[Avian001]

This is just for fun.

What if things would have happened a little differently in your city?

What if "the best of all possible worlds" occurred?

Can you show images of these possible scenarios?


This question came up because I always wondered What if St. Paul and Minneapolis were actually one city instead of two? Yes, it probably wouldn't look just like this, but if you combined the two skylines, this is what might happen:




Similarly...What would these scenarios look like...

What If Detroit had continued on its upward spiral 40 years ago?

What If Milwaukee had built everything that was planned just 5 years ago?

For another example, here's a re-imagining of Milwaukee with just a couple of added buildings:



And another:



Or how about a St. Louis Supertall?



ETC?

 

[GarfieldPark]

I've wondered about if Louisville and Lexington and Frankfort all were combined - so you'd have the largest city, the Capitol City and the city with the largest State University - all in the same place.

I don't have the tools to try to put together a possible picture of this merged city though -- sorry.

What if Milwaukee and Madison were combined? Again - the largest city merged with the State Capitol city and the city with the largest State University.

 

[Indy Rock]

I've wondered about if Louisville and Lexington and Frankfort all were combined - so you'd have the largest city, the Capitol City and the city with the largest State University - all in the same place.

I don't have the tools to try to put together a possible picture of this merged city though -- sorry.

What if Milwaukee and Madison were combined? Again - the largest city merged with the State Capitol city and the city with the largest State University.

So like Indy & Columbus right? What if all of OUR Riley Towers were built? Now that would be something!

 

[ajknee]

So like Indy & Columbus right? What if all of OUR Riley Towers were built? Now that would be something!

I refuse to concede that Columbus is the largest city in Ohio. It all depends on how you slice it.

 

[spectre000]

I love that shot of Minneapolis+ St. Paul together. I can only imagine if the Key Tower design was used instead of Wells Fargo/Norwest Center. Add the Nicollet, Eclipse high rises, Penfield high rise, Sibley House, MN WTC additional phased developments, and of course of a Supertall... :cheers:

 

[MilwaukeeMax]

where'd you get those renderings of Milwaukee?

 

[ajknee]

What if the subway had been completed in Cincinnati? God, I melt thinking about it.

Here's a pic from an extensive blog post by "Queen City Discovery":

http://queencitydiscovery.blogspot.com/2010/03/cincinnatis-subway.html

 

[MilwaukeeMax]

What if the subway had been completed in Cincinnati? God, I melt thinking about it.

Here's a pic from an extensive blog post by "Queen City Discovery":

http://queencitydiscovery.blogspot.com/2010/03/cincinnatis-subway.html

For that matter, what if the subway had been completed in Milwaukee? The part of it that was built was removed during the construction of I-794, sadly.

 

[Avian001]

where'd you get those renderings of Milwaukee?

The altered images with the imagined buildings are mine. I don't remember from where the originals come from though. It was at least two hard-drive crashes ago...

 

[Avian001]

What if the subway had been completed in Cincinnati? God, I melt thinking about it.

Holy crap! Thanks for that link. I had no idea Cincinnati had this under her feet. Fascinating articles!

 

[Paule]

The altered images with the imagined buildings are mine. I don't remember from where the originals come from though. It was at least two hard-drive crashes ago...

When I first read your OP and saw the pics you posted and considering the thread title I was thinking that the TC was the only metro that would apply, at least when it comes to combining photos. Great job on combining photos by the way. But then I remembered back when when Frist Wisconsin bank became US Bank and how the decision was made to make Minneapolis the headquarters for US Bank. If the decision was made to make Milwaukee the headquarters most probably there would have been a new tallest for Milwaukee.

I remember 10 years ago discussing this with others here where we all were saying that the US Bank building built in Minneapolis could've and should've been built in Milwaukee. I would still like to see a Milwaukee skyline with this building in the center of it.

 

[urbanjim]

St Louis: What I try to imagine is what the skyline would look like if all the highrises were located downtown, as opposed to the current situation. For those who aren't familiar with St Louis, several high-rise buildings are found in groups spread to the west of downtown St Louis. And many more high-rises are located still further west in suburban Clayton-- a separate high-rise business district formed here, due to the fact that the city is independent from the county. If anyone has the means to combine the images of the St Louis and Clayton skylines, I'd be very eager to see the results!

 

[minneapolis-uptown]

When I first read your OP and saw the pics you posted and considering the thread title I was thinking that the TC was the only metro that would apply, at least when it comes to combining photos. Great job on combining photos by the way. But then I remembered back when when Frist Wisconsin bank became US Bank and how the decision was made to make Minneapolis the headquarters for US Bank. If the decision was made to make Milwaukee the headquarters most probably there would have been a new tallest for Milwaukee.

I remember 10 years ago discussing this with others here where we all were saying that the US Bank building built in Minneapolis could've and should've been built in Milwaukee. I would still like to see a Milwaukee skyline with this building in the center of it.

It's really not that great of a building. kinda ugly and plain if you ask me:

 

[The anti-cheesehead]

It's really not that great of a building. kinda ugly and plain if you ask me:

The Capella Tower, right next to the "plain and ugly" building in your pic, is where US Bancorp's headquarters used to be, and was originally called First Bank Place, because that's who acquired US Bank in Portland.

Then they moved into US Bancorp Center on Nicollet Mall. That's where the headquarters was at the time of combining with Firstar in Milwaukee, and that's where it still is. The building in your pic is the old Pillsbury building and is now called US Bank Plaza, although it doesn't serve as the headquarters.

So...if Firstar wouldn've staying in Milwaukee, they wouldn't have necessarily built any of those buildings there, because they all had already been built in Minneapolis prior to the acquisition.

 

[MilwaukeeMax]

Well, i think he means if the combined bank company had picked Milwaukee as its headquarters instead.. After all, it was Firstar that BOUGHT US Bank and not the other way around. The execs liked the US Bank name better and took that. Part of the poison pill deal of the buyout was that the headquarters be moved to MPLS, even though the purchasing company was in Milwaukee. If it hadn't been a family dealing and was any other 2 banks, the headquarters would have remained in MKE with a new high-rise resulting most likely.

 

[mgk920]

What if...

...Wisconsin's municipal boundary law was much friendlier to its cities and the state didn't slam the annexation door on Milwaukee back in the 1950s?

Mike

 

[The anti-cheesehead]

Well, i think he means if the combined bank company had picked Milwaukee as its headquarters instead.. After all, it was Firstar that BOUGHT US Bank and not the other way around. The execs liked the US Bank name better and took that. Part of the poison pill deal of the buyout was that the headquarters be moved to MPLS, even though the purchasing company was in Milwaukee. If it hadn't been a family dealing and was any other 2 banks, the headquarters would have remained in MKE with a new high-rise resulting most likely.

I know Firstar was the acquiring party, but I think what Paule was saying is that the now Capella tower, could've, should've, been built in Milwaukee.

That building was built in Minneapolis before the Firstar acquisition and had nothing to do with Firstar at all.

And no, it is not a general rule that the acquiring company keeps it's headquarters in it's city. If that was the case, Wells Fargo would be headquartered in Minneapolis and not San Francisco. Norwest, a Minneapolis company, acquired Wells Fargo.

 

[mnmike]

Same thing happened with Wells Fargo...Norwest bought Wells but moved the HQ to San Francisco. At least we won one!

 

[The anti-cheesehead]

Same thing happened with Wells Fargo...Norwest bought Wells but moved the HQ to San Francisco. At least we won one!

I think it's funny that some Milwaukee folks think they were cheated out of a headquarters and a "supertall" because of a family issue.

It was a business decision. US Bancorp was bigger than Firstar at the time of the acquisition and the only reason why Firstar was the size that it was was because of other mergers/acquisitions, not because of it being in Milwaukee.

Before the US Bancorp/Firstar merger, Firstar itself was acquired by Star Banc Corp of Cincinnati and Milwaukee "stole" the headquarters from Cincinnati.

 

[The Urban Politician]

What if the subway had been completed in Cincinnati? God, I melt thinking about it.

Here's a pic from an extensive blog post by "Queen City Discovery":

http://queencitydiscovery.blogspot.com/2010/03/cincinnatis-subway.html

^ Wow, this is fascinating stuff! Thanks for sharing that.

I really had no idea about this. Kind of spooky, those subway tunnels that never saw train service. One thinks about the different direction a city like Cincy (or other cities in which mass transit was planned but never fully implemented esp as America turned into an autotopia post WWII) could have taken.

What would Cincy have been like in 2010 if those subway tunnels had been completed? Would it have been more like Chicago, or perhaps Philadelphia? Would it have been a much larger city? More cosmopolitan?

I guess we can only speculate.