IMHO, Doesnt look much like an *actual* Panorama ... The shadows and clutter are distracting... It seems angled like a fish-eye ( distorted if you will). And there are 'pedestrians' on the side. Looks to me like quick snap shot. Sorry.
Other than the composition/subject issues mentioned which make it look like a bit of a snapshot; I'm guessing its tonemapped (JoshC's guess at HDR) but from that you can clearly see halos around objects which most won't find appealing as it is completely unnatural.
As for taking them; either take portrait shots or better still three rows of overlapping landscape shots; this way you will seem to have heaps of room around your subject but because of this will be able to correct distortion and crop the image back to the framing you desire without worry of having a 'hole' in the corner or something like that.