Any skyscraper geeks here?

Westtown Willy

TJ dummy
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I’m an amateur to be sure, but love tall buildings – the taller the better. I live outside of Philly & get into the city maybe once a month for work. Took these shots (the first 3, the rest are from the skyscraper forum) yesterday of the recently topped out Comcast Technology Center which, at least as of today, is the tallest building in the US outside of NY & Chicago, & the 9th tallest overall – there are currently many going up however in both of those cities that will eclipse CTC in the coming months/years so it’ll probably fall to 15th or so but still it’s a monster at 1127 feet tall.

The building is notable in that it has a lobby on the east end to service the office building (the first 45 floors), and a second lobby on the west end to access a 15 story Four Seasons hotel on top of the office section. The first picture below shows the west end, it has elevators that travel up the spine so you’ll be able to see out as you fly up to the hotel’s restaurant which is on the top most floor which will feature nearly 360 views. On top of the hotel is a cooling tower & on top of that a lantern, some suggest it looks like a giant middle finger pointing to the west coast :flipa:

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From 'Rocky's' Art Museum steps:

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Lit up:

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Lit up a different color:

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I’m an amateur to be sure, but love tall buildings – the taller the better. I live outside of Philly & get into the city maybe once a month for work. Took these shots (the first 3, the rest are from the skyscraper forum) yesterday of the recently topped out Comcast Technology Center which, at least as of today, is the tallest building in the US outside of NY & Chicago, & the 9th tallest overall – there are currently many going up however in both of those cities that will eclipse CTC in the coming months/years so it’ll probably fall to 15th or so but still it’s a monster at 1127 feet tall.

The building is notable in that it has a lobby on the east end to service the office building (the first 45 floors), and a second lobby on the west end to access a 15 story Four Seasons hotel on top of the office section. The first picture below shows the west end, it has elevators that travel up the spine so you’ll be able to see out as you fly up to the hotel’s restaurant which is on the top most floor which will feature nearly 360 views. On top of the hotel is a cooling tower & on top of that a lantern, some suggest it looks like a giant middle finger pointing to the west coast :flipa:

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From 'Rocky's' Art Museum steps:

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Lit up:

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Lit up a different color:

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I guess I can be one, modern architecture designs of the new World Trade Center buildings amaze me and I keep myself updated on that and the Hudson yard project in NYC


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I guess I can be one, modern architecture designs of the new World Trade Center buildings amaze me and I keep myself updated on that and the Hudson yard project in NYC


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Haha just seeing the pictures now these are pictures of the WTC


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Here is one from LA. I took it while on vacation there in 2015
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LA recently wrapped up the Wilshire Grand which tops the one you shot a few years ago, the WG is a beauty though a good bit of it's height is derived from a thin antenna-like spire, still the coolest building in the city.

I guess I can be one, modern architecture designs of the new World Trade Center buildings amaze me and I keep myself updated on that and the Hudson yard project in NYC
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NY City is just mind blowing, besides the WTC & Hudson they've got a couple monsters going up on Central Park, over 1400 & 1500 feet tall.

Chicago has my favorite one under construction, the Vista Tower:

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LA recently wrapped up the Wilshire Grand which tops the one you shot a few years ago, the WG is a beauty though a good bit of it's height is derived from a thin antenna-like spire, still the coolest building in the city.

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Oh wow I had no idea. I will look to see if I can find pics. It will surely change the LA skyline then.
 
Interesting just because of that long spire it becomes the tallest when the US Bank building is taller itself.

All they need to regain the status id put a longer antenna LOL
based on this pic they look almost the same height.

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Salesforce Tower in San Francisco also looks impressive. It amazes me doing those massive buildings on an earthquake area.

I was in San Francisco in Oct 2016 and never noticed the construction of the tower. I was in downtown for the Oracle Open World conference.

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Interesting just because of that long spire it becomes the tallest when the US Bank building is taller itself.

All they need to regain the status id put a longer antenna LOL
based on this pic they look almost the same height.

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Yup, same thing in Philly. The original Comcast building (08) is actually taller looking to the roof but CTC's "lantern" pushes it higher in total height.

Regarding the WG in LA, that's a funky angle in that shot, here's a side by side which gives a little better perspective but still the US Bank Tower looks taller than the WG:

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Just to give some perspective, this is the tip of the spire atop the WG, looks a lot bigger here than it does on the skyline shots

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Salesforce Tower in San Francisco also looks impressive. It amazes me doing those massive buildings on an earthquake area.

I was in San Francisco in Oct 2016 and never noticed the construction of the tower. I was in downtown for the Oracle Open World conference.

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Salesforce is cool, in fact it along with CTC & WG all went up together & of the 3 I'm pretty sure it's the tallest to the roof, at least appearing anyway because a nice chunk of the top of it is a facade made to look like its part of the building itself. Regardless, from a distance it's the tallest 'looking' I think...

CTC's lantern is probably considered a spire though it doesn't really meet the definition of one. Unlike more common spires (usually they look like an antenna like on the WG or they're tapered, looking almost like a dart like the Chrysler Building in NY and One Liberty in Philly below), the lantern on CTC is rectangular in shape & has a great deal of girth:

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I guess it depends on the angle of photo as well as the placement of the buildings based on the location of the photographer. The pic you posted show it as a huge difference the one I posted is taken more from an eye level. In reality it is only 82 feet difference. To me it is a shame a spire/antenna can be used to determine the height when there in this case the US Bank has so much more building sitting higher than the WG.

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To me it is a shame a spire/antenna can be used to determine the height when there in this case the US Bank has so much more building sitting higher than the WG.
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And that, good sir, stirs up as much ire on the various skyscraper forums as the what's the best axle upgrade debate on Jeep forums hahaha

By the way you can put me in that camp too, the height of the building oughta be measured by the height of the roof (or at least what appears to be the roof as in the case of Salesforce in San Fran) because that's what the eye is directed to when you see these structures on the skyline as opposed to a needle that protrudes upwards from there... If you were to put Salesforce & the Wilshire Grand side by side Salesforce looks taller to the roof despite it's roof being lower than it appears.

Here's a shot of the top section that's essentially hallow, I think some mechanical things & the building maintenance unit:

Other than the color it pretty much looks like part of the office building (by the way 181 Freemont to the right of it is also an awesome skyscraper they're wrapping up, it's worth a closer look on the forum)

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The night shot makes it more distinctive
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The buildings overseas are incredible. They are building up. So many people that the don't know what to do with. Lots of new ones going up to. Every City I visited had multiple sky scrapers being built.