I’m a sucker for a stirring skyline. They make good travel pictures.
Reading has a nice skyline. The 275-foot tall county courthouse has been cluttered a bit by the dishes, antennae and whatevers that have sullied its classic peak, and the jukebox look of the adjacent services center creates an awkward juxtaposition. And I have never understood why the city’s third-highest building, affectionately known as the Abe Lincoln hotel, has no rooftop sign indicating that it is, indeed, a hotel.
But, framed by Mounts Penn and Neversink, it’s an impressive skyline we have here.
Boston; Hartford, Conn.; and of course Manhattan, have striking skylines. Ditto for Baltimore and Wilmington, Del.
Philadelphia’s cityscape is photogenic, if the spindly Comcast Center would only get out of the way.
I got to thinking about city skylines when I was reading an in-flight magazine and noticed a story about a new building going up in Miami.
Florida East Coast Realty developer Tibor Hollo said his development firm’s Panorama Tower would be the tallest building south of New York City. At least, I think that’s what I read.
The $800 million building will rise high over the city’s Brickell neighborhood. It is said that on a clear night, the lights of the Bahamas island of Bimini will be visible from the top of the building.
I looked it up. The “tallest” boast comes with a qualification. The 82-story building will be the tallest residential building south of Manhattan. But even that comes with some caveats. There will be an observation deck at 830 feet above street level, and the structure will include 208 hotel rooms, 821 luxury apartments, medical office space, retail and restaurants. It also will have a recreation deck complete with a wine cellar, interactive cyber-rooms, an 80-seat home theater and a kennel.
The statistics geek in me wondered, and I wandered online to check out the other tallest buildings south of Manhattan.
Not including Houston and Dallas, which are certainly south of New York City, here are the tallest buildings south of New York.
Rising highest is the Bank of America Plaza in Atlanta, at 1,040 feet.
The Comcast Center (once described as the world’s biggest flash drive) stabs Philly’s skyline at 974 feet, while the lovely spire of One Liberty Place tops off at 945 feet.
The Bank of America Center in Charlotte, N.C., is listed at 871 feet tall, and is followed closely by Atlanta’s SunTrust Plaza, which is listed as 867 feet tall.
Not much shorter is Philadelphia’s Two Liberty Place, at 848 feet above the city’s streets.
And, just for reference and not necessarily relevance, the William Penn Fire Tower is, according to Pagoda-Skyline, Inc., 950 feet above the intersection of Fifth and Penn streets in Reading.
Contact Charles J. Adams: life@readingeagle.com.
