Which US Cities Have the Biggest Downtowns?
Among its many inventions, one of America's most interesting gifts to the rest of the world was its invention of the modern maga-city downtown. Before Europe and well before Asia, America invented the notion of a true modern "downtown" comprised of abundant tall buildings and a plethora of urban jobs. While Europe has many great cities, America's downtown are unique bastions of density and intensity only today being rivaled by many large Asian cities.
As measured in skyscrapers and jobs, however, which American downtowns hold bragging rights as the "best"? The most intense, the most frenetic, and the most exciting? To find out, we analyzed the 150 largest cities in the country. Only downtowns that are the economic anchor of their region were counted, and they were scored across a range of variables: number of tall buildings, height of their tallest building, intensity of urban development, downtown jobs, and downtown housing. So which cities have the most skyscrapers and the most robust downtowns? Our rankings are below.
(For the purposes of these numbers, a skyscraper is defined as any building over 12 stories tall).
First, America's Grade-A Mega-Downtowns
1. New York City
6,548 tall buildings
1,927,000 jobs
2. Chicago
1,384 tall buildings
572,000 jobs
3. Washington, DC
486 tall buildings
431,000 jobs
4. San Francisco
443 tall buildings
327,000 jobs
5. Philadelphia
449 tall buildings
223,000 jobs
6. Boston
358 tall buildings
265,000 jobs
7. Seattle
314 tall buildings
212,000 jobs
Second, America's Grade-B Large Downtowns
8. Los Angeles
629 tall buildings
164,000 jobs
9. Houston
576 tall buildings
161,000 jobs
10. Atlanta
317 tall buildings
178,000 jobs
11. Denver
270 tall buildings
132,000 jobs
12. Minneapolis
293 tall buildings
109,000 jobs
13. Portland
180 tall buildings
106,000 jobs
14. Miami
411 tall buildings
92,000 jobs
15. Dallas
330 tall buildings
68,000 jobs
16. Detroit
242 tall buildings
74,000 jobs
17. Baltimore
217 tall buildings
84,000 jobs
18. Pittsburgh
170 tall buildings
88,000 jobs
19. Indianapolis
159 tall buildings
87,000 jobs
20. Austin
212 tall buildings
78,000 jobs
21. Cleveland
162 tall buildings
82,000 jobs
22. Honolulu
446 tall buildings
56,000 jobs
23. St. Louis
246 tall buildings
60,000 jobs
24. San Diego
194 tall buildings
57,000 jobs
25. Nashville
175 tall buildings
60,000 jobs
26. Cincinnati
169 tall buildings
60,000 jobs
27. Charlotte
148 tall buildings
65,000 jobs
28. Columbus
95 tall buildings
80,000 jobs
29. Milwaukee
159 tall buildings
57,000 jobs
30. New Orleans
128 tall buildings
59,000 jobs
Third, America's Grade-C Mid-Sized Downtowns
31. Kansas City
179 tall buildings
39,000 jobs
32. San Antonio
112 tall buildings
45,000 jobs
33. Louisville
84 tall buildings
49,000 jobs
34. Jacksonville
83 tall buildings
48,000 jobs
35. Richmond
81 tall buildings
61,000 jobs
36. Hartford, Connecticut
56 tall buildings
63,000 jobs
37. Sacramento
47 tall buildings
69,000 jobs
38. Salt Lake City
63 tall buildings
50,000 jobs
39. Orlando
154 tall buildings
37,000 jobs
40. Tampa
146 tall buildings
32,000 jobs
41. Phoenix
98 tall buildings
32,000 jobs
42. Buffalo
95 tall buildings
36,000 jobs
43. Birmingham
75 tall buildings
33,000 jobs
44. Las Vegas
141 tall buildings
23,000 jobs
45. San Jose
89 tall buildings
29,000 jobs
46. Tulsa
67 tall buildings
30,000 jobs
47. Raleigh
65 tall buildings
30,000 jobs
48. Grand Rapids
32 tall buildings
28,000 jobs
49. Rochester
58 tall buildings
25,000 jobs
50. Memphis
75 tall buildings
18,000 jobs
51. Virginia Beach
37 tall buildings
23,000 jobs
52. Providence
35 tall buildings
22,000 jobs
53. Oklahoma City
64 tall buildings
13,000 jobs
54. Tucson
21 tall buildings
10,000 jobs
55. Fresno
17 tall buildings
10,000 jobs
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