The world’s best-known cities are home to iconic skylines: think the staggered skyscrapers of New York, the eclectic architecture of Chicago and the shiny towers of Shanghai. But while many of these cityscapes are seared into our memories, they haven’t always looked that way. Some have evolved over time, with a tower erected here, a building demolished there – while others seem to have sprung up almost overnight. Here are some incredible archive images and illustrations that show how city skylines have transformed through the years, decades and centuries.
Few cities are so synonymous with architectural brilliance as Chicago. The Windy City is, after all, the birthplace of the skyscraper. The world’s first, the Home Insurance Building, was completed in 1885 and rose to 138 feet (42m) and 10 storeys – not exactly lofty by today’s high standards, but a game changer at the time. It was constructed with a steel frame that supported its weight, but with a brick exterior, a technique that became known as the “Chicago Skeleton”. This image, taken in 1911, shows the skyline starting to take shape along the shores of Lake Michigan.
Sadly, the landmark building was demolished in 1931, making way for the Field Building (now the Lasalle Bank Building), and the skyline began to take on a somewhat steelier style. By 1980 (pictured), many of the city’s most iconic structures had taken their place. The Willis Tower (formerly Sears Tower), rising above the others (left), was completed in 1974, as was the Aon Center, the white rectangular structure that dominates the skyline left of centre. Older buildings, including the 1924 Wrigley Building with its Seville-inspired clock tower, were already getting a little lost.
Today, while it isn’t home to the world’s tallest buildings, Chicago has a beautiful mix of architectural styles. And the skyline remains dynamic, with several supertall skyscrapers over 800 feet (244m) currently under construction and others yet to break ground, such as 400 Lake Shore Drive, and Tribune East Tower, which is set to become Chicago's second tallest building at 1,442 feet (440m). Recent additions include the Jeanne Gang-designed St Regis Chicago (centre left). Built in 2020, the 101-storey building dominates the harbour skyline at 1,198 feet (365) tall. Willis Tower is still the city’s tallest structure at 1,451 feet (442m) – edging Trump Tower, built in 2005 and seen here in the centre, by 62 feet (19m).
By 1955, one of the skyline’s most recognisable landmarks had curved over the water for 23 years. The Sydney Harbour Bridge was finished in 1932 with a span of 1,650 feet (500m), putting it among the world’s longest steel-arch bridges. It took eight years to complete, its two sides built into each bank, and came to symbolise the city – as well as marking the harbour out as a tourist attraction.
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There was still a significant structure missing, though. Sydney’s most iconic building, the Opera House, opened in 1973 and changed the skyline forever. Its unique architecture, with a gleaming sail-like shape that’s often illuminated after dark, is instantly recognisable. Many other now-famous structures also popped up along the downtown skyline in the latter half of the 20th century, including the spindly Sydney Tower Eye. In the last few years, three buildings have sprung up that top the list of Sydney's tallest buildings. At 890 feet (271m), Crown Sydney (also known as One Barangaroo, far right), became the tallest building in the metropolis when it was completed in December 2020. Erected in 2022, the Salesforce Tower (centre) is second tallest, at 863 feet (263m), while One Sydney Harbour (to the left of Crown Sydney) follows up in third place at 810 feet (247m).
In 1993, this JVC Electronics tower was one of the most dominant buildings in Kuala Lumpur. The city underwent a building boom from the 1970s and, by that time, was on the cusp of huge architectural change. In the distance are a smattering of hotels, banks and office blocks, interspersed with construction sites. But the biggest and arguably the best was yet to come...
One thing has totally transformed the skyline since. Actually, two things: the Petronas Towers, opened in 1996. Once the world's tallest buildings, they’re now ranked joint-21st on the list, however they're still officially the tallest twin towers in the world, soaring in synchronicity to nearly 1,483 feet (452m). Other additions from the late 20th century onwards include the distinctive Kuala Lumpur or KL Tower, topped with an antenna (left), and Kuala Lumpur's second tallest building, Four Seasons Place (centre right), a supertall 74-storey skyscraper measuring 1,124 feet (343m), which was completed in 2018.
Toronto’s skyline, beautifully defined on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario, is a clear indication of how the city has changed. This engraving illustrates life on the harbour in around 1841, when it was a busy working port and quayside with fishing boats, on the cusp of industrialisation. Two fires – in 1849 and most devastatingly in 1904 – forced a new era of development and city planning.
The first half of the 20th century saw more buildings spring up along the waterfront, with the business district growing skywards. When the Canadian Bank of Commerce Tower (right) was completed in the 1930s, it dominated the skyline as the tallest building not just in the city, but in the entire British Commonwealth. The Royal York Hotel, to the left, was then the Commonwealth’s biggest hotel too. Both structures remain, with the hotel now a Fairmont.
Today, both of these structures have been dwarfed by a series of newer skyscrapers that have transformed the cityscape into a modern beauty. Overshadowing them all is the Canadian National, or CN Tower, the world’s tallest free-standing structure when it was completed in the 1970s (until Dubai’s Burj Khalifa came along, in 2009). Next to it – and beautifully illuminated – is the Rogers Centre or Toronto SkyDome, opened in 1989. The skyline could have dramatically altered once again, if plans to demolish the home of the Toronto Blue Jays had come to fruition. However, owners instead opted for a major two-year, £176 million (C$300m/$219m) renovation, the first stage of which was completed in November 2022.
This etching, dating from around 1599, shows a long-lost London with medieval structures that have since been destroyed, torn down and/or replaced. Among the most prominent is the old St Paul’s Cathedral, which looms above other buildings and can be seen just left of centre in this image depicting the skyline from Southwark. London Bridge, on the right, was then a mini-neighbourhood with shops, homes and more elaborate structures. These included Nonsuch House, a Renaissance palace of carved wood made in the Netherlands and added in 1579.
Then came the catastrophic Great Fire of 1666, which destroyed around 80% of the city and changed the capital forever. A block of homes on London Bridge was destroyed and, while other buildings survived, they were removed by 1762 and the bridge was eventually demolished in 1832. Structures lost forever were the riverside Castle Baynard and the old Royal Exchange. Many were quickly rebuilt, and this image taken in 1802 from the relatively new Blackfriars Bridge shows the now familiar dome of St Paul’s Cathedral, with its fourth and still standing incarnation completed in 1710.
Today it’s a very different picture, as this September 2023 shot of Blackfriars Bridge demonstrates. St Paul’s is now the grande dame of the skyline and provides a stark contrast to the skyscrapers glittering alongside it in the City of London financial district. You can spy some of the most distinctive buildings in London here, including the Rafael Viñoly-designed 20 Fenchurch St (far right), which is known as The Walkie-Talkie due to its unusual shape and features an elaborate sky garden, the Leadenhall Building or 'The Cheesegrater' at the centre of the group and 22 Bishopsgate, just to its left, which at 912 feet (278m) is the second tallest building in the UK after The Shard.
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Hong Kong Harbour was renamed Victoria Harbour in the 1850s under British colonial rule. It's pictured here in around 1930, and you can see that its topography has changed, as well as the buildings along its shoreline. Land has been reclaimed from the natural harbour over the decades, altering its shape. Once a fishing village, the modern city grew from this area, backed by Victoria Peak – though by this stage the skyline was only just beginning to take shape.
Now it’s one of the most famous cityscapes and most photographed waterfronts in the world. The first skyscrapers began springing up in the 1970s, with each new structure attempting to outdo its predecessor. The first was the Connaught Centre, now Jardine House, in 1972, with its distinctive circular windows. Then came the 66-storey cylindrical Hopewell Centre in 1980, home to the city’s highest revolving restaurant and for a while the tallest structure of them all. That is, until the International Commerce Centre, or ICC, came along in 2002, far surpassing it at 108 storeys.
Dubai’s transformation has been both total and stunningly swift. From the 1960s, the relatively undeveloped and low-rise port city became a centre for oil trading and the creek running through the city was a major route for ships. Infrastructure grew and high-rise buildings began to dominate the waterfront. By 1996, as shown in this photo, a few gleaming and gilded skyscrapers marked the beginning of a new era.
By the early 21st century, when this shot was captured, Dubai’s burgeoning skyline was fast developing with structures rivalling those in New York and Hong Kong. On the left are the Jumeirah Emirates Towers – completed in 2000, they're almost identical, yet not quite. The tallest is an office block with 54 floors, while the other is a luxury 400-room hotel.
Construction began on the Burj Khalifa, still the world’s tallest building at just over 2,716 feet (828m) tall, in 2004. This piercing addition to the skyline cemented Dubai’s reputation as a gleaming metropolis determined to be the biggest and best. Or, at the very least, the tallest. Other projects in the works currently include the Dubai Creek Tower. Although the final height has not yet been disclosed, the project developer, Emaar Properties, has declared it will have a minimum height of 4,300 feet (1,300m), which – if achieved – will make it Dubai's new tallest building and the tallest supported tower in the world. Work on the tower paused due to the pandemic and Emaar announced in September 2023 that plans for the tower will undergo a redesign "elevating its grandeur and impact" before construction begins.
In 1864, when this image was captured across the San Francisco Bay, the former Spanish and later Mexican mission and pueblo was under US control, after it was captured in 1846 and renamed from Yerba Buena. Much of the city’s development began during the Gold Rush. The population increased from about 1,000 to 25,000 between 1948 and 1949: housing sprang up and life largely revolved around the port.
Today’s skyline couldn’t be more different. There’s the Bay Bridge – built in the 1930s along with its more famous near-neighbour, the Golden Gate – perfectly framing a now-sparkling skyline of towers and waterside life. The building boom began in the early 20th century after many of the city’s structures were destroyed in the 1906 earthquake and subsequent fires. Now, standout skyscrapers include the 2018-completed Salesforce Tower, the city’s tallest at 1,070 feet (326m), and the Transamerica Pyramid, completed in 1972 and standing at 853 feet (260m).
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Frankfurt is Germany’s financial centre and arguably home to its most distinctive skyline, with the vast majority of the country’s skyscrapers found here. This 1895 view from Sachsenhausen, on the opposite bank of the River Main, shows a dramatically different Frankfurt. Timber houses line the riverfront while, at this time, the tallest structure is the 312-foot (95m) Gothic tower of the Frankfurt Cathedral. Eiserner Steg, the iron footbridge that spans the river, was built in 1868.
Frankfurt looked like a different city by the late 20th century. The bridge is still there, as are many of the city’s historic structures, including the now relatively diminutive cathedral, smaller churches and the stepped gable facade of Frankfurter Romer, a medieval building that’s now the town hall. Yet, just beyond those, a strip of sky-piercing towers has risen up to add a shiny, modern layer to the old city. The Commerzbank Tower (centre) became a symbol of the banking district. Completed in 1997, it was (and still is) the tallest building in Germany.
This futuristic strip has become more crowded over the past few decades as more skyscrapers and financial centres have joined the line-up and, in some cases, nudged other buildings out of the front row. Once dominant buildings such as the Deutsche Bank Twin Towers, just behind the cathedral, are almost dwarfed by new(ish)-comers like the cylindrical Main Tower, completed in 1999. The Commerzbank Tower, the tallest building in Germany at 849 feet (258m), looms at the centre of the group.
Few cities have changed so dramatically and so swiftly as Shanghai – especially on the east bank of the Huangpu River. Most of the original development was on the western side of the water, which became a British settlement in the 1840s after Shanghai was occupied during the First Opium War. This early 20th-century photo shows some of the colonial-era buildings along the Bund promenade, many of which still stand today, and reveals just how undeveloped the other side remained until nearly a century later.
Now the east bank looks like aliens have taken over – or perhaps just some very ambitious architects. Shanghai’s futuristic Pudong district now boasts China’s tallest building (and the world’s second tallest, after Dubai’s Burj Khalifa): the 2,073-feet (632m) tall Shanghai Tower. The very brave can enjoy its 1,843 foot (562m) high observation deck, which is the world's tallest. Its twisty structure is just one of many unique shapes on the waterfront. There’s the Bottle Opener, as the World Financial Center is known, and the Oriental Pearl Tower, which looks like a spaceship ready for take-off.
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The vista across Rio from Corcovado to Sugarloaf Mountain is among the world’s most famous and inspiring. And, as this 1895 image shows, it’s always been gorgeous thanks to its beach-lined bays and views of forested peaks, islands and the Atlantic Ocean. At this point there was little to distract from the natural beauty of Guanabara Bay, with low-level homes, public buildings and churches barely bothering the sky. Rio was also the capital of independent Brazil from 1822, until Brasilia took the job in 1960.
By the 1960s, around 30 years after the iconic Christ the Redeemer statue was completed atop Corcovado, the same view was starting to look a little different. This picture was taken from the viewing platform near the statue. Several older buildings had been demolished and replaced by taller structures for housing, hotels and businesses, streets had been widened, some lagoons and swamps had been filled in and the port had been rebuilt in 1907.
Before the 1970s, the tallest structures were up to 30 storeys high. Then came the skyscraper boom, which dramatically altered the view. Today the city’s centre sprawls out before Christ the Redeemer as a patchwork of colonial-era, Neoclassical, modern and positively futuristic architecture. Among the most prominent structures is the 48-storey Rio Sul Center Tower (right of the statue), the tallest in the city at 535 feet (163m) and completed in 1982.
New York, New York – so good they really did name it twice. The original Dutch settlement was known as New Amsterdam until 1674, when it was returned to the English and renamed in honour of the Duke of York, King James II. This 17th-century rendering illustrates just how different Manhattan Island looked compared to the shiny tableau of skyscrapers and bridges that’s so familiar today. New Amsterdam, on the southern tip of Manhattan Island just below modern Wall Street, consisted of largely wooden buildings surrounded by farmland.
This early 20th-century image shows Lower Manhattan and Wall Street on the cusp of the skyscraper boom. The Singer Building (the darker shaded tower to the left) was the world’s tallest when it was erected in 1908, and was the tallest structure to be intentionally destroyed in 1966. In the foreground, the Battery, formerly known as Battery Park, where artillery batteries once protected the early settlement, was already a popular green space. On the left, the International Mercantile Marine Company Building (formerly the Washington Building) was built in 1885 and remodelled in a Beaux-Arts style in 1921.
Over the decades, the Manhattan skyline evolved into one of the most famous and recognisable vistas in the world. Several iconic structures had added height to the city by the 1930s, with 30 Rockefeller Plaza, the Chrysler Building and the needle-topped Empire State Building all shooting up around this time. It was the Twin Towers of the World Trade Centre, however, that most strikingly stood out in the jagged, gleaming cityscape. They’re shown here in 1976, three years after they were completed.
Today, of course, it’s their absence that stands out most starkly. This recent image shows One World Trade Center, erected on the site of the original World Trade Complex, as a symbol of the city’s resilience and spirit following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. The tallest structure in New York City, its 1,776 foot (541m) height is a deliberate reference to the year the US Declaration of Independence was signed. Elsewhere, a few remnants of New Amsterdam remain. Many area names, for example, stem from the Dutch, including Harlem, Coney Island and Brooklyn. The latter is also home to Wyckoff House, New York’s oldest building dating from 1652.
The Romans first descended on Lutetia, now Paris, in 52 BC and went on to fill the city with grand architecture, including thermal baths and an amphitheatre. Over the centuries that followed, the city was shaped by revolutions, uprisings and invasions, and owes its iconic elegance to the work of Napoleon III and his town planner, baron Georges Haussmann, who are responsible for much of the Paris we see today. In fact, thanks to its grand architecture and remarkably little meddling with its historic buildings, vast swathes of the Parisian skyline look much the same today as it did hundreds of years ago. However, nowhere has been more clearly affected by change than the Avenue de la Grande Armee. Stretching from the Arc de Triomphe (seen here) to the modern day area of La Defense, it was reduced almost to rubble during the Franco-Prussian War and the Siege of Paris – as you can see from this photo taken in January 1871, towards the end of the siege.
In the 1950s and 60s, an area was developed to the west of Paris, at the end of the Avenue de la Grande Armee, replacing the factories and farms that had stood there. Named La Defense after a statue erected there in 1883 to commemorate soldiers of the Franco-Prussian War, the area became the city's business hub, with France's very first office building, Esso Tower, taking shape there in 1963. This photo, taken in September 1973, shows some of the earliest buildings to be erected, including Tour Franklin (left), at 364 feet (111m) tall.
Today, La Defense is one of the most modern and architecturally dynamic areas of Paris. At its heart is the Grande Arche, which stands at one end of the Avenue de la Grande Armee, echoing the Arc de Triomphe, which stands at the other end. The now-iconic building opened on 14 July 1989 to mark 200 years since the French Revolution. Initially made from glass and Carrara marble, which has since been replaced by granite, the 35 storey structure is the headquarters of the French Ministry of Trade and Transport. Unfortunately, if you want to visit the landmark you're out of luck – the viewing terrace closed permanently in April 2023.
This engraving shows Tokyo and its bay as it looked back in 1854, when it was known as Edo. One of the largest cities in the world at the time, Edo existed in a state of near-constant regeneration, building and rebuilding between earthquakes and fires. During the Edo period, between 1600 and 1868, the city, which was built largely from wood and bamboo, was ravaged by 49 major fires, roughly one every five years, earning it the moniker "City of Fires." It was officially established as Tokyo in 1889.
After it became Japan's imperial and political capital in the late nineteenth century, Tokyo continued to expand and thrive. By the time this image was taken of the Sumida river cutting through central Tokyo in 1930, the city had become a sprawling metropolis, bustling with industry. To counter the threat of fire, brick became the building material of choice and the skyline changed forever. Following the great earthquake of 1923, however, architects turned to reinforced concrete as a safer option. Tragically, Tokyo suffered intense bombing during World War Two and its appearance changed dramatically once again.
Today, Tokyo could hardly look more different. A vibrant city built on the cutting edge of technology, the Japanese capital is full of modern architectural wonders. Most striking is the Tokyo tower (right), which at 1,093 feet (333m) is the second tallest building in Japan. Built in 1958, it was inspired by Paris' Eiffel Tower and has two observation decks. The tallest of Japan's skyscrapers, the 1,082 foot (330m) high Azabudai Hills Mori JP Tower, can be spotted just to the right of the far tower of Tokyo's famous Rainbow Bridge. It won't be the tallest for long, however, as a whole host of new high-rise complexes are slated to spring up over the next few years. It looks like Tokyo's skyline is set to keep changing.