http://www.airviewonline.com.au/photos/0306/1710/0306-1710-09.jpg

http://www.airviewonline.com.au/photos/0306/1709/0306-1709-38.jpg

http://www.airviewonline.com.au/photos/0306/1710/0306-1710-02.jpg

http://www.airviewonline.com.au/photos/0306/1710/0306-1710-12.jpg



http://skyscraperpage.com/gallery/data/500/1781canberra.jpg

http://www.canberratourism.com.au/images/gateway/wallpaper_night_med.jpg

http://www.canberratourism.com.au/images/gateway/wallpaper_lake_med.jpg

http://www.canberratourism.com.au/images/gateway/wallpaper_anzac_med.jpg

http://www.lonelyplanet.com/photo_master/slideshow/australasia/canberra/BN2001_018x.jpghttp://e3.sdsc.edu/teachertech/PatS/images/canberra.jpg

http://www.canberratourism.com.au/postcards/images/19.jpghttp://www.canberratourism.com.au/postcards/images/4.jpg

i'm sorry, but where's the skyline?

by the way, it wasn't me who voted 9. i don't vote in polls i make. :)

Pictures are really nice, but wheres the skyline?

Here you are Fox1 some pics I found.

http://www.virtualaustralia.com/photos/wallpaper/800x600/029e.jpg

http://www.act.gov.au/images/carillon.gif

http://www.bluway.com/general/photo/photos/dg/31383.jpg

http://www.act.gov.au/images/city.jpg


Like De Snor said it doesn't have a great skyline but the city looks amazing

10 = for the city
10 = for the location
4 = for the skyline

7.5. The wide open boulevards look welcoming, and that lake is amazing :) Not the best skyline, certainly, but pleasent enough.

9/10
A very well plan city !!

There is no skyline there, but its still a pretty amazing place. 2/10 for the skyline, after all thats what we are voting for?

4/10

Ooo, beautiful city, but no skyline!

Gotta give it a 4.0

Beautiful Australian city. 10/10 :)
I like its natural setting, seems so soothing and relaxing. :)

5

Gah!

Look out it's uber-suburban Canberra!

What skyline ?

5

http://www.hotkey.net.au/~krool/photos/act/Canberra1.jpg

skyline - 5/10, city - 10/10

SNow Looks great in one of those
I wish it had a sky line but there is a building Hight limit I think
Nothing can be higer than the Giant Flag Poll you see with the flag !
+ with a city of only a few 100,000 is ok
Remeber that its only a few decades old !
I hope to future growth down here away from the coast.

Personally, I'm quite divided by Canberra.

I think this city is extreamly well planned, beautiful and worth a visit for a day or maybe two. It's very small, and feels even smaller than it is what being so spread out and all.

If this city had a larger population it may work a lot better for me. I done work there when I was living in Sydney, and based myself for a week or two at a time. And I must say that it's one seriously quiet and slow place. Peak hour traffic means a couple of extra cars in sight, and the resturant scene seems notably suburban.

So, I suppose my main gripe is that it's too small. Give it a million or two more people, some density and this would become one of the world's coolest capitals.

As it is, visit it for it's serenity and beauty, but don't plan a wild night out.

beauty: 8/10
city: 5/10
skyline... well, it should have been a rate this city poll.

beautiful, but looks more like a village...

what's the population and area tjere?

(but again, it IS beautiful)

Originally posted by poller1

beautiful, but looks more like a village...

what's the population and area tjere?

(but again, it IS beautiful)

that's because it practically is a village!

As JustMe's said about, Canberra isn't no Melbourne or Sydney.

Pop: ~300,000 AFAIK.

tays

Yes its a very beautiful city, but no skyline - 6/10

5.5

None of the pics really show the cbd, but seem to focus more on the government precincts, there is a nice collection of mid rise towers, fairly close together which create a little bit of density in this fairly small and very spread out city. Needs, as Justme said, to have a few more people around to gain a little more height and focal point.

looks - 9/10
skyline - 0/10

not because i think its a bad skyline, but because well, i dont see one

Amazing city (9.5/10) but skyline is 3.5

Cool garden, but it could be better if it had a city near...

Canberra is hands down the strangest city I ever visited... once you approach it, you expect to see the height of the buildings increase along with the density as you approach the center... and then suddenly... POOF!!! The illusion of a city evaporates, as you discover a huge vacuum at the heart of this planned town, a big wilderness really, interspersed with roundabouts. The highest point in the city is the water jet... that says it all, really. Canberra is even creepier than Zoetermeer!

yeah that;s pretty much right on! :)

It has been said of LA: "A hundred suburbs searching for a city."

Canberra = "A hundred backyard lawns searching for a suburb."

Nice...very clear...!!!...10 points..!

:) :cheers:

Nice.. looks a bit like Pyongyang if you squint!! :laugh:

An 8.5 :laugh:

Canberra makes me think of a quote from Italo Calvino's indispensable novel 'The Invisible Cities'. "The city was its own periphery". :lol:

7/10

Canberra is famous for being the most boring place on Earth. I know people who live there and even they admit it's dull. The only good/weird thing about Canberra is the fact that it gets all of Australia's illegal porn supplies (X-rated porn is legal there) and you can buy porno movies in the supermarkets there, very very strange.

Canberra is a beatiful city. I love going there.
Parliament House is the best on Earth.
Questacon(The National Science Centre) Is sort of fun. When I was a bit younger.
The National Library is built as the exact same proportions as the Parthenon in Athens.
The National War Memorial is an amazing place. It's beautiful and I can't describe it, it's just such a icon and it's an experience too. It is the best museum in Australia. There are also a heap of memorials along ANZAC Parade(The wide 6 lane boulevard that has the view of Parliament House.
The busiest place in the city is the shopping centre somewhere around Civic. Near the casino I think.

Clearly canberra isnt boring. I know many ppl who say it is as good as any of the bigger capitals.

Some pics from airviewonline.com.au, pointed out by Fabian thought I'd post them here. As you can see there is a decent amount of density (if not height) for a town of this size, and it is beautifully laid out. Never be lacking a parking spot either, but that means plenty of future development space ;):

http://www.airviewonline.com.au/photos/0306/1710/0306-1710-09.jpg

http://www.airviewonline.com.au/photos/0306/1710/0306-1710-02.jpg

http://www.airviewonline.com.au/photos/0306/1710/0306-1710-08.jpg

http://www.airviewonline.com.au/photos/0306/1710/0306-1710-13.jpg

The following two are of Parliament House, the seat of the Federal Government of the Commonwealth of Australia.

http://www.airviewonline.com.au/photos/0306/1709/0306-1709-39.jpg

http://www.airviewonline.com.au/photos/0306/1709/0306-1709-38.jpg

stu

It's clearly not boring, I've visited it. Quite a lot of places to see. but the skyline is non-existent.

so so much open parking

Oi, I remember seeing the opening of the Scottish Parliament on the news, and I was just thinking how un-imaginative it was. Like most countries build a Parliament that couldn't possibly be confused with any other. I mean, how could you confuse Australia's, New Zealand's and England's Parliament Houses or the US Capitol? Or the EU Parliament? Or the German Reichstag? You can't.

Oi, I remember seeing the opening of the Scottish Parliament on the news, and I was just thinking how un-imaginative it was. Like most countries build a Parliament that couldn't possibly be confused with any other. I mean, how could you confuse Australia's, New Zealand's and England's Parliament Houses or the US Capitol? Or the EU Parliament? Or the German Reichstag? You can't.

The problem with the Scottish parliament is that it is "too" imaginative. The architect seems to be some sort of hippy and thought how great it would be to "hide" the building in nature or something.

You don't want to hide a parliament building, it's supposed to be a grand building that stands out and shouts.

The Australian one does pretty well at that, as do the others you mentioned. The Scottish one sort of hides away trying to be what it really is, a state parliament or less - Scotland isn't regarded as a real country by any international organization or external country, and it has even less autonomy in many cases to a State. But still, I persoanlly think it could have done something a little more "memorable".

Even the New South Wales Parliament building would beat that, and I really don't like the NSW Parliament. Queensland, Northern Territory and Western Australia all stand out really well.

The skyline is nonexistent. I give it less than 3.

The city is really interesting, but its skyline isn't interesting at all. 4/10

Some photos i've taken of canberra at night from some of the surrounding hills:

Civic (City) from Red Hill - you can just see some of the buildings above the tree line:
http://img416.imageshack.us/img416/4923/civicfromredhill7aw.th.jpg (http://img416.imageshack.us/my.php?image=civicfromredhill7aw.jpg)

Parliament House from Red Hill:
http://img423.imageshack.us/img423/2633/parliamenthousefromredhill6vo.th.jpg (http://img423.imageshack.us/my.php?image=parliamenthousefromredhill6vo.jpg)

Parliament House from Mt. Ainslie:
http://img423.imageshack.us/img423/9785/parliamenthousefrommtainslie3l.th.jpg (http://img423.imageshack.us/my.php?image=parliamenthousefrommtainslie3l.jpg)

dump...most countries have better state capitals. countries that have states, of course.

Just wondering if you've ever been to Canberra, or are basing your opinions on what others have said? I don't think you could really call canberra a 'dump', i've lived here all my life, and for a city of 300,000, it is very unfair to compare it to most Australian and international Capitals, which are often much, much larger.

Melbourne should have been the capital, Sydney wouldn't allow it, and this is what you end up with, a country town in the middle of nowhere, with a government centralised out of Sydney anyway, and a prime- minister that is Sydney centric...

Oh well, it's too late now...

No, I haven't ever been there. It actually sounds really interesting from what people have posted about it. I don't know if I would visit but sounds like a good place to live. But this is the "rate our skyline" forum and the skyline is dump. If it makes you feel any better I think the D.C. skyline is shit too. I probably should have put something in there to indicate I was refering to the skyline, not the city as a whole.

Thats ok, i'd have to agree the skyline is almost non existant :P
It'd be nice if they'd lift some restrictions, but i think the planners want to create something like Washington D.C, not allowing Parliament house to be dominated by a big city skyline. The city has a height restriction of about 45 - 60 metres (150 - 200 feet)

Woden, a town centre to the south of the city, has a taller but less dense skyline, Lovett tower is the tallest building in Canberra, at 90m(300ft):

http://img16.imageshack.us/img16/655/scarboroughandlovett1xx9bq.th.jpg (http://img16.imageshack.us/my.php?image=scarboroughandlovett1xx9bq.jpg)

http://img240.imageshack.us/img240/4428/skyline16ws7tp.th.jpg (http://img240.imageshack.us/my.php?image=skyline16ws7tp.jpg)

i would give this city 8.
Skyline = 4
city = 7
natural beauty = 10
From the pics, city looks amazing...yes it does lack a skyline.

I was wonder, is there any development going on?

I'm not terribly fond of Canberra as a city. It's far too suburban for me, although I admit it's pretty to drive past - I just couldn't live there.

But it's certainly NOT a dump.

4/10

1/10 skyline

What's that burial ground/holy site/ temple thing called?

1/10 skyline

What's that burial ground/holy site/ temple thing called?

Parliament House?

LOL.

Back on topic, Canberra dosnt have a skyline really, but will in the future if growth continues.

F.L.A.T. 3.5/10

Absolutely 9/10-though it seems far away in distance with most the parts of the world !

It must be the world's largest village.
Very green and beautiful, so it is unfair to judge Canberra by its skyline.

4.5 it looks like a very lovely city but, no skyline.

4.5 it looks like a very lovely city but, no skyline.
I'm not sure if this counters your statement, but it's a nice photo of half a skyline.

http://img48.imageshack.us/img48/3796/crw15745ri.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

This is a shot of the CBD taken from the National Museum of Australia on Acton Peninsula. You can see four of the eight cranes currently aiding the flurry of development in the city. Maybe (hopefully) we'll have a skyline to brag about in about ten years. But skylines are a protuberant indicator of a city's vibrant culture, and we need one of those first.

Canberra's 3 tallest buildings (tallest being Lovett Tower, 93m/25 floors) are actually all out in the suburbs at Woden which nobody has pictured yet. Google for if it you want pictures.

Canberra is famous for being the most boring place on Earth. I know people who live there and even they admit it's dull. The only good/weird thing about Canberra is the fact that it gets all of Australia's illegal porn supplies (X-rated porn is legal there) and you can buy porno movies in the supermarkets there, very very strange.

Coles and Woolworths in Canberra only sell groceries, liquor and the normal crap. The only place it is legal to buy X-rated porn is at the porno-supermarkets of Fyshwick and Mitchell.

no skyline. 0/10.

The city is very well thought out and organised, the roads are wide and theres tree everywhere. One thing i dont like about canberra is that its just like a really big village. CBD seems like a ghost town, hardly anyone walking on the streets(everyones hiding in the mall). Even on roads theres hardly any traffic and they still make the road like 3*3 wide. It just doesnt have the atomsphere of a city, wheres all the people?

Melbourne should have been the capital, Sydney wouldn't allow it, and this is what you end up with, a country town in the middle of nowhere, with a government centralised out of Sydney anyway, and a prime- minister that is Sydney centric...
exactly. the A.C.T. was only created to give the illusion that Canberra was in a seperate 'state' from NSW just to make the VIctorians happy. The fact is Canberra is just another NSW town. I think it's a bit lame to have a country town as a capital city. I mean come on, we are talking about the CAPITAL CITY, the headquarters of Australia and it is just a NSW country town in the middle of nowhere. Melbourne should've been the capital, you know, Sydney gets all the media hoo haa and Melbourne could've had it's own claim to fame as the Capital of Australia that people will actually be able to name and recognise. But here we are, a small slow town that no one beyond Australia has ever heard of with a Sydney centralised Government and a Sydney centric PM.

All I have to say is, thank God that Washington DC was built almost entirely before the car was invented.

:runaway:

^^
Someone stated once that Canberra is what Washington DC would have been had it been designed by Californians.

Well, even Townsville has a greater skyline than canberra.

I give the city a 8/10 for its beauty and landscape and the skyline gets 4/10.

Its a pretty shit skyline, but take the design and layout of the city a=from an aerial perspective and its pretty awesome. Its what Canberra was designed for - It isn't meant to be a booming metropolis; it's reverent and subtle.

So ultimately I'd give it a 1 - but I'm glad its only a one. a 10 wouldn't suit the city....

Yep! no skyline..
looks nice and calm though.

7/10

The city is very well thought out and organised, the roads are wide and theres tree everywhere. One thing i dont like about canberra is that its just like a really big village. CBD seems like a ghost town, hardly anyone walking on the streets(everyones hiding in the mall). Even on roads theres hardly any traffic and they still make the road like 3*3 wide. It just doesnt have the atomsphere of a city, wheres all the people?

Some parts are like a country town, some are like a city. For a 'country town' it has heck of a lot of retailing for such a population. For example, to serve less than 350,000 people there are (out of major stores):

- Woolworths x11
- Coles x7
- IGA x15 at least
- Supabarn x3
- K-mart x2
- Big W x3 (1 under const.)
- Target x3
- David Jones x2
- Myer x2
- Toys-r-us x1
- Shopping centres 60,000sqm or more x4

And the weird thing is, in other cities regional shopping centres have at least 300,000 catchment (200,000 for some), yet Canberra has four of them, each with only about 60,000 or so catchment area!

wonderfully planned city with lots of greenery but no skyline - 5/10

Awesome capital! what's this?

http://www.lonelyplanet.com/photo_master/slideshow/australasia/canberra/BN2001_018x.jpg

9.5/10 :)

^^ The Parliament House

Canberra recently seems to be really changing, the city seems to be busier, heaps of construction all over the place. It feels (to me, at least) to be a really exciting time in the city's history. I'm so sick of the bashing that goes on all the time. Compare it to most of the other cities around australia that are similar in size (forget about Melbourne and Sydney, and most of the other State capitals for that matter) and it really is a lovely city. It's got a wonderful setting, and a beautiful layout. All it needs is a denser core, to bring more life to the centres, and i think it will become one of the nicest small cities in Aus.

10/10

Either tell the full story or dont tell it at all. Melbourne and Sydney were both too stubborn to let either be capital city. Stop being so bitter.

More photos.

http://static.flickr.com/49/119747454_b272e6bf2e_b.jpg

http://static.flickr.com/35/119747266_f20246a499_b.jpg

http://static.flickr.com/53/119706843_3914921d90_b.jpg

http://static.flickr.com/48/119702141_d3bab75bb6_b.jpg

http://static.flickr.com/43/123988050_8ecff95c53_o.jpg

http://static.flickr.com/34/106278908_519bebccff_o.jpg

http://static.flickr.com/39/122875959_2b59b8344e_o.jpg

http://static.flickr.com/42/121096688_e59f2b9cab_b.jpg

http://static.flickr.com/37/122876075_721b47d6ee_o.jpg

http://static.flickr.com/36/120441925_c4f0c4baaf_b.jpg

http://static.flickr.com/41/122875841_c33d5ad0fc_o.jpg

http://static.flickr.com/42/122874947_a145a420da_o.jpg

http://static.flickr.com/39/122582432_dc6c462707_o.jpg

http://static.flickr.com/1/122582661_2caaef81a2_o.jpg

I went to Canberra in the year 2000, it is a very strange city!!
:eek:
8/10
;)

One has to admit, that if you were a total suburbanite, Canberra could very well be your ultimate city.

However, if you are a true city person, then Canberra really doesn't qualify as a city.

Still, it's up to personal opinions.

5, not very nice

Where's the skyline? 4/10

6/10

Interesting, 8/10

Canberra is still too young, with many height restrictions and a small population.

Pictures of Hopefull future development proposed for civc, It's a similar design to Wahsington DC with a main focus on a object as its tallest (Washington monument and Parliament house) with the city buildings being restricted to a certain hieght (60 metres)
City Hill with Lake Burley Griffin (west basin)
http://img219.imageshack.us/img219/114/img0151lo7.jpg
City Hill
http://img219.imageshack.us/img219/3603/img0119vh3.jpg
Constitution Avenue
http://img246.imageshack.us/img246/1633/img0095mg3.jpg

Pictures from this Thread: http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=380982&page=2

More about canberra developments etc.. go here:
http://www.skyscrapercity.com/forumdisplay.php?f=195

Nice city, but no skyline.

8/10- not very tall, but clean, modern and very well planned.

Lacking highrises -- 6/10

This city claims to be the best planned city, but im not sure if its fantastic planning had done the trick.

Nice area, no skyline at all. 4/10

best planned city in oz, as well as a beautiful setting. However no skyline + john howard = 6/10. But its slowly getting bigger, its only a small town :)

5/10

Very organized 6/10

7/10

7/10

6/10

6/10

The city may boast excellent amenities and services, but the buildings are so boxy and square.

6.5

6/10
very well planned btw :)

Beautiful city but where's the skyline? 5/10

I live in canberra and I say it's not eligible for this 'skyscraper' site yet, well atleast for another 10 years. It's all just lowrise. At the moment the city is quite lame, except for the nature, as in the autumn colours.

The setting is great, the skyline could use some work, but im not complaining.

this is the first time i am seeing canberra.. however i am not that satisfied with it. 5/10

6/10 :(

So so 5/10

There doesn't need to be a skyline. Judging from pictures, Canberra looks like a really beautiful pleasant place to live in! Who would 300 metre skyscrapers in a city like this? There are more monuments to show off like the Parliament House of Australia. This city reminds me of a few towns in Scandinavia from the appearance. I really like it! :)

5/10 ;)

Beautiful and well plan but not too much skyline. May be because the city is designed as capital city. 7/10 IMO.

Beautiful and well plan but not too much skyline. May be because the city is designed as capital city. 7/10 IMO.

THANK YOU!

Finally someone understands its purpose - it was built out of literally nothing (forest and farmland) in the 1920's to serve as Australia's purpose built capital. Look at other similar planned national capitals and they don't have much in the way of skylines (Washington DC, Abuja and Brasilia come to mind here).

Canberra is not a business or economic centre - its THE political hub of Oceania.

good city and skyline.

Hey, how come we can't vote a score lower than 3? Just kidding, I gave it a 4.

Someone ate the skyline!

05

5/10

5/10

0/10

7/10

Nice city - 7.5/10 :)

6/10

6/10

I love the trees... I hate the skyline
2/10
beautiful capital city though!

I didn't think it was their capital city very funny long time ago 7/10

8/10

4/10.

8. Good. Regards.

7/10

Perhaps it is too well-planned? Kind of robs the city of the potential for surprises, which is what I find so alluring.

It has a pleasant geographic position though.

5,5/10

5/10

8.5/10

8/10

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4034/4713254284_016e1c921b_b.jpg
http://www.flickr.com/photos/yury-prokopenko/4713254284/sizes/l/in/photostream/
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3056/2873913347_d9b96524de_b.jpg
http://www.flickr.com/photos/crouchy69/2873913347/sizes/l/in/photostream/
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/161/393474070_e44ce4c8fe_b.jpg
http://www.flickr.com/photos/the_yam/393474070/sizes/l/in/photostream/
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2087/2436507066_6004de30d5_b.jpg
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ryanwick/2436507066/sizes/l/in/photostream/

This city is the best example of how a city should be planned, it's perfect.
6/10 for the skyline.

5/10. Needs some taller scrapers.

5/10 because of Black Mountain Tower and Parliament House

6/10

6\10

Boring..3.5/10

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/30/City_Centre_viewed_from_Mount_Ainslie_lookout.jpg

Canberra has a very small skyline but the city centre is big enough when you're in it.

8/10

Decent desity with the buildings it does have but it would still be around 4.

4.5/10

3/10

http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5104/5843879073_234ed1c060_b.jpg
http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5104/5843879073_234ed1c060_b.jpg

3.5/10

4 out 10

6/10 not much of a skyline, but nice background.

To me Canberra's skyline looks more like a suburban office park than a downtown skyline. I appreciate it's a rather small size but when compared to nearby Wellington NZ which is also a capitol city of similar size, it's pretty bad.
I've heard Canberra is a lovely city but in terms of it's skyline it underwhelms.
3.0

Even as a city, I'm pretty sure Canberra sucks. A lot of it is government, and the place is dead beyond certain hours of the day. That said, it's still a fun place to visit if you're into Museums/Galleries, etc...

Skyline is certainly underwhelming but we have plenty other cities that hold the bar high.