The Great Canadian Skyline Thread!

[Boris2k7]

I always find it funny how people come to Calgary and expect the CBD to be bumping at all times. This is a North American-styled downtown people, not Enlightenment European. If you don't see people, you are in the wrong spot. Where are people after 6PM or on the weekend around downtown? On Stephen Ave, in Chinatown, in Eau Claire -- walking or biking or jogging on the riverwalk or on Prince's Island. Also in surrounding hotspots like Kensington or Inglewood or the Beltline (especially on 17th). They aren't hanging around Bow Valley Square on Sunday afternoon.

Now do I expect some things to change? Of course. The East Village will be building up. Eau Claire will be building up. Adding a ton of rental units and condos and hotels on 10th Ave should help by bringing some more activity across the tracks. But our experience with the West End is that just building towers doesn't necessarily lead to lots of activity (the place is arguably just a vertical suburb, where people drive in and drive out of their towers). I certainly don't expect the areas with the densest concentration of financial offices and law offices and oil company headquarters to get bumping anytime soon, and really nobody should.

[Beedok]

Originally Posted by isaidso

I lived in downtown Halifax for 10 years. I've always viewed Halifax as a quaint town, so moving downtown I had no expectations that it be busy. I just wanted a cute neighbourhood where I could walk everywhere and run into 50 people I knew within an hour or so. It satisfied all of those requirements in spades.

For Halifax's size, the downtown is extremely urbane. I'd argue that it's more vibrant than the one in Hamilton, Calgary, or Winnipeg. It's on par with Ottawa, but understandably miles behind Montreal and Toronto. I haven't been to Edmonton or Vancouver so can't comment.

Hamilton's downtown is rather weak for the city size, so Halifax beating it out doesn't surprise me. There's too many other downtowns in the city, and the inner city is rather spread out other than the downtown.

[Chadillaccc]

Originally Posted by isaidso

I dunno. You'd be shocked at how fast momentum towards downtown living can build. Once a tipping point is reached, the gradual move downtown becomes a flood. The tipping point occurs when people look at the downtown core and start viewing it as a hopping, exciting, attractive, safe, vibrant place to live.

Even as recently as 2000, people in Toronto didn't view our core like that. They came downtown to have fun, then went home to the outskirts. Perceptions started to change mid decade, and all of a sudden it seemed like everyone under 30 wanted to live downtown.

Calgary's move downtown will follow a similar path. Once the tipping point is reached, the number of people moving downtown will mushroom. You'll be adding 5,000+/year.

The reason I said that is because Calgary only has so many people. Even at 1 600 000 in the municipality itself (around 2022), I don't see 100 000 right in the downtown. I think we have already reached our tipping point, if you look at the dozen or so residential towers UC in the Beltline right now, plus another 16 or so proposed, that spells a pretty clear picture of what's happening there. Our actual downtown core (CBD, Eau Claire, Chinatown, West Village, and East Village) has another 8 residential towers UC, and another two dozen proposed. It's a madhouse already. Not even including the mid-rise and lowrise projects. Even still though, 100 000 seems very unrealistic, just due to where we currently are. But who knows, no one would expect Calgary's municipal growth to near 40 000/ year at its current size, but it's happened 2 years in a row, and no one would have ever thought we'd see over 30% of new growth going to inner city intensification, but it is... so I guess stranger things have happened. I hope you're right

Originally Posted by esquire

I was thinking mainly of the 2-storey on the corner... it looks like it dates back to the late 40s or early 50s.

Oh yeah, that dumpster fire? That one is ugly. I just look at the pretty stuff



Speaking of pretty... the 5th Avenue Canyon at sunrise...


Corridor by Chadillaccc, on Flickr

[Martin Mtl]

Originally Posted by Nouvellecosse

Hmm, interesting. I suppose unless a city is super dense like a millenium old city in Europe there's a limit to how busy it's going to be with a smaller population size. Sometimes I wish for higher intensity but I suppose we're doing pretty good.

In Montreal, I find that the presence downtown of three universities makes a big difference. It means that tens of thousands of young people reside in the downtown core and consume culture, goes to restaurants, bars, etc. It makes downtown a huge urban college town. The nightlife profits from it a lot, obviously. Of course, adding to that permanent residents is important as well.

[1overcosc]

Universities make a huge difference. Downtown Kingston is way more lively than you'd expect of a city its size (still doesn't hold a candle to the big 6 obviously), because of all the students. In Ottawa, the east shoulder of downtown is arguably the liveliest area of the core, and that's partly because U of O is there.

[Nouvellecosse]

In Halifax the universities also make a big difference but not so much right downtown but on the surrounding neighbourhoods since the only one right downtown is NSCAD which is very small. I'd still hate to see the city without them though.

[Doug_Cgy]

Originally Posted by Boris2k7

I always find it funny how people come to Calgary and expect the CBD to be bumping at all times. This is a North American-styled downtown people, not Enlightenment European. If you don't see people, you are in the wrong spot. Where are people after 6PM or on the weekend around downtown? On Stephen Ave, in Chinatown, in Eau Claire -- walking or biking or jogging on the riverwalk or on Prince's Island. Also in surrounding hotspots like Kensington or Inglewood or the Beltline (especially on 17th). They aren't hanging around Bow Valley Square on Sunday afternoon.

Now do I expect some things to change? Of course. The East Village will be building up. Eau Claire will be building up. Adding a ton of rental units and condos and hotels on 10th Ave should help by bringing some more activity across the tracks. But our experience with the West End is that just building towers doesn't necessarily lead to lots of activity (the place is arguably just a vertical suburb, where people drive in and drive out of their towers). I certainly don't expect the areas with the densest concentration of financial offices and law offices and oil company headquarters to get bumping anytime soon, and really nobody should.

Yes. This.

[Trans Canada]

Here's a rare perspective of downtown Calgary from SAIT Polytechnic. Most skyline shots from the north are taken from the ridge in the left-centre of this photo (which extends the length of downtown)

Originally Posted by Spring2008

Calgary skyline by [email protected], on Flickr

[Razor]

^ That's a fantastic shot of Calgary..Great angle!

[Martin Mtl]

Originally Posted by razor

^ that's a fantastic shot of calgary..great angle!

+1

[softee]

About Toronto's downtown population - if one considers downtown Toronto to be bounded by the lake to the South, Yorkville to the North, and Bathurst and Parliament to the West and East, there are upwards of 200,000 people living in that area by now.

[Delirium]

Burnaby

Photo by dbarmas https://www.flickr.com/photos/dbarmas/14921202412/sizes/l/

metro vancouver

Photo by mkandag https://www.flickr.com/photos/mkandag/14663891161/sizes/l

[whiteford]

calgary/husky-tower? love it. dont dare touch my tower.

[Klazu]

Needs to be posted here as well.

[Infrequent Poster]

Originally Posted by Delirium

Burnaby

Photo by dbarmas https://www.flickr.com/photos/dbarmas/14921202412/sizes/l/

metro vancouver

Photo by mkandag https://www.flickr.com/photos/mkandag/14663891161/sizes/l

Your second picture makes my pants feel tight.

[Klazu]

Originally Posted by caltrane74

This is true, even Toronto gets really slow after 7pm downtown. That's why I eagerly await each and every new tower that gets added to the core, in the hope that it will likely add more to the street life and which is dearly needed, when the weather is colder.

Doesn't seem to have happened in South Core despite all the tall towers going up. I was in Toronto back in 2009 and again this June and despite I could notice so much development having happened, street life in that area is still completely absent and didn't seem to have improved at all in five years.

Also the CBD gets eerily so quiet after 7pm that it doesn't feel all that comfortable to be wandering around alone. I am sure it's still safe (since this is Canada and all), but it feel completely abandoned every evening.

I don't get this same feeling anywhere in Downtown Vancouver.

[travis3000]

^ yes that's a great angle of Calgary.

I dunno what you guys are talking about saying Toronto is quiet. Everytime I've been it's insanely packed with people. Jeeze if you think Toronto is quiet at night , what do you consider Calgary ...a small village apocalypse? I was downtown TO this last Tuesday night at the aquarium, we walked around the downtown and it was jammed with tens of thousands of people. I dunno where some of you get your opinions.

[1overcosc]

I second that. When I was in Toronto a few weekends ago it was crowded everywhere... it was awesome but also made a bit uncomfortable (I'm used to Kingston & Ottawa!)

[GreaterMontréal]

http://www.stockaerialphotos.com/media/2a3b0e63-af32-4674-af59-5eeb0aaa26b1-montreal-quebec

[craner]

I was built before the Calgary Tower and can understand the sentimental attachment to it by Calgarians. I don't think it needs to be the tallest structure in the city to be useful and provide great views (as it still does). I also love how it is a measuring stick for the growth of the city. You see the pictures when it was first built and it truly did "tower" over everything else. Now you see how downtown has grown tall and is dwarfing the tower - I find that comparison with the tower as a reference very cool.

Having said all that, I certainly wouldn't mind seeing the tower cleaned & modernized somehow. I would even be in favour of tearing it down as long as it was replaced with a new & taller Calgary Tower. But I wouldn't tear it down to build a run of the mill condo tower.