The Great Canadian Skyline Thread! - Page 57

Boris2k7 · #**1121** Posted **Sep 29, 2014, 3:17 PM**

One area I wish Calgary would copy Montreal is on tower lighting. As you can see in my last photo, the only towers that are particularly well lit are Bankers Hall, EAP, Jamieson Place, and the Calgary Tower. The Bow has accent lighting on the interior of just the very top sky garden, Arriva and Union Square have just their small LED strips (well, Arriva also has lighting on it's "feathered" cap), and the rest of the buildings just have their lit signage.

SkahHigh · #**1122** Posted **Sep 29, 2014, 3:26 PM**

^ I agree with you Boris, but lighting should not be omnipresent. For Montreal, only 1501 McGill College has that pyramid-like lighted crown and the Desjardins towers have the green lights, but it's enough. More than that, and you get way too many lights. It kills the esthetic effect.

Boris2k7 · #**1123** Posted **Sep 29, 2014, 3:28 PM**

I don't think every tower needs to be lit up, but the signature towers at least. It seems a waste that the Bow didn't get better lighting.

travis3000 · #**1124** Posted **Sep 29, 2014, 3:31 PM**

I just did a rough count of structures over 150m in Toronto and I got 66. This is towers currently built, under construction, or approved (and likely to be built in the near future). I did not include any of the Bloor St proposals, Oxford, Mirvish, One Young, Signature Towers, Union Center, 45 Bay, 156 Front nor any of the other residential proposals that have not gone into sales. So technically the list should be way bigger but I want to remain realistic. I also may have missed a few but just to give an idea. That number just 10 years ago was around 10. What a difference a decade makes.

To further analyze the numbers, of the 56 newbies to the list 6 are office towers, 5 are hotel/residential mixed use, and the remaining 45 are all residential.

Acajack · #**1125** Posted **Sep 29, 2014, 3:34 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by travis3000

I just did a rough count of structures over 150m in Toronto and I got 66. This is towers currently built, under construction, or approved (and likely to be built in the near future). I did not include any of the Bloor St proposals, Oxford, Mirvish, One Young, Signature Towers, Union Center, 45 Bay, and 156 Front. So technically the list should be way bigger but I want to remain realistic. I also may have missed a few but just to give an idea. That number just 10 years ago was around 10. What a difference a decade makes.

Holy cow! from 10 to 66 in 10 years!

Chadillaccc · #**1126** Posted **Sep 29, 2014, 3:50 PM**

Holy crap, it's true! In 2004, Toronto only had 11 completed buildings over 150 meters. Compare this to Calgary, the next closest skyline, which had 10 buildings over 150 meters.

Fast-forward to today, Toronto has 60 over 150 meters built or UC, to Calgary's 20. Toronto went friggin light speed past the rest of the country! Good job!!

WhipperSnapper · #**1127** Posted **Sep 29, 2014, 4:14 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Klazu

Yes, Vancouver towers are skinny thanks to the principles of Vancouverism and have small footprint, but I think the biggest result from this is that our condos are very small in size, especially in the Yaletown and Coal Harbour areas. I have no numbers to give, but I would think that our 30 floor tower has no less residents than a same size tower in any other Canadian city.

You are correct about our condo towers maxing out at around 35 floors, but you should know very well that this is changing quickly with lots of 40-50 floor towers having gone up in the last five years and more going up all the time. Our skyline's profile is changing rapidly and 40-45 floors is the new norm for many projects.

I would also say that a vast majority of all-residential towers in Canada are less than 35 floors and only Toronto has a significant number of taller all-residential skyscrapers. So Vancouver is not doing bad here in this sense, as we have lots of these towers...

Similar to other cities but, the towers are just enormous in Toronto. There are dozens with number of units in the 650 to 800 range. Some are as low as 35 storeys too. (i.e. Ultima in North York Centre)

SkahHigh · #**1128** Posted **Sep 29, 2014, 4:56 PM**

It's good to see Toronto becoming a true metropolis in North America, along the ranks of New York, Chicago, LA and Houston. And this, coming from a Montreal guy

leftimage · #**1129** Posted **Sep 29, 2014, 5:12 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by SkahHigh

It's good to see Toronto becoming a true metropolis in North America, along the ranks of New York, Chicago, LA and Houston. And this, coming from a Montreal guy

I agree completely about Toronto ! Not so much about Houston being on that list but I digress

Chadillaccc · #**1130** Posted **Sep 29, 2014, 5:49 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Delirium

Photo by
jeanne.bendle.t21 https://www.flickr.com/photos/16251802@N05/15335173326/sizes/h/

Wow, MNP Tower actually looks a lot more girthy than I expected it would! I love it. Definitely the nicest office tower in the country so far this decade.

Chadillaccc · #**1131** Posted **Sep 29, 2014, 6:21 PM**

A beautiful shot of Edmonton I just stumbled across...

http://capcityrealtygroup.com/crazy-horse-strip-club-gets-ok-to-lease-historic-edmonton-building/

Barnes · #**1132** Posted **Sep 29, 2014, 7:19 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by SkahHigh

It's good to see Toronto becoming a true metropolis in North America, along the ranks of New York, Chicago, LA and Houston. And this, coming from a Montreal guy

SkahHigh · #**1133** Posted **Sep 29, 2014, 7:24 PM**

^ lol, I was only mentionning Houston because it's an important economic city

Innsertnamehere · #**1134** Posted **Sep 29, 2014, 8:14 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chadillaccc

Wow, MNP Tower actually looks a lot more girthy than I expected it would! I love it. Definitely the nicest office tower in the country so far this decade.

Bow is much nicer IMO. MNP is nice, certianly better than anything Toronto has put up this decade, but Bow takes the cake for the best office building in Canada since Scotiaplaza IMO.

travis3000 · #**1135** Posted **Sep 29, 2014, 8:28 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Innsertnamehere

Bow is much nicer IMO. MNP is nice, certianly better than anything Toronto has put up this decade, but Bow takes the cake for the best office building in Canada since Scotiaplaza IMO.

I would agree with that.

caltrane74 · #**1136** Posted **Sep 29, 2014, 8:38 PM**

Looks like the Bentall Tower... lol!

Calgarian · #**1137** Posted **Sep 29, 2014, 8:40 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Boris2k7

Brand new Cowtown from townight. It's starting to get chilly to go out and shoot now!

Dusk Settles by RemotelyBoris, on Flickr

The new lighting on the Calgary Tower is looking nice so far.

Calgary Tower looks pretty good with the new lighting, just wish they would do something with the shaft now...

Chadillaccc · #**1138** Posted **Sep 29, 2014, 8:41 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Innsertnamehere

Bow is much nicer IMO. MNP is nice, certianly better than anything Toronto has put up this decade, but Bow takes the cake for the best office building in Canada since Scotiaplaza IMO.

To be honest I totally forgot about The Bow when I wrote that

I guess you're right, but I'd say it's a pretty close race. MNP certainly has a more dynamic form, but The Bow's significant height advantage probably gives it the win. Due to its height, it isn't just another tower lost in the skyline, it defines the skyline.

softee · #**1139** Posted **Sep 29, 2014, 9:00 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by logan5

I guess I'm a stickler for factual information. I presume you don't actually know what the population of DT Toronto and DT Vancouver are, so I'll provide some numbers courtesy of isaidso. The numbers are accurate because I double checked them.

Downtown Toronto:

population: 175,064
approx. area: 5.0 square miles
approx. density: 35,000 ppsm

Greater Downtown Vancouver:

population: 163,753
approx. area: 5.3 square miles
approx. density: 31,000 ppsm

Obviously Toronto has a larger core population, but they're pretty close. The peninsula has 100 000 people in an area of 2.2 sq miles. I don't know what Toronto's inner 2 square mile population would be though.

The problem with that is that Toronto is a much larger city than Vancouver and yet according to those figures Vancouver has a larger downtown? That doesn't make sense. I wouldn't even consider all of the peninsula to be "downtown" (let alone the areas outside it) since much of it is purely residential in nature. Toronto's downtown as per those definitions is heavily commercial in nature, though there are some sizeable swaths of mostly residential mixed in there as well, but busy commercial areas are always nearby.

isaidso · #**1140** Posted **Sep 29, 2014, 9:25 PM**

It becomes problematic when one attempts to draw too many conclusions from statistics. Data is only a good starting point. The value in the numbers above is in assessing the population of the most central ~ 5 square miles.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Acajack

Holy cow! from 10 to 66 in 10 years!

It's amazing how quickly we forget what it used to be like just a little while ago. I was surprised that it was only 10-11 buildings as well. Calgary is at 15 right now so they've moved past the Toronto of 2004 already.

The flip side of that is the tremendous growth in Toronto. Toronto turned on the jets and its still rocketing up. Hopefully Calgary can follow in Toronto's footsteps. We're really blessed here in Canada. Most countries are lucky to have 1 great skyline. We have 4 with Edmonton showing signs that it wants to make it 5.