CBD size comparisons ?

[redbaron_012]

When we look at skyline pics of any city we adjust our perception of the size of the City by assuming scale compared to a familiar landmark. Yet it is really amazing how if you could superimpose one city on another how far out we really are...Example....In Skylines there are some fantastic pics of all our cities, all great, all beautiful but on a purely size and form comparison it's interesting to think how some buildings would look transfered to another city. In the Gold Coast pic, Q1 looks so awesome, which it is, yet if you concider the roof behind the fins is around the same height as Melbournes Rialto the rest of the skyline is fairly low.....slimmer residential towers look taller than Office buildings in our typical CBDs. Another comparison I thought about was Melbourne City from CUB site to Malthouse Theatre and Victoria Harbour to St. Patricks Cathedral fits in New York City between The Empire State Building and Housten St. and the width of Manhattan Is. in that area...none of this is about which is best ..just about comparing physical size.

[Leon...]

I think that Central Park alone is 2.5x the Hoddle Grid's area. Amazing!

[Tyson]

Yep. The Hoddle Grid covers about 320 acres and Central Park is about 840 acres.

[Leon...]

Also, the Hoddle Grid is .5 mi x 1 mi; Central Park is .5 mi x 2.5 mi

[redbaron_012]

Yeah, my size comparison included north and south of the Hoddle grid and east west into the Docklands and across to MCG...but I see what you mean about Central park..I walked alot of that park and from many parts you wouldn't believe you were in the centre of such a huge city. You know how there is a low rise mainly residential area south of the Empire State building including Chelsea and Greenwich Village..this is the area I imagined the total area of Melbourne ..would be fantasic with computer possibilities to superimpose Melbourne or Sydney etc in this area of Manhattan..Many of our buildings would hold their own..meaning until the new WTC is completed many of Australias major skyscrapers are equal in height or taller than lower Manhattan.EG....The Chase Manhattan Bank is the same height as the Rialto.

[The Olderfleet]

Okay, I have tried to use Google Earth to compare city sizes. The elevation is slighty different for all as Google Earth doesn't permit exact elevations to be entered.

The cities are:
MELBOURNE Australia, viewed at 6.3 kilometres
(Hoddle Grid in red)
NEW YORK United States, viewed at 6.2 kilometres
(Central Park shown)
MANILA The Philippines, viewed at 6.3 kilometres
(The only world city I've visited outside Oz - makes Melb CBD feel like a village. Makati CBD area in red.)
CANBERRA Australia, viewed at 6.3 kilometres
(The National Capital)

MELBOURNE


NEW YORK


MANILA


CANBERRA

[tayser]

Canberra, gigantasuburbaboringsaurus.

Manilla looks interesting though.

[Qantas743]

I think I would start to include Docklands in that pic by now.

[Red Nut]

Righto, here are the major capital cities of Australia. All from approx. 5km elevation. I actually have pondered this question myself before and in a long moment of boredom actually saved these images... never thought of sharing them. Anywho, guess which city is which

[Qantas743]

3 largest CBDs:

1. Sydney
2. Melbourne
3. North Sydney

[BleakCity]

Might want to redo Melbourne and Sydney, Red Nut

[redbaron_012]

I wouldn't have thought Adelaides DBD was twice as big as Melbournes??? Would be good to see acurate from exactly the same altitude shots.... and Colour comparisons look washed out in some? Melbournes not that grey!!! Thanks for the pics though.....

[Giorgio]

Originally Posted by redbaron_012

I wouldn't have thought Adelaides DBD was twice as big as Melbournes??? Would be good to see acurate from exactly the same altitude shots.... and Colour comparisons look washed out in some? Melbournes not that grey!!! Thanks for the pics though.....

Im pretty sure in area it is bigger than Melbourne....but 3/4 of Adelaide CBD is lowrise.

[gappa]

Adelaide's so lucky to have it's CBD surrounded by park. Imagine what it's look like if it was all high rise. Mmmmmm.

[Austraarabian]

OMG Sydney looks MASSIVE in that Earth pic you posted!!! I thought it was Shanghai until i noticed the waverton. hehe. Adelaide should have built its city in front or behind the park not on the side.

[talrok]

Adelaide is totally surrounded by parklands .. as a resident I personally think way too many parklands .. some of them very dull, boring and in our recent climate, pretty arid (although we have had a bucket load of rain last week) .. you should see the council (and old biddies) uproar at any sign of building over even 1% of them .. so instead we have such things as our major sports ground 10 kms out of the city ... I love Melbourne's design (very similar to Adelaide in its grid like roads) whereby MCG, Telstra close to city and people can flock to city after major events .. people here go straight home from AAMI stadium as would take 2 hours to walk to CBD .. also we have some severe height restrictions on buildings in CBD .. all credit to Melb

[SYDNEYAHOLIC]

Melbourne is zoomed much further out than Sydney - though Sydney did look alot larger in that image. I've always thought that Melbourne's CBD covered an area twice that of Sydney's. Surely NOrth Sydney is not the third largest CBD in Australia??? Maybe if you include Milsons Point and St Leonards along the Pacific Highway Corridor than it might claim that mantle but otherwise it seems a little farfetched. I'll post some of my images later - I did the same thing as Red Nut and i think i got them all the same size - with some very meticulous and deft manouvrements of my mouse!

[wowsim]

I think a distinction needs to be drawn on the CBD and the Hoddle Grid for Melbourne. They are no longer one and the same...

[SYDNEYAHOLIC]

Here's two google earth images taken from a height of exactly 5 kilometres which compare the sizes of Sydney's and Melbourne's CBD's. I've included in Melbourne the Docklands (which has some very empty parts), Southbank and the cultural district with the Victorian Art Gallery. In Sydney I've included the Rocks (it has some offices - esp Walsh Bay but it is quite like a Swanston Street district) and I've also included DH (Southbankish and tourist culturalish but very much part of CBD) and Barangaroo because that is going to be developed very soon much like large swathes of Melbourne's Docklands.

The red line obviously defines how I've classified the two CBD's:




Sydney's CBD is much more linear and feels much smaller than Melbourne's because of it's generally confusing layout and much hillier topography. I think Melbourne is probably twice the size of Sydney.

MORE PICS COMPARING ALOT MORE CBD'S IN AUSTRALIA AND A FEW MAJOR CITIES IN THE WORLD ARE COMING SOON - I'M NOT JUST COMPARING SYDNEY AND MELBOURNE - THOUGH THIS POST IS...

[redbaron_012]

What I was really meaning when I started all this was a fantasy to see Melbourne or another city sitting slap bang in the middle of Manhattan....between Middle and Lower Manhattan...using the Empire State as northern boundary and Housten St. as southern....to same scale I sketched this diagram from around Queen Victoria Market in north to The Arts Centre at Southbank....now what I'd love to see is a 3D image with buildings sticking up in the air !!!! ???