Miami:Like Panama City or Honolulu

[PanaManiac]

These cities share two common denominators: Waterfront settings and an abundance of residential towers on their shorelines.

• Panama City
• Miami
• Honolulu
• Acapulco
• Gold Coast
• Cartagena
• Benidorm
• Vancouver, BC

There may be more, but that's all that comes to mind at this time.

[Aceventura]

*ahem* Dubai.

[PanaManiac]

Originally Posted by Aceventura

*ahem* Dubai.

I beg to differ, "ahem" notwithstanding. Dubai's avant-garde architecture puts it in a class by itself, residential towers or not.

[spellbound]

Originally Posted by PanaManiac

I beg to differ, "ahem" notwithstanding. Dubai's avant-garde architecture puts in a a class by itself, residential towers or not.

Didn't you say cities with "an abundance of residential towers on their shoreline?"

This is Jumeirah Beach in Dubai---and the towers are nearly all residential. How would it not qualify?

[PanaManiac]

Originally Posted by spellbound

Didn't you say cities with "an abundance of residential towers on their shoreline?"

This is Jumeirah Beach in Dubai---and the towers are nearly all residential. How would it not qualify?

Be that as it may and given Dubai's other architectual distractions, I'm still reluctant to include it in a fraternity (see post #101) with a preponderance of residentials. I could also name about 10 Brazilian cities I'd include before Dubai.

Dubai does share one common trait with Panama City, however - construction gone amok!

[Bostonianlover]

Wow look at today's city skyline pic. Tell me anyone of you guys thought that this was Miami before looking at the name of this city.

[Bostonianlover]

Today's skyline looked like Sunny Isles and Hallandale Beach for a glimpse but then after a few seconds it's not. Right?

[PanaManiac]

Originally Posted by Bostonianlover

Today's skyline looked like Sunny Isles and Hallandale Beach for a glimpse but then after a few seconds it's not. Right?

Today's (as in 4/20/10) panoramic skyline banner struck me at first glance as Benidorm, Spain.

[No Change No Future]

I've lived in both Panama and Miami, let me tell you something I've noticed, even though the cities differ in infrastructure grade(miami has A-grade infrastructure, thanks to being part of the USA, panama is on the light-speed path to development but is still very much a 3rd world country).

The environments are somewhat similar, and both have their pros and cons, Panama's bay can't be used as a beach because it's contanimated, so Miami wins in that sence, but Panama itself possess a biological diversity that totally dwarfs Florida, from mountains to deserts to volcanos to beautiful beaches, countryside, and everything in between, to the kuna islands, bocas del toro, the virgin islands, and many more natural wonders, however, some of these things are within short of distance of the city, but most are spread out throughout the country, so evaluate that as you will.

Thirdly, and finally the thing I find is STRINKINGLY similar in both cities, is the architecture. The panamanian boom that started in 2004 or so and is still going strong today is filled with Miami-like developments, I'm speaking about it looks literally the same architects and firms developed in both cities, because I see exactly the same type of both upscale and mid-scale residental buildings, the exposed white concrete paired with those same type of 'kinda cheap but not that cheap' windows and finishings, even the big parking garages below the buildings, just the other day in west miami I saw some development that looked straight out of panama city, and I've seen plenty of buildings in Miami, some of em very ugly, which use exactly the same types of finishings that a lot of buildings in Panama, which is mostly painted concrete.

When it comes to upscale residential and corporate buildings I'll give a miami a slight edge, but they're almost toe-to-toe, both residents of Miami and Panama know that we never really got a full-blown dubai-like everything-covered-in-glass-or-chrome boom filled with billionary investments, we got a boom with some nice upscale buildings but mostly filler, Miami has already built most of their most ambitious residential buildings while Panama is finishing up their last batch of the most ambitious, most expensive residential buildings, which will add quite a bit of glass, nice designs, some even with metal cladding on the facades and things like that which we don't see very often in either town, the new waterfront was a nice addition, once this latest batch of buildings is finished, Panama will look a lot more comparable to Miami, trust me.

Also the waterfront is being expanded into 3 more phases, and a lot of new things are coming to Panama such as the finished Bio-diversity musem designed by Frank Ghery which will be completely done next year, a 1st world convention center by SOM, a new city on the other side of the panama canal called "panama pacifico" and developed by L&R, they already had a development unparalled in Miami called "Costa Del Este" which was practically a whole new city, planned and developed with high standards, several 70-story buildings are in construction there, so expect Panama to start to catch up in those regards.

oh and one last thing, Panama has already surpassed Miami in the somewhat-meaningless area of building height, Panama now has the 293m Trump tower in final stages of construction, plus a slew of 200-250m buildings on the rise, this particular category doesn't really matter because it doesn't represent the quality or development of the city but I thought I'd throw that in.

Panama:
image hosted on flickr

old quarter on foreground on the left, main downtown in the middle, Costa Del Este on right side.

[miami305]

You are comparing a "country" Panama against just one "city" Miami. We as a whole country "USA" have mountains and deserts and subtropical forest as well.

[No Change No Future]

Originally Posted by miami305

You are comparing a "country" Panama against just one "city" Miami. We as a whole country "USA" have mountains and deserts and subtropical forest as well.

Panama is a tiny, tiny country, such comparison is impossible, I was comparing Panama to Florida which is still like 10 times bigger than Panama.

And who'd like to live there? well you can ask the hundreds of thousands of people from all continents who've emigrated to live there in this past decade.

[PanaManiac]

Originally Posted by miami305

But who wants to live in Panama anyways....so I thought I'd throw that in as well....

Interesting gibe from someone who's avatar is the Panama City skyline.

[miami305]

Buddy....check your eye sight....my own avatar is a pic I took of the Miami Skyline....I have never in my life been to Panama City, Panama...

[PanaManiac]

Originally Posted by miami305

Buddy....check your eye sight....my own avatar is a pic I took of the Miami Skyline....I have never in my life been to Panama City, Panama...

If you took that pic of the Miami skyline, it is identical to Panama City. Your avatar is a thumbnail of the same angle as the image shown below. The main difference is what appears to be a part of the "Las Bóvedas" seawall promenade in your avatar.

[1772]

Originally Posted by PanaManiac

If you took that pic of the Miami skyline, it is identical to Panama City. Your avatar is a thumbnail of the same angle as the image shown below. The main difference is what appears to be a part of the "Las Bóvedas" seawall promenade in your avatar.

Isn't that pretty much the point of this thread? That Miami and Panama City resembles one another...

[PanaManiac]

Originally Posted by 1772

Isn't that pretty much the point of this thread? That Miami and Panama City resembles one another...

That may be, but resembling and being identical is two seperate things. His avatar thumbnail is identical to the Panama City skyline silhouette, as illustrated in the picture above.

[1772]

Originally Posted by PanaManiac

That may be, but resembling and being identical is two seperate things. His avatar thumbnail is identical to the Panama City skyline silhouette, as illustrated in the picture above.

Please, sure, they resemble one another but you have to be blind not to see that they are two different cities.

That tall tower on the Panama-pic isn't there, neither is the islands in the foreground.
His avatar is probably taken from the Rickenbacker Causeway in Miami, FL, USA.

And what's with the bold text?

[PanaManiac]

Originally Posted by 1772

Please, sure, they resemble one another but you have to be blind not to see that they are two different cities.

That tall tower on the Panama-pic isn't there, neither is the islands in the foreground.
His avatar is probably taken from the Rickenbacker Causeway in Miami, FL, USA.

And what's with the bold text?

Well, there's one thing we can agree on - we disagree. As for the bold text, it's who I am...

[1772]

Originally Posted by PanaManiac

Well, there's one thing we can agree on - we disagree. As for the bold text, it's who I am...

Well, not really. His picture IS of Miami, not Panama City.
Thus you can not blame him for copying anything.

[PanaManiac]

Originally Posted by 1772

Well, not really. His picture IS of Miami, not Panama City.
Thus you can not blame him for copying anything.

Frankly, Scarlet, I don't give a damn!