People prefer varied city skylines.

What makes a city skyline interesting and appealing? An Ohio State University study suggests that those showing a variety of different types of buildings with varied looks are preferred. The theory is that people like a happy medium between too much complexity in a skyline--such as might be found in Chicago and New York--and one that looks too uniform and monotonous.

"People seem to prefer a skyline that captures their attention, but doesn't overload them with a too much stimuli," explains Jack Nasar, professor of city and regional planning, who conducted the study with graduate student Timothy Imeokparia. Sixty Columbus, Ohio-area residents were asked to evaluate photographs of nine different skylines, though these were not scenes found in any real city.

The researchers collected more than 100 picture postcards of skylines from around the world and used image processing technology to pick and choose individual buildings from the postcards and construct nine completely new scenes.

The photos, each with nine buildings, were created to show different levels of two variables--complexity and order. The latter is not the absence of complexity, Nasar points out. In this study, it is how the structures are arranged...