Chicago’s skyline named to a list of the best in the world – but so was another Midwestern city

A recent ranking from Architectural Digest named their 17 best skylines in the world, heaping praise onto cities from across the world for their skylines’ blend of architectural and natural wonder.

To perhaps the surprise of no one, Chicago received high accolades on the list, being named as the third-best skyline in the world, owing to the city’s majestic skyscrapers lining the shores of Lake Michigan.

Yet Architectural Digest recognized that Chicago is not the only city in the Midwest to hold those characteristics, albeit to a lesser-recognized extent on a smaller scale.

Being named as the world’s 15th-best skyline, the publication recognized Milwaukee, Wisconsin was also praised for its notable presence along Lake Michigan, highlighting Santiago Calatrava’s Milwaukee Art Museum as a hallmark of the city’s skyline.

Outside of Milwaukee and Chicago, American cities also occupied the No. 1 and No. 14 spots in the ranking with the skylines of Manhattan and Seattle receiving the honors, respectively.

As far as the criteria used by Architectural Digest for the ranking, the publication posed the following questions:

“But what exactly makes a beautiful skyline? One that is immediately recognizable? Those that are the most harmonious? The cities with the greatest number of individually striking buildings?”

The answer, Architectural Digest said, “is of course, some collection of all of the above.”

Below is the full ranking of the website’s 17 best skylines in the world:

• 1. Manhattan, New York City, U.S.
• 2. Hong Kong
• 3. Chicago, U.S.
• 4. Dubai, United Arab Emirates
• 5. Tokyo, Japan
• 6. Perth, Australia
• 7. Sydney, Australia
• 8. Shanghai, China
• 9. Singapore
• 10. Bangkok, Thailand
• 11. Tianjin, China
• 12. Panama City, Panama
• 13. Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
• 14. Seattle, U.S.
• 15. Milwaukee, U.S.
• 16. Auckland, New Zealand
• 17. Toronto, Canada

More information on the ranking can be found here.