US cities in architectural arms race to the sky

Florida

AMERICAN cities are starting an architectural arms race to the sky with super-sized Ferris wheels, a 100-story observation tower and maybe even a mammoth golf ball atop a 300-foot (91m) tee planted in the Arizona desert.

From Phoenix to Camden, New Jersey, city officials and developers are seeking to punctuate their skylines with exclamation points, vying for the world's attention with the next Eiffel Tower or London Eye.

For Miami, the skyward thrust is a planned 1,000-foot, hairpin-shaped tower, from which tethered thrill seekers could plunge towards the turquoise waters below.

"I can hold up a handful of architectural icons from throughout the world and you would identify the city in a heartbeat," said Jeff Berkowitz, whose Berkowitz Development Group will build SkyRise, the Miami tower scheduled to open in …