Better skyline Houston or Dallas? (Rice: child, Latin, resources)

[Metro Matt]

Originally Posted by Fairlady Z

Technically, most define a supertall as anything above 300 meters. The Wells Fargo Plaza is usually classified as a supertall by most skyscraper sites and forums.

I consider Wells Fargo Plaza a supertall. Its just 8' shy of being 1,000 feet.

[TexasTallest]

Originally Posted by Aceraceae

Dude. Im not arguing the height of the skylines. The numbers speak for themselves. I just find your obsession at anything posted positive toward Dallas juxtaposed with a rebuttal about how amazing Houston is amusing. Your number laden response means a newt sized dung drop to me, but from the bottom of my heart, congratulations on your two supertalls it appears to complete you.

Heh. For the record, I like Dallas. I just like Houston more. This is a skyline topic and IMO Houston is the clear winner. If this were a thread about commuter rail or something the credit would obviously go to Dallas.. I try to call things like I see them, with a little bias sprinkled in here and there when I feel like Houston is wrongfully being hated on.

[stoneclaw]

Originally Posted by Metro Matt

They never worked long enough for anyone to get good pictures...

I remember back in 2002 when the lights were halfway working & falling off. It was a sad sight to see.

they were on up until about 2006 from what i remember.

[TexasTallest]

Originally Posted by Metro Matt

I consider Wells Fargo Plaza a supertall. Its just 8' shy of being 1,000 feet.

The fact is its 302 meters tall and the majority of the world uses the metric system/considers anything over 300m a supertall.

[slo1318]

Originally Posted by Metro Matt

I consider Wells Fargo Plaza a supertall. Its just 8' shy of being 1,000 feet.

Its close enough. BofA is close as well....

[TexasTallest]

Originally Posted by slo1318

Its close enough. BofA is close as well....

BOA is definitely a tall building, just not quite a supertall..

[binkyman]

Originally Posted by Scout_972

Something that is overlooked in these Dallas vs Houston threads is how much more Downtown Dallas functions and resembles an actual downtown, compared to how DT Houston functions and in many ways appears more like an office park with very tall buildings.

In Dallas, the city blocks are small and compact. The streets are narrow. The buildings are better situated from a ground-level perspective for pedestrian activity.

In Houston, you have large city blocks and wide streets with many buildings awkwardly setback from the street. The downtown area is also dominated and cutoff by massive freeways.

I'll always prefer having an impressive city-scape over a massive skyline.

Indeed, the idea of broken crisscrossing streets is fascinating as downtown Dallas must have at one time been two separate villages that grew together with one being more east to west and north to south, and the other more southeast to northwest, and southwest to northeast. Or, check out how Main Street heads out east southeastward through Deep Ellum and connects with Dallas Fair Park, while at the same time Gaston heads out east / northeastward through the Baylor Medical Center and connects further out with Lakewood Shopping Center?

This allows Dallas to be more of a round city. In contrast, as you say, downtown Houston is really only well connected, in the Dallas sense of that word, westward where Allen Parkway and Memorial Drive run along both sides of Braes Bayou. Houston, being square, tends to rot at its corners. Tucked away within the traditional loop system that it likes to call its downtown is an actual Metro bus terminal. The enticing of the four sports stadiums downtown is a gimmick used by other minor markets the size of Houston to further entice retail downtown. All those stadiums, the convention center, the convention center hotel, and the elevated freeway all running together along the eastward side of downtown Houston has served to create a Great Wall of China effect cutting off both neighborhoods from each other.

On the westward side of downtown Dallas, not only is Oak Cliff directly connected with Oak Cliff, but now West Dallas is just as well connected with the new bridge.

Not only are there broken blocks in downtown Dallas, but there is also broken terrain as your pictures demonstrate, or something other than just bland flat land.

What the city of Houston doesn't understand is how you don't really have a downtown until you have connected it with its surrounding neighborhoods. So, Houston, even though they refer to it, doesn't have a Midtown. It really doesn't have an eastside again in the Dallas sense of that word.

You know, if we were discussing this topic in Paris with a civil engineer, he'd certainly understand why the more modern city of Dallas is light years ahead of Houston. Not even close actually. You can't have your cake and eat it too. If you are going to hold to the primitive notion of no zoning, then you can't go around pretending like you aren't wearing a native Bohemian skirt.

[binkyman]

Originally Posted by slo1318

I hadnt really noticed that before, but I agree. The tighter knit the urban fabric is the better the downtown is for the pedestrian.
Spent some time in and around DT Dallas this week and it really is infilling nicely and the city surrounding it, through uptown, deep ellum and Mckinney ave is bustling.

Yes, when comparing and contrasting downtown Dallas with that of downtown Houston, the one most important aspect Dallas has that Houston doesn't is Love Field. Love Field is fast becoming an integral part of the inner urban core of Dallas. It is so much so that it is beginning to expand upon an area commonly referred to as the Stemmons corridor stretching it even further all the way to that of Maple Avenue. Indeed, a large area northeast of Uptown is now being fed by Stemmons Freeway, by a long established commuter line with a stop at the Southwestern Medical District, by Harry Hines, by a DART light rail line which has another stop at the Southwestern Medical District as well as another in the Dallas Market Center, and, as things are now progressing, by Maple Avenue.

I don't think Houstonians realize how significant all this is. While they generally like to feign that their Uptown, their Texas Medical Center, and their downtown area are becoming one continuous neighborhood, it is not feigning to say that these same areas in the central core area of Dallas are already well transitioned.

[stoneclaw]

Originally Posted by binkyman

you know, if we were discussing this topic in paris with a civil engineer, he'd certainly understand why the more modern city of dallas is light years ahead of houston. .

lmao lmao lmao

[Truth713]

Originally Posted by stoneclaw

lmao lmao lmao

Right, ask anybody outside of these Houston and dallas tread and you get about even to the other being only slightly ahead.. no one says light years