortest two (+/- 5 ft)

-- For each of L.A.'s buildings on this chart, draw a line to the right from the top of each bar, and count how many taller buildings there are in Houston -- this compares buildings within a similar range and shows how many more Houston has.

 

Exceptions:

--This list of buildings includes those outside of the immediate downtown area. I am not sure how spread out the buildings in LA are, but a good bit of the Houston buildings are in the Galleria area (i.e., Williams Tower). So this may not be a fair comparison of downtown skylines. Anyone more familiar with Houston/L.A., please advise which buildings are not in the downtown skylines and I can update this chart.

 

Source: Wikipedia

Los Angeles

Houston

[nolaboy]

Just for kicks I did a similar comparison to Chicago...

[Howard Huge]

Awesome work, dude!

[Naviguessor]

Now do Dallas. Just for fun. ;-)

[nolaboy]

Added Dallas with L.A./HOU

[barracuda]

Thanks...oddly enough I was recently wondering how we compared to L.A. after seeing their skyline flyover on some TV show. Downtown L.A. looks really sparse from some directions, such as this one:

 

 

 

[HoustonBoy]

The thing is that they have a lot of low rise density.

[Howard Huge]

Thanks...oddly enough I was recently wondering how we compared to L.A. after seeing their skyline flyover on some TV show. Downtown L.A. looks really sparse from some directions, such as this one:

Shots from those angles are misleading.

There are a bunch of bad angles of our skyline too that make it look like we only have 5 buildings downtown, which as it happens, are the shots media from out of state always tend to use.

Like the dreaded West side skyline view:

Its a perspective optical illusion caused by looking at every row of buildings from dead on, like if you looked at a row of dominos from the first domino.

Here's a better one.

Kinda like our skyline, their taller buildings cover up all the low and mid rise density.

[Rail]

Shots from those angles are misleading.

There are a bunch of bad angles of our skyline too that make it look like we only have 5 buildings downtown, which as it happens, are the shots media from out of state always tend to use.

Like the dreaded West side skyline view:

image.jpg

Its a perspective optical illusion caused by looking at every row of buildings from dead on, like if you looked at a row of dominos from the first domino.

Here's a better one.

image.jpg

Kinda like our skyline, their taller buildings cover up all the low and mid rise density.

 

Exactly: LA's skyline actually looks massive from the northwest along the 101 freeway near downtown. Houston's skyline also looks biggest from a similar angle, due to the uncannily similar layout and massing of both skylines. If 3 Cal Plaza had been built in the early 90's, LA would have a supertall on its flank just like Chase Tower in Houston. LA is getting a new supertall anyway to balance out the skyline.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilshire_Grand_Tower

[totheskies]

Shots from those angles are misleading.

There are a bunch of bad angles of our skyline too that make it look like we only have 5 buildings downtown, which as it happens, are the shots media from out of state always tend to use.

Like the dreaded West side skyline view:

image.jpg

Its a perspective optical illusion caused by looking at every row of buildings from dead on, like if you looked at a row of dominos from the first domino.

Here's a better one.

image.jpg

Kinda like our skyline, their taller buildings cover up all the low and mid rise density.

 

Yeah, I like Houston's skyline from any angle, but we really need to promote some new views. 

 

 

[Naviguessor]

One of my favs is inbound on Westheimer, just after the curve.  Looks like Oz. 

[lockmat]

I recently discovered another view. Traveling north on the eastex freeway, turn your head back as you merge on to 610 west and its pretty cool. But be careful!