The Top 20 U.S. Skylines

Also, what makes for a good skyline?

Fictional image generated by OpenAI’s DALL-E

A good skyline makes you say “whoa”. Let’s break down this feeling of wowness.

Key wowness factors of an individual building include: height, color, wideness/thinness, detail, shininess, shape, uniqueness, material, history, and plenty others.

Unique shape, detail, and skinniness on exhibit in Manhattan

… But it seems a good skyline has more to do with than just the individual buildings. I mean, take a look at Oklahoma City:

Nope, not photoshopped

Devon Energy Center dominates OKC’s skyline at 844 meters — If placed in NYC, it would rank 35th tallest. While some people love OKC’s skyline, most of us have the impression that it is very imbalanced. A good skyline will have some form of organization or unity based on height and other attributes.

While OKC’s skyline won’t make this top 20 list, it does do fairly well in another form of skyline organization — density, or how closely grouped a city’s buildings are.