That's interesting, Toronto is the only 1st world city on the top 10.

That's what struck me as well. It's worth shining a light on whether our perceptions are based on 'cheerleading' or based on facts. In this case, Toronto's boom really is something to behold.... even by Chinese standards. Even if the boom is coming to an end, it was a big boom by anyone's standards.

If you're interested, the above list was developed from a 2012 and 2013 database using the same methods:

2013 List: http://tudl0867.home.xs4all.nl/skylines.html
2012 List: http://tieba.baidu.com/p/1846725370

I wouldn't even say it is coming to an end yet. Like really, three towers over 200 meters starting in the next year, with one just started two days ago... that's still pretty amazing. Other than that, you're correct, it's amazing by any standard. I don't think most people even realize.

I'd agree with you, I was in Melbourne last month and there seemed to be a fair bit of construction going on..
http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5505/1...c729aa1371.jpg

in this one small wedge of CBD alone there must be half dozen construction cranes..

Toronto is a 1st world city -- but are its construction and investment standards 1st world?

The boom Toronto has experienced over the last few years has been insane. I don't think many people who live in the city understand what has happened here over the last 8 years. The entire city has transformed and will continue to do so IMO. By 2023, the city will again be unrecognizable.

Very true. And it's more than a superficial change... Toronto is becoming urbanized in a way that would have been unrecognizable 25 years ago. It has moved away from the typical North American downtown CBD of office towers and parking lots to something you'd expect to see in Europe... a bustling core but one with a great deal of residents and activity, and itself surrounded by thriving neighbourhoods.

The funny thing about all of this is I don't think it resonates very much across the country. Ask the typical Canadian to name a boomtown in this country, and I suspect that most of them would probably name a place in Alberta. Yet Toronto is going through a transformation as profound as anything we're seeing in Calgary or Fort Mac. Strangely, there doesn't appear to be very much public consciousness of that fact.

I wouldn't necessarily say it is European in nature, but certanly it has moved itself into a tier accompanying most of the finer downtown cores of North America which is just as great of an achievement, considering where the city was only a decade ago.

I think Toronto more aims for a Hong Kong style density downtown.

^ Exactly. Toronto is building more towers than the rest of Canada combined. This includes everything going on in Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver, Ottawa, Montreal, etc. It's funny because I talk to lots of people in Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver and they are under the impression that Toronto isn't growing at all, and it couldn't be further than the truth. I don't understand why people are thinking this. Just look at a picture of Toronto from the island from 2003 and compare that to 2013... it looks like an entire different city.

In the next 10 years we have Harbour Plaza towers (735ft, 765ft), One York Office Tower (530ft), Ten York (735ft), Ernst & Yonge Office Tower (617ft), 88 Scott (665ft), Cityplace Signature Towers (700ft+), potentially the Mirvish trio, One Yonge towers, etc. That's just what will be seen from the island view. It doesn't include what's going on behind the scenes ... Aura (895ft), One Bloor (845ft), Casa II (600ft), Casa III (665ft), INDX (580ft), The Icon (670ft), Eau Du Soleil (720ft), Massey Tower (665ft), E Condos (642ft), King Blue Condos (450-500ft), Chaz (500ft), Five (530ft), Hullmark (550ft), Holt Renfrew Tower (910ft), Bay Adelaide E (645ft), U Condos (500ft, 600ft) plus so many more I am missing... not to mention the many other new projects that will launch and be constructed over the next 10 years. Just wait and see how much more Toronto is going to transform. Each one of these projects will bring hundreds if not thousands of new people onto the streets below. Which will result in higher profits for store owners, as well as new stores popping up, making things even more convenient for everyone.

I agree, though some neighbourhoods surrounding the core have a European vibe, that has been limited to a relatively small area compared to European cities like London/Paris. Toronto's most noticeable change has been the development of a downtown vibe more akin to Chicago, something I've never experienced in Europe. It's very much a North American and Asian phenomenon. S.America also has a good urban vibe in some city cores but that's more like a European vibe on steroids!

What really gets my juices flowing the most is all the new midrise (8 stories) building construction sites I'm seeing along King and Queen every time I drive or take the streetcar down there. Affordable accessible homes with a great street vibe. When the downtown core gets surrounded by these midrise neighbourhoods then we'll have the best of both worlds! All we need to do then is replace the island airport with an urban park like Stanley Park with lots of beaches and perhaps some Beaux Arts public buildings/museums next to the Portlands.

European in the broader sense that the core is considered a desirable place to live and is commensurately dense given the demand for urban land. The increasingly vertical nature of the CBD is very North American (or Hong Kongian as Beedok suggested), but the Euro-feel gets a bit more pronounced as you move away from the CBD and into the surrounding neighbourhoods.

As to Travis3000's comment, I guess the change is less perceptible when it comes to Toronto because it was already pretty big and dense to begin with.

The low rise stuff (basically the stuff I don't care or talk about much on this forum) is the thing that makes the real difference in the urban feel of the city. More people downtown means more potential profits for store owners, which in turn will mean to better stores, and better storefronts.

The taller projects are great though..

My exact thoughts... Of course being a member on this forum I drool about new towers and architecture and skylines but what is really phenomenal about Toronto is the 24/7 bustling life and the activity going on in its downtown. With more residentials towers and stores and services opening up it's just going to get better. Now, it just needs to work on a world-class subway system to match the city.

This is something that in North-America is rare... even looking at LA or other US Cities of comparable size, Toronto is building itself a cool and go-go-go scene downtown... Hopefully it can someday match NYC :tup:

*Being from Ottawa, our skyline and downtown life sucks so when I am in DT Toronto I like to pretend that I'm in midtown Manhattan... ;)

Here is downtown Toronto with only U/C and proposed towers.
[IMG]http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3725/1...28591a7e_o.png[/IMG]
[IMG]http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5536/1...95eb953a_o.png[/IMG]
[IMG]http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5508/1...79e34078_o.png[/IMG]
More coming up soon...

Yes! It's a crime having that airport there. Toronto needs a groovy bridge going over to the island so that it's more accessible. It's such an amazing potential asset.

I completely agree with getting rid of the airport and turning it into a park, but unfortunately it's not going to happen.

I'm all for keeping the airport, having one so close to downtown is a positive in my opinion.
However, I do strongly believe they need to make the islands more accessible. A bridge would be useful, and could easily be designed to not affect aircraft flight paths. Although that would mean a low causeway type of bridge which could impact the lanes for boats to use.
Either that, or make the ferries free like the Staten Island ferries are in New York, and much more people will utilise the islands.

Dumb question: why is that something the city should be aiming for? One of my favourite features of the islands is that they're not as filled with people as some other parks.

Also, did Staten Island ridership increase faster since '97 when it was made free than it did in the 15 years before that point when the fare was steadily increasing?

I'd rather see the Island Airport redeveloped into a new urban neighbourhood. With canals and shit. And in my fantasy, we move the capital to Toronto and build a grand Parliament there overlooking the harbour. Minus that last bit though, I'd say that's more likely to happen than having a park there, considering the cost of expropriating the land - that, and we already have tons of parkland along the lakeshore and on the island. We don't really need to spend hundreds of millions or even billions more for another.


Or we could just do like councilor Giorgio Mammoliti suggests and turn it all into a giant Whore Island.

I see it the other way. The islands are such a fantastic park spaces that they should be more utilised. I would love to see them become something akin to Vancouver's Stanley Park.

I've no idea on the figures, as have never studied them. However, from personal experience I know they are very popular and would not get as much tourist use if they weren't free.

From CAD in the Calgary section. Calgary in 2020:

http://i.imgur.com/dFJCi34.jpg?1

You can follow him here:

https://twitter.com/tresDevin/status...066112/photo/1

Here are a few screenshots of just the U/C towers in downtown Toronto: I included Massey and 88 Scott even though they aren't actually U/C yet.

[IMG]http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3794/1...a677604c_o.png[/IMG]

[IMG]http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5493/1...dec4391f_o.png[/IMG]

[IMG]http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5484/1...c5e21c5b_o.png[/IMG]

Merry Christmas everyone!

Holey moley!!!

It's really quite stunning how the Bow was just completed and it's already planned to be eclipsed by the end of the decade, twice over. Suncor had a nearly 30-year reign as Calgary's tallest, by comparison.

What ?
Is this a trick question ?
Have you seen how they do things in China or India or anywhere that's not 1st World ?

If you were to look only at a place like LuJiaZui in Shanghai , you'd be getting pretty much the opposite impression of what construction standards are like in China. For one thing , there is no "maintenance" as we know it. When things break they get patched together "for now" where "for now" means until it breaks again. Secondly , builders here use the cheapest materials they can while ramming the work through as quickly as humanly possible without regard for quality work.
Thirdly , I've been here now for going on five years and I have yet to see anybody cleaning a window on an office building.
Fourthly , I'm pretty sure that the way it works is that some builder puts up the buildings and then dumps the costs on whatever jurisdiction they happen to be building in. The governments don't seem to put much thought into the problems this will obviously lead to because all the underground and above ground infrastructure is breaking and cracking on a regular basis. Not like "Oh...watermain break today. Send somebody out as quickly as possible". No. More like "The pipes are all rusting under the development that houses 10,000 people and every time there's a crack in a pipe we have to shut off water to the entire district." Why did it break ? Because the builders used the absolute cheapest materials they could get away with using. Or , they just paid the right person to look the other way while they used materials that were even cheaper than the law mandated.

When your power or heating or water is shut off for days at a time every couple months you have to start wondering why that's happening in a very young development.

Hey , I'm not knocking China (I love it here) but it's one of the better countries for this sort of thing and it doesn't come close to Western standards most of the time.

Ctrl Alt Del, you are truly an artist! :D

Parks and green space are there for the people. We should make them as accessible as possible to the masses. The issue shouldn't be curtailing access to these areas, but ensuring we've set aside enough such places taking into account substantial population growth.

Vancouver in 2048!

• Video Link

I started watching this show for the incredible visuals of a futuristic Vancouver but am now hooked on the storyline. Almost Human is worth a watch check it out.

;) I doubt Vancouver will ever compromise so many of its view corridors.
The fictional shots of the city's skyline, though, are fun.

Reminds me of Repo Men and the super Toronto skyline it had.

Sherbrooke
 

Here are some homemade renders of the King/Jacques-Cartier area in 2015. By that time, three other highrises/midrises may also be under construction or even built (including one that could become our new tallest, taller than the U/C 13-storey VÜ).

http://imageshack.us/a/img132/58/xc8v.png
By me

http://imageshack.us/a/img27/8918/xa3m.png
By me

http://imageshack.us/a/img823/8326/n73m.png
By me

http://imageshack.us/a/img594/1451/z0av.png
By me

http://imageshack.us/a/img401/1933/frit.png
By me

• Video Link

I love how Los Angeles is totally unrecognizable in about 30 years time. Even Dubai would be envious. With that said, nothing tops. The future Vancouver in Continuum. Supertalls everywhere.

Cadillac Fairview's plans for Montreal

http://i43.tinypic.com/2e3dhxu.jpg
OCPM p.42, http://ocpm.qc.ca/sites/ocpm.qc.ca/files/pdf/P72/3a.pdf

credit to franktko on mtlurb.com
http://imageshack.com/a/img703/2601/.../2601/m2qs.jpg
http://ocpm.qc.ca/sites/ocpm.qc.ca/files/pdf/P72/3a.pdf

This is unreal...

just perfect

damn was gonna post it!

Fabulous vision of Montral. And the best thing is, it's not even a pipe dream. Half of those new buildings are already under construction. Nice also to see the two new Tour des canadiens being much nicer than the first one :)

lookin good Montreal!

Sweet Jesus! La densité est spectaculaire!

This is what I prefer. Je préfère les tours de hauteurs modestes. Pourquoi supertalls? Certainement, ils ne sont pas nécessaires pour les activités de piétons. Le centre-ville peut mieux s'acclimater.
Montréal is incredible at streetlevel!! These projects will incrementally add to street-life vibrancy.

I'm so happy for the city!! :cheers:

Those white towers look great although Montreal continues to turn its back on the skyscraper. Stumps are fine for small cities, but not one of north America's premier cities. And hopefully those fugly suburban residential blocks can get re-developed in the not too distant future. They belong in Laval, not one of north America's grandest downtowns.

If you're referring to Jardins Windsor in the foreground, they were just completed a few years ago, so likely here to stay for a while unfortunately.

Also, the greatest thing about these developments is that they won't add any significant pressure on our already overwhelmed public transit. In an ideal world our politicians would have the vision to realize the current trend of residential growth downtown is a chance to proactively improve mass transit to slightly farther out neighborhoods, before the growth spreads - which will inevitably happen once we run out of space in the immediate core. In fact our two main metro lines are already at saturation.
I'm not holding my breath though.

You size queen.

If more of the island were to develop at the density that's currently under construction and being proposed in the core, you'd be one of the only people still complaining. :cool:

The scale of these buildings is fine. With a real estate market less flooded, more private developers may propose more towers that are also relatively modest in density. Ideally we want Montréal to achieve a healthy pace of building construction in the long-term, despite boom and bust cycles of associated industries and markets, and considering the new loan rules Ottawa has been introducing across the board.

These Montréal proposals are certainly not disrespectful to "the skyscraper."

(aka: the SSP god?)

Oh my god, isaidso, we just started a religion. :haha:

Thing is, the middle of the 20th century notwithstanding, Montreal has never been a city opened to the skyscaper, really. Even at its top in the early 20th century, Montreal seemed fine to let Toronto and Vancouver outbuild it in scale and height. Montreal once mused the idea of becoming a skyscraper city, but this will probably never happen again. The businesses don't need it, City hall is indifferent about, and the people don't want it.

I find the 120m towers perfect. And I'm also excited to see new towers pop up between Peel and University, once the highway is struck down and turned into an "urban boulevard".

I'm really happy with this, soon enough, we'll be able to walk from Pine avenue on the slope of the mountain all the way to Wellington street on the shores of the Lachine Canal and bask in a continuous sea of (albeit small) skyscrapers. :slob:

A few more

http://i42.tinypic.com/2utkvg8.jpg

http://i40.tinypic.com/ngt6pl.jpg

http://i42.tinypic.com/2vv97gh.jpg

http://i44.tinypic.com/1zczm82.jpg

http://i43.tinypic.com/2vt88eg.jpg

Source: http://ocpm.qc.ca/sites/ocpm.qc.ca/files/pdf/P72/3a.pdf

The Jardins Windsor ain't the problem. Call them ugly, call them cheap, call them mr. vain, but they add thousands of residents to what was before a freight rail yard. At street level, they're quite fine, really.

The real problem is with the truly suburban developments immediately west of the Windsors, I mean we're talking about winding crescents, cul-de-sacs and single family housing and a strip mall....a strip mall!

Those white towers are actually in a location zoned 65 meter tall max - this entire project is under public hearings because they want to go to 120 meters... We have nimbys that will certainly try to disrupt this project during the hearings.