Skylines
US cities pride themselves in their skylines. Tall buildings are part of the branding, and the shapes of the tops of buildings play a particular role. The skyline is one of the American contributions to urban design. After the Great War, "skyline" became an internationally recognized term and cities around the world began to shape their own cities under its dictum. |
| Selected simplified city skylines(not properly scaled, though) |
Before that, height was traditionally reserved for places of worship with some notable exceptions like the towers of
San Gimignano in Italy's Tuscany region. The French had their Eiffel Tower and many places erected TV towers with revolving restaurants, but none of those exceptions amounted to something akin to a skyline.
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San Gimignano, Italy
(photo from the travelingnomad blog) |
So now that even third rate cities boast skyscrapers and an assortment of tops, mostly the modernist flat-top, sometimes a post-modern one like Philip Johnson's ATT building in New York, what can set cities apart? What is the next big thing in branding? Would skylines be enhanced by signs, for example?