The Great Canadian Skyline Thread! II

[ZeDgE]

Thats a very deceiving photo. Calgary is not a huge metropolis but that photo makes it look like a downtown and nothing else.

This is actually a similar angle, from higher up obviously.

http://www.globalairphotos.com/large/AB/Calgary/Southeast/2002/065/1

Not my picture.

[Andrewjm3D]

Yorkville about 2.5 hrs ago.

[Coldrsx]

Reminds me of back bay

[Andrewjm3D]

back bay?

[Andrewjm3D]

The core about 3 hrs ago.

[logan5]

Originally Posted by ZeDgE

Would you rather this was covered in a sea single family houses.. Looks like its zoomed in quite a bit too so thats a bit deceiving.

I don't get what logan's point was either, Vancouver (and area) is three times the size of Calgary.

My point was that Calgary's huge office district is grossly disproportionate to the rest of the city, which for the most part is made up of single family homes, and that it could use a good size high rise residential area to offset this disparity in the urban landscape.

While Vancouver may be over twice the population, Calgary has a much larger DT office district which lends itself well to high density downtown living. Considering the amount of office workers working downtown, there should be a much higher DT population. If Calgary is not aggressively pursuing this type of urban planning, then they should be.

The Bow looks especially out of place; it is truly a monster. Standing isolated on the edge of downtown, it looks like some kind of circus sideshow freak.

Originally Posted by 1ajs

^^^

[Pavlov]

Originally Posted by logan5

The Bow looks especially out of place; it is truly a monster. Standing isolated on the edge of downtown, it looks like some kind of circus sideshow freak.

Its a block away from a 215 m tall tower and a 177 m tall tower.

To illustrate:

Originally Posted by Witty Nickname

A partial skyline.


The Bow and Company by Witty nickname, on Flickr

[Ramako]

Foggy Sunrise by Richard Gottardo, on Flickr



CN Tower on a misty day by RuthChoi, on Flickr

[ZeDgE]

Originally Posted by logan5

My point was that Calgary's huge office district is grossly disproportionate to the rest of the city, which for the most part is made up of single family homes, and that it could use a good size high rise residential area to offset this disparity in the urban landscape.

While Vancouver may be over twice the population, Calgary has a much larger DT office district which lends itself well to high density downtown living. Considering the amount of office workers working downtown, there should be a much higher DT population. If Calgary is not aggressively pursuing this type of urban planning, then they should be.

The Bow looks especially out of place; it is truly a monster. Standing isolated on the edge of downtown, it looks like some kind of circus sideshow freak.

Isolated edge of downtown? Sorry, that makes no sense. Having a large CBD does not mean the downtown is densely populated, DT Calgary is more of business district than anything. Majority of those office workers go back to the burbs. The Beltline is more residential, but thats just south of DT. This picture from the last page shows it well, its a pretty substantial area.



There is progress to bring more residential to the downtown area (East Village is one example) but it has along way to go. Thats just the way it is. I don't think its really fair to compare it to Vancouver, they are very different cities.

[Chadillaccc]

Originally Posted by Razor

^ Wow, through that pic there doesn't appear to be a lot of surrounding communities around Calgary, but it's skyline certainly has bang for it's buck.

There aren't communities surrounding Calgary haha. There's like 2 "cities" and a few towns and whatnot. It's metro is only 120 000 and that's a large region.

[Coldrsx]

A couple of Edmonton from a time lapse.




(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3Mq2b_pDhQ)

[spaceprobe]

Originally Posted by ZeDgE

Would you rather this was covered in a sea single family houses.. Looks like its zoomed in quite a bit too so thats a bit deceiving.

I don't get what logan's point was either, Vancouver (and area) is three times the size of Calgary.

Greater Vancouver' built up area is no where near three times the size of Calgary's built area. Political boundaries mean very little. For example, 1/3 of Greater Vancouver is electoral area A, most of which is mountain and uninhabitable.

[ZeDgE]

Originally Posted by spaceprobe

Greater Vancouver' built up area is no where near three times the size of Calgary's built area. Political boundaries mean very little. For example, 1/3 of Greater Vancouver is electoral area A, most of which is mountain and uninhabitable.

I didn't meat that in a negative way. Driving from say Maple Ridge or Abbotsford to Vancouver it feels like one big city and is much larger than Calgary.

[spaceprobe]

Originally Posted by kw5150

What are you talking about? Calgary has the beltline. Just about the same thing/size as Vancouver's west end but south of the main skyline instead. Im sorry but I had way too good of a weekend in Calgary walking around and enjoying the city to listen to this crap. Calgary is nothing like dubai.

interestingly, didn't know this, but Calgary's beltline really is roughly the same size as the westend of Vancouver.

don't know how accurate it is, but from wikipedia, calgary's beltline is 2.2km^2. The westend of vancouver is 2.04km^2

But Calgary can definitely increase it's beltline population. Currently it's ~ 18,000, while Vancouver's westend is ~45,000.

[ZeDgE]

Originally Posted by spaceprobe

But Calgary can definitely increase it's beltline population. Currently it's ~ 18,000, while Vancouver's westend is ~45,000.

Heh, no argument there.

[someone123]

Originally Posted by spaceprobe

interestingly, didn't know this, but Calgary's beltline really is roughly the same size as the westend of Vancouver.

don't know how accurate it is, but from wikipedia, calgary's beltline is 2.2km^2. The westend of vancouver is 2.04km^2

But Calgary can definitely increase it's beltline population. Currently it's ~ 18,000, while Vancouver's westend is ~45,000.

Vancouver's West End is also not that great (many of the buildings are older and less desirable), and not the only neighbourhood like that in the city. It feels like the preoccupation with the West End dates from 1982.

[davidivivid]

Overlooking Gatineau and Ottawa par Yvon from Ottawa, sur Flickr

[FrAnKs]

Wow Gatineau and Ottawa looks totally together on this shoot.

[floobie]

What a relevant discussion. I just came back from a trip to Vancouver (to see Rammstein!), having last been in 1998 or so at a much younger age. Seems like a nice opportunity to barf out my impressions. I'll post a few pics in a while (iPhone photos... don't expect too much). But, this is what struck me about Vancouver (vs. Calgary):

- SOOOOOOOOO GREEN!!! I stayed in a hotel about 0.5km away from Stanley Park on the downtown peninsula. Every little nook where something could potentially grow, something was in fact growing. The parks, trees, and landscaping (and the quantity of all of the above) just blew me away. Calgary can get pretty green during the summer, but it doesn't compare to this. My friend who used to live in Singapore (not for about 15 years, though) remarked that this was the first city he'd been to that felt as green as Singapore.

- The climate definitely agrees with me more. My sinuses weren't throbbing and full of crap when I woke up! My skin didn't require 5000 litres of moisturizer to keep it from drying out and cracking everywhere! Most of the people I talked to complained about all the rain the city had gotten prior to my visit. And every time, I said I'd much rather deal with a crapload of rain (which ultimately enables all that green) than snow and cold.

- Oceans certainly feel different than rivers, and seem to require some much, much more expensive infrastructure. Makes the whining about the Peace Bridge in Calgary seem a bit silly...

- The metro area is massive. Vancouver (city) is pretty dense and nicely laid out, but beyond that and the mini-cores scattered throughout, it feels pretty suburban. It just looks nicer because it's covered in green.

- The Skytrain was very efficient at covering such a big area. The Ctrain could learn a few things from this system. Having tracks completely separated from traffic definitely speeds things up a bit...

- Driving was awful. As soon as my friends and I arrived at the hotel, we decided to get around by foot or transit, because just driving to the hotel was entirely too chaotic and stressful. I will definitely think twice before I complain about traffic in Calgary. I really appreciate that the roads are numbered in Calgary's downtown... makes it much easier to figure things out. Also, I found it totally weird that basically everything in Vancouver was more expensive, but downtown parking was significantly cheaper...

- Pedestrian infrastructure was definitely better. Sidewalks felt much sturdier and less likely to crumble apart as so many do/have done in Calgary. The street level does feel less imposing and more welcoming than it does in downtown Calgary.

- In terms of skyline, I was struck by all the pretty condo towers, and how I'm guessing many of the towers going up in Calgary more or less copy/pasted some of the designs in Vancouver. The CBD is definitely smaller than Calgary's, and the vertical scale of the skyline is noticeably smaller. But, the continuous lateral extent of Vancouver's skyline felt bigger.

- I'd say the downtown peninsula as a whole is roughly comparable to Calgary's downtown + the Beltline, in terms of size. The office/residential mix is definitely rather different. Calgary's Beltline, once more fully developed with residential properties, could provide a similar feel. Thankfully, that and the East Village are in the works.

Yeah. It was an awesome trip in an awesome city. Would go back. Hell, I'd consider living there for the climate, if I could find a sufficiently high paying job to cover the insanely expensive real estate and generally higher cost of living.

[ZeDgE]

Originally Posted by floobie

What a relevant discussion. I just came back from a trip to Vancouver (to see Rammstein!), having last been in 1998 or so at a much younger age. Seems like a nice opportunity to barf out my impressions. I'll post a few pics in a while (iPhone photos... don't expect too much). But, this is what struck me about Vancouver (vs. Calgary):

- SOOOOOOOOO GREEN!!! I stayed in a hotel about 0.5km away from Stanley Park on the downtown peninsula. Every little nook where something could potentially grow, something was in fact growing. The parks, trees, and landscaping (and the quantity of all of the above) just blew me away. Calgary can get pretty green during the summer, but it doesn't compare to this. My friend who used to live in Singapore (not for about 15 years, though) remarked that this was the first city he'd been to that felt as green as Singapore.

- The climate definitely agrees with me more. My sinuses weren't throbbing and full of crap when I woke up! My skin didn't require 5000 litres of moisturizer to keep it from drying out and cracking everywhere! Most of the people I talked to complained about all the rain the city had gotten prior to my visit. And every time, I said I'd much rather deal with a crapload of rain (which ultimately enables all that green) than snow and cold.

- Oceans certainly feel different than rivers, and seem to require some much, much more expensive infrastructure. Makes the whining about the Peace Bridge in Calgary seem a bit silly...

- The metro area is massive. Vancouver (city) is pretty dense and nicely laid out, but beyond that and the mini-cores scattered throughout, it feels pretty suburban. It just looks nicer because it's covered in green.

- The Skytrain was very efficient at covering such a big area. The Ctrain could learn a few things from this system. Having tracks completely separated from traffic definitely speeds things up a bit...

- Driving was awful. As soon as my friends and I arrived at the hotel, we decided to get around by foot or transit, because just driving to the hotel was entirely too chaotic and stressful. I will definitely think twice before I complain about traffic in Calgary. I really appreciate that the roads are numbered in Calgary's downtown... makes it much easier to figure things out. Also, I found it totally weird that basically everything in Vancouver was more expensive, but downtown parking was significantly cheaper...

- Pedestrian infrastructure was definitely better. Sidewalks felt much sturdier and less likely to crumble apart as so many do/have done in Calgary. The street level does feel less imposing and more welcoming than it does in downtown Calgary.

- In terms of skyline, I was struck by all the pretty condo towers, and how I'm guessing many of the towers going up in Calgary more or less copy/pasted some of the designs in Vancouver. The CBD is definitely smaller than Calgary's, and the vertical scale of the skyline is noticeably smaller. But, the continuous lateral extent of Vancouver's skyline felt bigger.

- I'd say the downtown peninsula as a whole is roughly comparable to Calgary's downtown + the Beltline, in terms of size. The office/residential mix is definitely rather different. Calgary's Beltline, once more fully developed with residential properties, could provide a similar feel. Thankfully, that and the East Village are in the works.

Yeah. It was an awesome trip in an awesome city. Would go back. Hell, I'd consider living there for the climate, if I could find a sufficiently high paying job to cover the insanely expensive real estate and generally higher cost of living.

Having been to Vancouver for the first time last year since about 1991 I would agree with everything you said. What struck me the most was there seemed to be no big highway to get out of the city, driving the trans Canada from Vancouver back to Maple Ridge was insane, two lanes and bumper to bumper all the way. I think I really should be living somewhere with a moister climate. Same when we go to Florida the air is thick and so awesome, skin feels good etc. And I love the green too. Reminds me of England which I also like. Probably why people from there tend to think Calgary is so ugly, its usually dull and brown most of the year.