Future Hamilton Skyline Renderings
 

Hey guys! I've been working on a number of SketchUp skyline renderings for cities that haven't received any attention lately. Today, I figured I'd start working on one for Hamilton. I've got a bulk of the downtown developments modeled so far and I intend to keep updating things as more proposals get further refined. I added 71 Rebecca along with the other proposals even though it is cancelled/on hold in the meantime.

Please let me know of any that I have missed! I hope you all enjoy this!

Here's a list of buildings so far (by addresses):

15 Queen South
22 Bay South
22 George
43 King East
71 Rebecca
98 James South
154 Main
163 Jackson
299 John South


https://i.imgur.com/vXfWEjah.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/1s35Gnkh.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/C4tDgKEh.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/iqCrqX1h.jpg

Looks good!
You're missing the Corktown Plaza twin-tower project and Royal Connaught Tower.

Awesome job, thank you for this!

212 King William St
KIWI Condos on King William

Excellent job! Keep it up!

:tup: great job!! wish Hamilton would embrace some height

This is really cool, appreciate you doing this!

It'll come soon enough, it will just take time. There is still a ton of space downtown that could be occupied by taller development in the future and it won't run out anytime soon.

I don't see the height limit lasting long enough for it to permanently stunt the skyline. Right now, the height limit is unfortunate, but not debilitating, since the amount of developments happening is relatively small. It will absolutely take some time, but if Hamilton keeps gaining steam from GTA spillover, the height limit will start to become a big, highly evident limiting factor on downtown growth.

Echoing the thanks here - very cool stuff

The height limit has already been broken by Television city, which is about 25m taller than allowed.

I don’t see the limit as too bad as it will allow Hamilton’s growth to “spread out” more. Instead of one 600 unit tower we will see 2 300 unit towers.

This is better for underutilized infrastructure as well as growing cycling and transit plans. Putting everyone in one place leads to issues with financing and justifying growth of transit and cycling infra. It continues the idea of everyone moving in to one spot and out home in another spot. We need more people within walking, cycling and transit distance of work, grocery and cultural items like dinner and cafes. There are plenty of intensification area around the city where the city could easily triple in population within its existing borders.

That said, a nice skyline is definitely something to hope for with a moderately bustling downtown, and the current height limit does not mean that building *cannot* be taller. If a good looking building comes along in the right location, council may choose to approve it. Jason Thorne has specifically said this to me personally. There is an as of right height, plus an overall maximum, but that is simply the max without going through hoops and proving to council this is a good development.

Would hope that some of the new builds light up their caps , maybe create some visual interest if all going to max out height at 30 storeys

I've got a new update on the Hamilton skyline. I've added a few more developments to the model and it's starting to paint a better image of how the city will fill out.

The list so far (by addresses):

15 Queen South
22 Bay South
22 George
43 King East
71 Rebecca
98 James South
112 King East
154 Main
163 Jackson
212 King William
221 John South
299 John South
354 King West


https://i.imgur.com/SIYi6Odh.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/R8lWZEph.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/iuJV1A1h.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/gLtmAkMh.jpg

Nicely done!

Don't forget this one: King/Caroline, 38 fl. It's a Vrancor project too, so there's a good chance it'll get built.

http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=238499

I didn't know about that one! I was wondering what that lot was going to be used for since it's right next to two proposed/under construction buildings. I quite like how it looks, I will add it in sometime soon.

Not sure whether to add this or not but this is proposed on george st as well in that little blank corner you left beside the one currently being build and the student residence they will build:

https://i.imgur.com/VrOKGIC.jpg

That is the exact development that SteelTown recommended I add a couple of posts back. I have completed the model for this building, there are a couple more I want to do before I post the next iteration of the skyline.

Here's the next version of the Hamilton skyline. I've had a lot more time on my hands to work on this lately, given the circumstances. I added 235 Main West, 213 King West, and the City Hall South towers, which I will be referring to as 80 Hunter West address-wise.

The list so far (by addresses and number of towers):

15 Queen South (1)
22 Bay South (1)
22 George (1)
43 King East (2)
71 Rebecca (1)
80 Hunter West (3)
98 James South (1)
112 King East (4)
154 Main (1)
163 Jackson (2)
212 King William (1)
213 King West (1)
221 John South (2)
235 Main West (1)
299 John South (3)
354 King West (2)


https://i.imgur.com/6UQaFSbh.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/x0AMOYfh.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/rC9Lo5Mh.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/PidAEaXh.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/2HcSIBZh.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/AkHVnyzh.jpg

thanks for this. gives me hope. I especially like how these futures are balanced around the core. east/west north/south.

I'm glad it's giving you hope.

There's a lot going on in Hamilton these days. I'm optimistic, and willing to shoulder that a good chunk of what is in this model (27 new towers in total) will end up getting built, even if some get chopped down a bit more in height. Regardless of this, the increased presence of towers will help build up the momentum and hopefully keep things going.

There's still a lot that will be added to the model in the near future, including the 5-tower Hamilton City Centre development, the 3-tower John and Wilson development, the 4-tower 200 Market Street development, and additional potential towers from the FirstOntario Centre redevelopment.

I'm back with the next iteration of the Hamilton future skyline. In this version, I have updated the massing of 235 Main West, and have added 200 Market, 61 Wilson, and the Pier 8 landmark tower, which I will be referring to as 57 Discovery (same address as the Pier 8 boardwalk area). I was working on modelling some smaller developments as well, such as 467 Charlton, but I decided against that since they made no impact on the skyline. You may still see a couple of these floating around in my renderings.

The list so far (by addresses and number of towers):

15 Queen South (1)
22 Bay South (1)
22 George (1)
43 King East (2)
57 Discovery (1)
61 Wilson (3)
71 Rebecca (1)
80 Hunter West (3)
98 James South (1)
112 King East (4)
154 Main (1)
163 Jackson (2)
200 Market (4)
212 King William (1)
213 King West (1)
221 John South (2)
235 Main West (1)
299 John South (3)
354 King West (2)

Total # of new towers in skyline: 35

https://i.imgur.com/rUT5Gr2h.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/gvdUQVOh.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/AZ6TYqXh.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/Qeggc1Ph.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/S3QMMNPh.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/wKEgXzEh.jpg

that's some nice heft being added to the downtown! I like it!

Great work on these! I'd love to see the future renderings beside the currently existing images for comparison.

Looks great!

This looks fantastic.

Hopefully the majority of these will happen within this decade. The next decade it would be nice to start getting more high-rise from the downtown to the waterfront, start adding more density.

Its still missing two buildings I’m waiting on responses from city planning to get the architectural plans for too ;)

One right behind Kiwi, and another close to the Hamilton GO station.

Good to know that there's a couple more in the pipeline that I'll hopefully be able to add in the near future! I think Hamilton is one of the most exciting cities to watch right now, being able to piggyback off of the Toronto explosion while still being separate from the GTA.

I'm looking forward to seeing it change over the decade. I'm pretty confident that most of these will be able to make it through COVID-19, even if they do change a little bit in the process. I doubt we'll see significant scaling back because none of these are really all that huge on their own.

Also, while the elevations don't provide an exact height, the tallest here appears to fall around 185m in height.

I love these. Since moving to Kirkendall I've come down the 403 more often, and love that view. So including the potential future one is a nice touch, never mind the other angles. Thanks!

Deserves a re-post to the new page.

I'm glad that you enjoy my work! I figured the 403 angle would be a nice touch. When I used to live in Mississauga, part of the trip to my cottage involved driving the 403 to around Brantford area before using the local roads. I always remember driving back toward Mississauga and seeing this view of Hamilton, it was always so striking.

Hey guys, I'm back with the next iteration of Hamilton's skyline. I've added the three newest proposals - 1 Jarvis, 75 James South, and 77 James North (Hamilton City Centre). The Hamilton City Centre development is a total monster and fills out the area very well. I estimated the heights of these towers at ~100m for the 30s towers, and ~82m for the 24s tower. I will correct them once the actual materials have been made available.

The list so far (by addresses and number of towers):

1 Jarvis (1)
15 Queen South (1)
22 Bay South (1)
22 George (1)
43 King East (2)
57 Discovery (1)
61 Wilson (3)
71 Rebecca (1)
75 James South (1)
77 James North (4)
80 Hunter West (3)
98 James South (1)
112 King East (4)
154 Main (1)
163 Jackson (2)
200 Market (4)
212 King William (1)
213 King West (1)
221 John South (2)
235 Main West (1)
299 John South (3)
354 King West (2)

Total # of new towers in skyline: 41

https://i.imgur.com/qp1JySHh.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/KnMRo39h.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/xKiMPPmh.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/93qRlqIh.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/UhGfMWuh.jpg

your images are missing the police station - I know it's not a highrise but it's still weird just seeing it as a dirt plot..

wonder what the plans are for the giant parking lot behind alectra. That lot always stood out the most for me - original site of the eatons cotton factory and a couple churches.

The tabletop skyline is growing

You mean the great wall of Hamilton.

I'll start complaining when more buildings start construction. Right now only a handful are actually under construction. I hope we see many more soon.

I wouldn't worry about Hamilton keeping this tabletop look forever. Even though there is currently a lot proposed, it will still take many decades to redevelop the swaths of empty parking lots and low density buildings, and I'm sure that there will be an easing of height limits eventually, much later down the road.

One of the biggest farces in Hamilton's history is this height limit... It serves no purpose ... Cities that have height limits have them in place to preserve a view of a special monument or building ... Hamilton has it to preserve the view of an escarpment that literally goes on forever and a lake the size of an ocean ....we need to find out who actually wants the height limit and why they truly want it ... probably just some millionaire living at the edge of the escarpment lol

Durand Neighbourhood Association has to be putting money in someone's pocket. This whole 30 story crap didn't come up until Television City. It was the DNA making all the fuss. I bug Thorne about this all the time on Twitter.

The only height limits that make sense are those as a result of airport flight paths (Saskatoon and formerly Edmonton), and Ottawa's height limit around downtown for the sake of Parliament Hill. Hamilton, along with Vancouver and Montreal, all have nonsensical height limits and restrictions.

It wouldn't surprise me to hear that special interest groups are influencing it. It won't last forever, though. There will eventually be some give, all it takes is one really tall project to set a precedent and then eventually more will start working their way through.

The Hamilton one is the least strict height limit, in that it has already been broken.

Basically Hamilton has done something very unique in the province and made 30 storey development in the downtown core as-of-right. This means that going through the rezoning process isn't as much of a requirement like it is, in, say, Toronto, where the height limit as of right is often ridiculously low like 8 storeys or something.

If a developer wants to push the height limit, they can rezone. But the way the system has been designed by the city, the path of least resistance means that most are simply sticking to the limit and doing their stuff as of right. The approval process before construction is only around a year that way, while if you rezone to go to, say, 45 storeys, you add another 12-18 months to the approvals process. Most developers just don't see the extra time as worth it for the marginal amount of additional density they get from it.

There is actually already precedent for breaking the limit anyway, with Television city. It sits about 20 metres above the escarpment. So it can be done.

Also quite frankly I don't hate the height limit. It's allowing the growth to spread out a bit more into more projects, rather than focus in a few 45 storey towers. It'll let the city "fill out" faster.

Hamilton also has a habit of approving additional height through Minor Variance, even when an Official Plan Amendment should technically be required. I'd prefer if they removed the arbitrary escarpment height limit from the Official Plan, adds unnecessary complication especially now that it has been challenged successfully by a few projects.

I think with a property the size of City Centre with multiple high rises proposed, "filling out" is a bit redundant. As it is proposed there are 4 towers consisting of 114 storeys. It doesn't fill out anything more than the plot it sits on so a 55 fl tower and and 45 fl tower and a 14 fl midrise does the same thing. Jason Thorne has already said there can be exceptions to the height limit for exceptional proposals. City Centre could easily be an incredible proposal. As could Royal Connaught, Liuna Cobalt. I'm not saying they should all be huge but this 30 floor limit is just lame.

I honestly think this development should be the TALLEST in the entire city. It is the core of the city, like it or not. When you come from out of town the city should remind you of toronto in that the center is the highest and everything else peters away from that.

And as you all know, I am not a huge advocator for breaking height restrictions - but this is such an iconic GIANT piece of land, it DESERVES something substantial.

Something to make up for the amt of street blocks they originally leveled to "revitalize" this part of the city anyways..

After giving it some thought, maybe this height limit Isnt the worst thing for this city. Sure, it stifles some fantastic projects, and comes from a place of NIMBYism rather than actual concern for an urban fabric. But by forcing buildings to be 30 floors or less, we get far more projects spread throughout the city that create plenty of infill. Perhaps if we had a taller height limit, the number of projects and lots filled would be lower. While it would be a win for most of us here as skyscraper enthusiasts, it really doesnt improve the generally very poor urban fabric of downtown as a whole. If we continue to get shorter but more spread out projects, then Hamilton's core will become far more livable as a result. Would love to hear some thoughts on this.

Ya that's an excellent point you made! Filling out the downtown is very important. However I think we should still be more open to allowing some variance above the 30 (eg. Television City and City Center would be much better if allowed above the 30). But limiting the amount of these large projects will be beneficial in the end

After looking more into the economics of things too, I've become a fan of it as well. Your point is a great one. Having spoken with Jason Thorne about this policy, I became a supporter of it. His point is that there is a certain level of demand for Hamilton, and if it is all met downtown with skyscrapers, other areas of city won't get that same new growth.


The big issue is our idiot city council not incentivizing (cough LRT) development and outright denying them in many areas.

The other benefit is the effect on speculation. By setting a limit, there is a known profitability for properties, and therefore land can't be sold as if it could fetch a 50 storey height and it's profitability, which keeps land prices lower. Again, this is highly dependent on how council welds this power, and they do it terribly, but the on paper goal is sound from an economics perspective.

As we can see, there is enough demand for 30 storey buildings that a city that has had no condo development in 30 years has tons of towers proposed and being built, as well as new hotels and even some proposed office. Hamilton will be a completely different city in 10 years, and I'm doubtful as to the arguments against the building height limit, limiting that change.

Again, this is a forum for "skyscrapers" but I feel there is a bit of fetishism about tall building here that is simply around taller=better. As if the sky is the limit. I come here because new developments mean the city is progressing, and new people downtown will significantly alter the cities economics. People here also don't seem to have spoken with many developers, because higher =/= more profit in all cases, sometimes there is a profit margin at a lower height that is better.

Criticism of height, and support for the height limit gets attacked here though. Burlington does it all wrong, with it's inability to reign in development, whether you agree it should be done or not, but Hamilton's height limit is actually utilized and seems to be working. I would have been fine with a 20 storey limit if the city could properly wield the power to push medium density developments out to Ottawa, Kenilworth and Parkdale along the LRT corridor.

Im gonna use your points here to rant a little bit. Ultimately I believe the issues with the lack of development in Hamilton fall completely on our city council. The benefits we both mention feel like a silver lining of what is really a long running anti development/NIMBY mindset. While the ramifications of a 30 floor height limit aren't as bad as we thought, and can be beneficial like I originally said, theres still benefit for allowing buildings of taller heights like the old television city proposal. A 30 floor height limit is great as a guideline for dispersing development, but with Television city we didn't see a third tower or larger building to replace the 40 floor one- instead we got two 32 story buildings (vs 40+30). The development was chopped, rather than dispersed.

The effect of any development on our city at this point is beneficial. Imagine being a city and having the issue of too much development. Maybe someone could argue that's Toronto, but not here. We have hundreds of prime empty or underused lots. The ideal solution for most of these is mid-rise projects, while some (downtown) could easily be filled by true skyscrapers. The butterfly effect of a truly healthy downtown, where the number of empty surface lots is near zero cannot be underestated. Hamilton doesnt have to worry about an ugly highway tearing through the core; we just need good zoning policies and investment in transit to make this city really great.

I suppose Its nitpicking, but Hamilton really has the potential to be great, and I honestly cannot think of a city more inept at spurring growth that is in such an advantageous position. We are within close proximity to one of the fastest growing cities in North America. Hamilton has somehow managed to barely capitalize on this. We are a city that is more in league with American rust belt cities than many Canadian cities, so one would think our city would be grateful for such an economic blessing. This really doesnt seem to be the case. Im not suggesting Hamilton become the next Mississauga, but I do think it is completely within the cities power to attract medium scale projects to revitalize and rejuvinate the city. The Hamilton city centre redevelopment could theoretically be the tallest, most ambitious development in the city if we wanted to really consider whats possible. Not something thats 70+ stories, but anywhere from 50-65 floors could make for a landmark that also doesnt completely shut down demand in the city for new residential. This is all just me wanting a tall building in Hamilton; tall buildings are not necessary as we discussed, this city just needs some real vigor.

all of this !!!!! ✓✓✓✓ soooo true !!!

Well said. It shows where each councilor's priorities lie when they would rather appeal to their NIMBY voters instead of capitalizing on the biggest period of growth in the city for 50 years. What power they have! What power they squander... :shrug:

ericmacm these are amazing! Have you tried, or would it be straightforward to try, colour-coding each building in the model by status (proposed v approved v construction)?

We do have a highway through the middle of our city, it's called Main Street. This might be one of the single worse things past council members approved, but the whole idea was to get through the city as quickly as possible (race for the burbs). In fact when it first was pitched, the idea was to make it through the city of Hamilton in 12 minutes!

I'd love to work on a project (if it's even doable with our city councilors) to dead end some streets off of Main. It's terribly dangerous for cars trying to turn off Main at high speeds onto small basically one way streets in residential neighbourhoods (minus major through-ways). Not every street in Stinson, St. Clair, Corktown, etc., needs to be open to Main St. for an exit/entry. All the business other than major plazas are non-existent along Main and set-up for failure. Not to mention the congregation of people looking for trouble between Main and King between Wellington & Wentworth.

Jason Thorne talks about making our city more walkable. This would be a great start to this idea. Main St needs to be revamped for current times not a fast lane through the city.