Here is a skyline photo I took in Chicago.  It's a 16 photo stitch (8x2).  I didn't have a tripod and I had my camera laying on my backpack.  It was very very windy also...  so it could have been clearer.

 

Great job.  I am really going to be upset when the Spire goes up and ruins the balance of one of the world's greatest skylines.

Fantastic shot!

I don't think the spire will look that bad. It will provide a nice apex point like the Carew has for Cincy (that is until QCII is finished).

 

Having never been to NY...I always pride myself on at least having been to Chicago on numerous occassions. I hate their sports teams but its a lovely city.

 

You have to go to nyc. It's a whole other world, even though they're both big cities. The density is crazy in Manhattan. And hearing multiple languages wherever you go. Chicago is just a megasized version of any other midwestern city. Overall I love Chicago's skyscrapers more than nyc's though.

Gorgeous view!

 

I still have a mental image from a trip to Chicago with my aunt around 1950. We spent three or four days there, and one night she hired a man with a beautiful mahogany-hulled Chris-Craft with lots of shiny varnished wood, no plastic or fiberglas, to take us out on the lake for the view. I was only 11 or 12 then and my recollection isn't terribly detailed, but it seems to me that the Wrigley Building was the dominant structure on the skyline.

 

I don't think the spire will look that bad. It will provide a nice apex point like the Carew has for Cincy (that is until QCII is finished).

 

Having never been to NY...I always pride myself on at least having been to Chicago on numerous occassions. I hate their sports teams but its a lovely city.

 

The last I read, I thought the Spire was stalled with just a big hole in the ground. Maybe that info is oudated already?

 

I have a lot of photos of Chicago with a few going back to the seventies that I need to scan and upload. Some are decent. I can vouch that New York is entirely different, and I've only been there a few times, none recent. I wasn't able to adjust well enough to the visual differences on short visits to feel like I knew what I was doing when taking photos.

Having never been to NY...I always pride myself on at least having been to Chicago on numerous occassions. I hate their sports teams but its a lovely city.

 

You can't even compare New York and Chicago; they are in two different leagues.  New York is just so much bigger and more intense in every way.  But Chicago is a wonderful city with an extremely high quality of life.

Looks beautiful

Man, I can't wait to move there in May.

It's really crazy though to look at Chicago back in the 50's-60's.  Ugly as hell.  North River looked odd with it's taller buildings gripping to the edge of the elevated street system while warehouses and parking laid scattered about to the East of them.  All the buildings were covered in dirt and grime and railroad tracks dumped into downtown fro mall sides.  Then of course the JH rose looking entirely out of place, and way too tall for the city.  Now it blends perfectly, and the city couldn't be without it.

The last I read, I thought the Spire was stalled with just a big hole in the ground. Maybe that info is oudated already?

 

You are correct....just a rather smallish looking hole in the ground (for such a tall building).  The project is completely stalled right now. 

Chicago is just a megasized version of any other midwestern city.

 

Really?  Ok, so I spent 5 years there for school and now have been back in Cleveland for 1.5 years-car free-and every time I go back and visit friends I realize how much I took for granted in that city!  Chicago isn't the perfect city but to say that it's a megasized version of Cleveland, Indy,KC, or Des Moines is absurd.  Cleveland has some nice pockets but it will take decades to see those pockets connected and developed such as the Northside, for instance.  I'm not trying to place Chicago on a pedestal but we start to sound jealous/insecure when we say that Chicago's just a big Cleveland or whatever because if you really used each city everyday-car free nonetheless-you'd see a big difference.  Hell, I can't even walk to a CVS/Walgreens and I live in one of CLE's "hotter" neighborhoods.  I understand that things what they are right now in Cleveland but in this city, we're forced to settle and be complacent with many things.  I guess it's a humbling experience to live here... 

^ you mention connected neighborhoods -- it's hard for people (visitors, young people) to imagine how devastated cleveland is in that regard vs what it was. however, if you look at it from today's perspective you are right, that was then, this is now. yet cle's slowly but surely getting better w/ battery park, the avenue & other small developments and redevelopments, dont you think?

 

stick that is an excellent panorama. we know what you mean about battling the wind for those w/o a tripod!

 

 

Cleveland is definetly improving!  I'm just saying that even though it has come a long way, it still has a long way to go--and I'm not trying to be negative either.  We're in an interesting, LONG period of transition/growth??? but we can't go along pretending we're a mini-Chicago.  If we live in denial things will never get better.  We must realize there's a lot of work to be done FOR OUR OWN GOOD!

Chicago is just a megasized version of any other midwestern city.

 

Really?  Ok, so I spent 5 years there for school and now have been back in Cleveland for 1.5 years-car free-and every time I go back and visit friends I realize how much I took for granted in that city!  Chicago isn't the perfect city but to say that it's a megasized version of Cleveland, Indy,KC, or Des Moines is absurd.  Cleveland has some nice pockets but it will take decades to see those pockets connected and developed such as the Northside, for instance.  I'm not trying to place Chicago on a pedestal but we start to sound jealous/insecure when we say that Chicago's just a big Cleveland or whatever because if you really used each city everyday-car free nonetheless-you'd see a big difference.  Hell, I can't even walk to a CVS/Walgreens and I live in one of CLE's "hotter" neighborhoods.  I understand that things what they are right now in Cleveland but in this city, we're forced to settle and be complacent with many things.  I guess it's a humbling experience to live here... 

 

I'm not jealous or insecure! I don't even feel that partial to my hometowns lol (Cincy/C-Bus). In fact, I'd rather move to Chicago than live anywhere in Ohio. Chicago has a lot of amenities that you don't find in smaller midwestern cities simply because it's the case when you're a larger city with a larger market. The only reason the north side is as great as it is, is because it's only one side of the city. The entire east side of Cincinnati is nice - the entire High St. Corridor in Columbus is nice, but they're just one side of the city. There are plenty of parts of Chicago that, frankly, suck @ss. I'm not as familiar with Cleveland so I can't speak on it, but if you combined all of the major cities in Ohio into one mega city, I'm almost positive we would basically have Chicago minus the political machine  :-P

Chicago will always have an advantage no other city has -- that it controls the flat land between the two greatest navigable inland waterways in the world.  This led to it becoming the rail and airline hub as well.  It's also flat which means basically anything can happen anywhere.  It did not have the location of rail lines and yards and industry dictated as was the case in Pittsburgh and Cincinnati and to a lesser extent Cleveland.  Also Chicago built an extensive transit system before the war and finished its two subway lines partly with federal funds during the depression and WWII, which isn't fair because other cities didn't get that.  These natural strengths allow it to prosper even while having one of the most corrupt political cultures in the free world, probably not much better if at all than Detroit.   

In today's economy it hardly matters. They're losing their jobs to places like Houston and they lost the biggest airport to Atlanta.

I don't get where this topic is going...

 

I initially was responding to the statement that 

Chicago is just a megasized version of any other midwestern city.

 

 

And the fact that we can list all of these advantages/breaks Chicago  has received nearly a century ago  or  even last week just goes to show that we can't simply say that the only difference between Chicago and Des Moines and Cleveland is the scale.  Because all of these factors have made it the city it is today-with good, bad, and mediocre neighborhoods on ALL sides of the city, or only the world's 2nd? busiest airport, or whatever else we wish we had/or didn't have in our hometowns. 

 

This isn't a "Chicago is the greatest city ever" proclamation!!!  But saying Midwest city XYZ is a mini-Chicago is a bit superficial--unless we provide some specific examples.

Great shot...and I have to agree, probably the best skyline in the world.