Better skyline Houston or Dallas? (Fort Worth, Arlington: lease, hotels, movie theaters)

[Lakewooder]

What are they going to say when they see this?

[Metro Matt]

Originally Posted by Lakewooder

What are they going to say when they see this?

Houstonians won't say anything cause they've had a contemporary design extension bridge for 15 years now...one that real ships pass under every day & actually serves a purpose other than looking pretty. The only time you'll see ships going under Dallas' is when the Trinity floods its levees & the kids come out to play with their toy RC boats.

Fred Hartman Bridge aka Baytown Bridge:

At 440 feet tall & 1250 feet in length it the largest bridge of its kind in Texas

http://www.bayareahouston.com/Home/PressRoom/HotoffthePress1/TheCityofLaPortejoinsP/FredHartmanBridge/fullsize.JPG (broken link)







Custom lowriders aren't the only things that ride on hydraulics in H-town...

[ladarron]

Originally Posted by Metro Matt

There's really no comparison between the two as far as tall buildings go. Houston is clearly in a league of its own. It blows Dallas's skyline away in over all number of skyscrapers & in sheer height...no ifs, ands, or buts about it.

No if you're talking quality of architecture, then Dallas might have a slight edge over Houston, but beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Dallas' skyline is very dated & 80's, while Houston's is a lot more futuristic 21st century looking.

Dallas does have a much better lit night time skyline (one of the best & brightest in the US) than Houston, but that's about it.

Downtown Houston has not changed much from the 80s ethier!

[SouthmoreAve]

Originally Posted by ladarron

Downtown Houston has not changed much from the 80s ethier!

You should visit Houston, a lot has changed since the 80s.....
And it has changed a lot more than Dallas, has, i assure you.

Let's go down the list....
Just since 2000, and just constructions, not renovations, expansions, conversions, or garages. Houston would have a ton of those...

MainPlace 46 stories|630 ft. (u/c)
1500 Louisiana 40 stories|600 ft
Reliant Energy Plaza 36 stories|518 ft.
One Park Place 37 stories|501 ft.
Hess Tower 29 stories|490 ft. (u/c)
717 Texas 34 stories|453 ft.
Hilton Americas Hotel 24 stories
Embassy Suites Hotel 19 stories (u/c)
Harris County Civil Justice Center 18 stories|378 ft.
5 Houston Center 27 stories| 376 ft.
Metro Admin. Bldng. 14 stories

Other Developments:
Houston Pavilions
Discovery Green
Minute Maid Park
Toyota Center
Downtown Aquarium
MetroRail Line
Hobby Center for the Performing Arts
Houston Ballet Center (u/c)
Sacred Heart Co-Cathedral(12 story bell tower)
South Texas College of Law-Library (6 stories)
UH-Downtown Academic Bldng.(128,000 sq. ft)
UH-D, 4 story bldng.
Holiday Inn-Express
Communication Workers of America Union Hall(3 stories)
Main St. Square
Fire Super Station

What about Downtown Dallas?

[Metro Matt]

Dallas (Uptown & Arts District mainly) has only seen a handful of buildings (of any real significance) built in the past 10 years, that I'm aware of. Those would include...

W Hotel - 439 ft. - 32 floors

Azure - 375 ft. - 31 floors

Mayfair at Turtle Creek - 302 ft. - 24 floors

Ritz Carlton - 285 ft. - 21 floors

Hunt Oil Tower - 230 ft. - 15 floors

Way to go Big D!

[Metro Matt]

Dallas has built dense, while Houston has been building dense & tall.

SouthmoreAve:

Those buildings stats you gave don't even include Uptown Houston or Med Center, both of which are inside & partially inside of Houston's inner loop. One might even argue Houston's Med Center alone could rival whats gone up in Downtown & Uptown Dallas combined. This is just one prime example of Dallas' burbs sucking the life out of its CBD with large corporations choosing to build campus style headquarters on cheap & readily available land versus building it in the center of everything.

[Dallascaper]

Originally Posted by Metro Matt

Dallas has built dense, while Houston has been building dense & tall.

SouthmoreAve:

Those buildings stats you gave don't even include Uptown Houston or Med Center, both of which are inside & partially inside of Houston's inner loop. One might even argue Houston's Med Center alone could rival whats gone up in Downtown & Uptown Dallas combined. This is just one prime example of Dallas' burbs sucking the life out of its CBD with large corporations choosing to build campus style headquarters on cheap & readily available land versus building it in the center of everything.

I remember reading a story about the CEO of JCPenney being asked why he built a campus-style headquarters in Plano instead of a tower in DTD. He replied that if they wanted to be in a tower, they already had a very nice one in Manhattan - they simply would have stayed there.

D/FW attracts companies that prefer campus-style headquarters; I believe this is as much of a factor as suburbs just sucking life from Dallas. These companies are huge job and economic generators for DFW - I don't hear too many people complaining.

[stoneclaw]

Originally Posted by Dallascaper

I don't hear too many people complaining.

yeah, that's only until Dallasites wonder why people come in to their city wondering why it is such a giagantic city with beautiful skyscrapers with no life feeling souless and uninteresting, simply no character to speak of.

Like the ESPN reporter who wrote this article:
NFL: New Orleans Saints are the soul of America's City - ESPN

... When I drive into Dallas, I see a place sprawling and bland, loops and rings of interstate and, somewhere over the horizon, a stadium representing a just-gone era of bloat and decay … scoreboard so big it interferes with the game … $60 pizzas. It looks new but is dead inside. In contrast, there is the drive out of New Orleans, through a city still battered, past the exits for the Vieux Carre and Uptown, past the Huey Long, which runs narrow and high out to the leaning oyster and chicken shack.

All told, this is a city with the opposite calculus of Dallas: It is decayed on the outside, but inside there is life. Here is a citizenry that believes in the power of the underdog. New Orleanians fell first and see something the rest of America is blind to right now: a way back into the light.

[casimpso]

Originally Posted by C2H (ComingtoHouston)

yeah, that's only until Dallasites wonder why people come in to their city wondering why it is such a giagantic city with beautiful skyscrapers with no life feeling souless and uninteresting, simply no character to speak of.

Like the ESPN reporter who wrote this article:
NFL: New Orleans Saints are the soul of America's City - ESPN

... When I drive into Dallas, I see a place sprawling and bland, loops and rings of interstate and, somewhere over the horizon, a stadium representing a just-gone era of bloat and decay … scoreboard so big it interferes with the game … $60 pizzas. It looks new but is dead inside. In contrast, there is the drive out of New Orleans, through a city still battered, past the exits for the Vieux Carre and Uptown, past the Huey Long, which runs narrow and high out to the leaning oyster and chicken shack.

All told, this is a city with the opposite calculus of Dallas: It is decayed on the outside, but inside there is life. Here is a citizenry that believes in the power of the underdog. New Orleanians fell first and see something the rest of America is blind to right now: a way back into the light.

I am wondering why anyone would care what a sports commentator says about Dallas. The guy lived and worked there. He's obviously a homer.

And his opinion of our new stadium sounds like an unnamed envy.

[Metro Matt]

Originally Posted by casimpso

I am wondering why anyone would care what a sports commentator says about Dallas. The guy lived and worked there. He's obviously a homer.

And his opinion of our new stadium sounds like an unnamed envy.

Lets face it, Dallasites deep in their hearts are jealous of Arlington getting the new stadium. It would've worked out much better IN the City of Dallas or even in Irving/Las Colinas again. Arlington just got lucky with all the tax breaks & incentives that lured Jerry World there & now the fine people of the city are having to pay for it.