Denver has third-most cranes among major U.S. cities, Seattle Times finds

Megan Arellano

Jul. 17, 2017, 3:00 p.m.

East High school and a crane. (Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite) — East High school and a crane. Sometimes you just don't want to feel those metal clouds. (Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite)

In just a year, Denver has overtaken New York City, Portland, D.C. and more when it comes to cranes in the sky, according to a Seattle Times analysis of data from Rider Levett Bucknall.

From this summer to last summer, the city added 14 cranes for a total of 35, according the Seattle Times analysis. Over the same period, cities like Los Angeles and Boston lost cranes.

Earlier this year, Rider Levett Bucknall noted that half of Denver’s cranes were for residential construction during 2016, and that residential growth is expected to continue during 2017.

Typically, cranes are needed for buildings that are more than five or six stories high, Trey Nobles Sr. of GE Johnson Construction Co. told the Colorado Real Estate Journal.

As always, a bit of context is merited. Though Denver has risen in this particular crane count, we’re still 23 cranes behind Seattle. And even Seattle is way behind Toronto and its 72 cranes.

Editor’s note: An earlier version of this story stated that Toronto had more than 72 cranes. Rider Levett Bucknall has since revised their crane count to reflect the fact that Toronto had 72 cranes.

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East High school and a crane. Sometimes you just don't want to feel those metal clouds. (Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite)