The Great Canadian Skyline Thread! II

[Chadillaccc]

I think he means how Toronto had the tallest building in the world outside of New York and Chicago when FCP was built in 1975... however that was only true until 1982 when Houston built JP Morgan Chase Tower, and then a year later built Wells Fargo Plaza. Then followed a few years later by the Library Tower in Los Angeles, and then in 1990 by the Bank of China Tower in Hong Kong. However, Toronto did have the tallest building in the world outside of the United States until 1990. Toronto had 3 of the top 25 tallest buildings in the world by 1990, hardly remarkable, but it does illustrate Toronto's position as one of the worlds top 5 skyscraper cities of the time. The only 4 ahead of it were New York, Chicago, Houston, and Hong Kong, and I guess if you count LA's 1 tall building at the time, then LA would have been ahead of Toronto too.

[Ramako]

Originally Posted by Metro-One

No, there was never a time that when it came to skyscrapers it was New York, Chicago, Toronto.

Toronto's big bank towers went up around the same time, if not a little later, than many of LA's, Montreal's, Houston's, etc...

But yeah, keep trying to put Toronto in there. Honestly, sometimes your home enthusiasm is downright delusional.

Actually, far from being delusional, there was a time in the mid to late '70s when Toronto was indeed number 3 for skyscrapers. If you go into the diagram page and put a year maximum of 1976 (when the CN Tower was built) you'll find that no cities on the planet, other than New York or Chicago, had more 100+ metre buildings (to roof) than Toronto:


New York: 350
Chicago: 123
Toronto: 36 (including the CN Tower)
San Francisco: 32
Philadelphia: 29
Montreal: 25
Los Angeles: 23
Houston: 23
Pittsburgh: 23
Boston: 21
Sao Paulo: 19
Tokyo: 18
London: 18
Singapore: 17
Detroit: 16
Dallas: 16
Moscow: 14
Vancouver: 10
Hong Kong: 8
Shanghai: 1
Dubai: 0


edit: I checked for 1980 as well and Toronto's still number 3 at that point in time. Not sure when the drop off happens, but it would be cool to see a graph.

[Metro-One]

Yes, I know that, but how he phrases it is as if those 3 cities were in a league of their own.

What those stats show me above is that New York and Chicago were the skyscraper cities.

After that Toronto, San Fran, Philadelphia, Montreal, etc... were in the next category of skyscrapers.

The major step down was not between Toronto and San Fran, but between Chicago and Toronto.

And in all honesty New York was again in a league of its own, that was the one true skyscraper city of the day.

[kw5150]

from: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BNC86QgCcAAj0cE.jpg

[Chadillaccc]

Originally Posted by Metro-One

Yes, I know that, but how he phrases it is as if those 3 cities were in a league of their own.

What those stats show me above is that New York and Chicago were the skyscraper cities.

After that Toronto, San Fran, Philadelphia, Montreal, etc... were in the next category of skyscrapers.

The major step down was not between Toronto and San Fran, but between Chicago and Toronto.

And in all honesty New York was again in a league of its own, that was the one true skyscraper city of the day.

Agreed. Those numbers are very telling of who the true skyscraper cities were. But I would group Chicago in with New York. Obviously New York had far more, but Chicago definitely held/holds its own especially for its size relative to New York's.

[Ramako]

Originally Posted by Metro-One

Yes, I know that, but how he phrases it is as if those 3 cities were in a league of their own.

What those stats show me above is that New York and Chicago were the skyscraper cities.

After that Toronto, San Fran, Philadelphia, Montreal, etc... were in the next category of skyscrapers.

The major step down was not between Toronto and San Fran, but between Chicago and Toronto.

And in all honesty New York was again in a league of its own, that was the one true skyscraper city of the day.

Still, I think Cal's point remains that it's been a pretty big drop off for Toronto since those days, going from a clear number 3 to not even making the top 10.

[Chadillaccc]

Toronto deserves some credit though... it hasn't dropped nearly as far down the list as most of the cities that were in it's league in the 70s. So that's something.

[caltrane74]

Originally Posted by Metro-One

No, there was never a time that when it came to skyscrapers it was New York, Chicago, Toronto.

Toronto's big bank towers went up around the same time, if not a little later, than many of LA's, Montreal's, Houston's, etc...

But yeah, keep trying to put Toronto in there. Honestly, sometimes your home enthusiasm is downright delusional.

Before you call me delusional, at least fact check me first, at least no one could accuse you of riding the Butthurt Bandwagon. My comment about Toronto falling rapidly down the worldwide rankings didn't register at all with you, just my comment about a 5 year span from 1975 to 1980 which obviously made your eyes bleed with pain.



TD Centre - 1968 - 223 meters
Commerce Court - 1972 - 239 ,eters
FCP - 1975 - 298 meters


Montreal, Philadelphia, San Fransisco to this very day do not having anything taller than Toronto's tallest. And Houston only passed our tallest in 1982, then Los Angeles in 1990.

At that time in the world, as any Skyscraper Geek could tell you, there were no other cities that built skyscrapers outside of North America to that same extent, even Hong Kong.

[Ramako]

Originally Posted by Chadillaccc

Toronto deserves some credit though... it hasn't dropped nearly as far down the list as most of the cities that were in it's league in the 70s. So that's something.

Yeah, Toronto has maintained and, in many cases, widened its lead over those other North American cities (and is rapidly catching up with Chicago) but has been totally left in the dust by a lot of cities in Asia.

[kw5150]

oooooooh......meow!

Originally Posted by Metro-One

No, there was never a time that when it came to skyscrapers it was New York, Chicago, Toronto.

Toronto's big bank towers went up around the same time, if not a little later, than many of LA's, Montreal's, Houston's, etc...

But yeah, keep trying to put Toronto in there. Honestly, sometimes your home enthusiasm is downright delusional.

[Chadillaccc]

Originally Posted by Ramako

Yeah, Toronto has maintained and, in many cases, widened its lead over those other North American cities (and is rapidly catching up with Chicago) but has been totally left in the dust by a lot of cities in Asia.

But that is (or should be) to be expected. Many Asian cities are far larger and more dense than Toronto, and now they have the money to show it. That trend will continue for a long time as Indian, Middle Eastern(a couple of their cities are larger than Toronto), and African cities begin to build up as well.

[TallBob]

That Calgary photo reminds me of the movie "Independence Day" when the Alien ship comes through the cloud.... ready to strike!

[kw5150]

totes

Originally Posted by TallBob

That Calgary photo reminds me of the movie "Independence Day" when the Alien ship comes through the cloud.... ready to strike!

[Calgarian]

That Calgary picture looks fake lol.

[O-tacular]

Originally Posted by kw5150

from: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BNC86QgCcAAj0cE.jpg

Whoa scary! Was that from today?

[Rico Rommheim]

The Bow is smokin'. Literally.

[isaidso]

Originally Posted by caltrane74

Now Toronto is number 15.. and falling, even with ungodly construction happening now.

Actually if you click on my link and look at the list I compiled for Completed + Construction + Proposed, Toronto will climb many positions and sit firmly in the top 10 globally by 100m+ buildings. Toronto will have to maintain its frenetic construction boom if it wants to stay there though. In 20 years the top 10 might be made up solely of Asian cities. Not even New York is safe; something unimaginable just 5 years ago.

Toronto is the only city in the West to climb and the amount of development happening in Toronto stacks up well against all cities except for Manila. We could rise from 15th globally to a tie for 8th. That's very impressive considering what's happening in Asia. Note Toronto will also zoom passed Chicago.

I also think it's very impressive for a relative minnow like Canada to produce a city with a skyline so large. If you look at all the other cities in the top 10 they're all located in substantially larger nations that us.


100m+ buildings Completed, Construction, Proposed

Hong Kong 2,360
Shanghai 869**
Shenzhen 862**
New York 843
Manila 630
Tokyo 549
Bangkok 527
Guangzhou 387**
Toronto 387
Chicago 335
Dubai 331
Mumbai 306*
Tianjin 241
Seoul 231*
Singapore 226
Kuala Lumpur 224
Jakarta 213
Melbourne 188
Istanbul 178
Chongqing 175*



* Likely higher
** Not to roof height and estimates with no documentation to speak of

[isaidso]

In case people were wondering here are the other Canadian cities:

Vancouver 101
Calgary 69
Montreal 54
Edmonton 22
Niagara Falls 9
Ottawa 7
Winnipeg 5
Hamilton 2
Halifax, London, Windsor 1

[Chadillaccc]

What about Quebec City? They have 3 buildings over 100 meters, including Complexe Jules Dallaire II (UC).

Are these numbers for the entire metro? Cause a few suburbs would be ahead some of our larger cities even, like Mississauga, Burnaby, and Coquitlam would be ahead of Ottawa.


Also, Windsor has 2 buildings over 100 meters. Halifax doesn't have a building 100 meters or over built, UC, or under redevelopment yet. If we're going to count buildings of 98 meters, then Hamilton's number should be 4.

[isaidso]

They were mostly taken off SSP's database, so some of the data is a little off. It's for roof heights and for a whole metro. Btw, Halifax does have a 100m+ building proposed. Kings Wharf will be 109m. What is Windsor's 2nd building besides Caesars Windsor Augustus Tower? What are Hamilton's 2 buildings besides Landmark and Stelco? I'll add Quebec City; are they all over by roof height?