The Great Canadian Skyline Thread!

[mistercorporate]

Originally Posted by travis3000

I personally love Montreal. Always have. Their skyline is charming, and while it lacks some of the big buildings of Toronto and Calgary, it still impresses with the bridges, Mont Royal, the old buildings and churches, density, etc. IMO people in Montreal have nothing to be ashamed about. They live in the most unique big city in Canada. The language barrier makes the city what it is. And because of that I choose to spend my hard earned money visiting the city every year, sometimes multiple times.

And for skyline purposes, it's not like Montreal has a bad skyline. Taken from atop Mont Royal the skyline looks fairly impressive. IMO the city could use a couple 250m towers but hey, what can you do. The magic in that city has always been on the ground.

I'm curious, you're always mentioning how you love to go there so often. What are the things you like to do there you may not be able to do in Toronto? Or is it that you do the same things you do here but just for a change of scenery and a slightly different vibe? Sincere question as I know why a lot of straight people go there , but since you've mentioned before that you're gay, I'm assuming you wouldn't find the same attractions there that a straight anglophone person might have. What in particular do you like to do there that you can't do in Toronto? I really felt it was super-similar to downtown Toronto except for the language difference.

[Villaggio]

Mont Royal, Old Montreal, the Plateau, the Olympic Park + Botanical Garden, Mont Tremblant and ski mountains up north, real poutine, everything cheaper than in Toronto, etc.

[caltrane74]

I like the old port. Its kinda like St Lawrence Market (old Toronto) but bigger and older

[Rico Rommheim]

Originally Posted by Boris2k7

Calgary looked really pretty on Friday, with some fresh snow.


Calgary Skyline by Tim M. Shephard, on Flickr

The Bow looks great from this angle.

[harls]

Originally Posted by Rico Rommheim

The Bow looks great from this angle.

I agree. Looks friggin' awesome, Rico. Thanks for sharing (via Boris!).

[Daveography]

Originally Posted by bulliver

FWIW I used to post my Edmonton skyline shots here and they were either ignored, or as Metro mentioned, given patronizing "good job Edmonton, keep working at it" comments, so I stopped bothering.

Can't speak for the other Edmonton posters, but personally I stopped giving a damn what the rest of Canada thinks of us years ago.

In general there Edmonton is pretty underrepresented on this forum (based on the level of activity in the Edmonton section compared to other cities in Canada), and only a small subset of the active members in the city section ever seem to venture into the Canada section.

I don't blame them; the Canada section is pretty tiresome, what with seemingly endless arguments between Calgary and Montreal forumers, and constant comparisons between skylines and density of Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, and Calgary and other 🞵🞵🞵🞵-measuring contests of who has the biggest, longest, tallest, most whatevers.

And when we are not outright ignored when we do try to interject some bit of positivism about our city, we are inundated with negativity and derision (even accused of "spamming" the Canada section by one particular forumer with a bizarre and baffling hatred of anything Edmonton), constantly reminded of our place behind every other major city in Canada.

So I'm not sure why it's so surprising that we don't show much boosterism in this section or on the forum in general. We've mostly become content to just do our own thing and quietly enjoy the amazing things happening here and let everyone argue among themselves about silly subjective motion-controlled goalposts.

[lio45]

Originally Posted by bulliver

FWIW I used to post my Edmonton skyline shots here and they were either ignored, or as Metro mentioned, given patronizing "good job Edmonton, keep working at it" comments, so I stopped bothering.

Can't speak for the other Edmonton posters, but personally I stopped giving a damn what the rest of Canada thinks of us years ago.

Originally Posted by Daveography

In general there Edmonton is pretty underrepresented on this forum (based on the level of activity in the Edmonton section compared to other cities in Canada), and only a small subset of the active members in the city section ever seem to venture into the Canada section.

I don't blame them; the Canada section is pretty tiresome, what with seemingly endless arguments between Calgary and Montreal forumers, and constant comparisons between skylines and density of Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, and Calgary and other 🞵🞵🞵🞵-measuring contests of who has the biggest, longest, tallest, most whatevers.

And when we are not outright ignored when we do try to interject some bit of positivism about our city, we are inundated with negativity and derision (even accused of "spamming" the Canada section by one particular forumer with a bizarre and baffling hatred of anything Edmonton), constantly reminded of our place behind every other major city in Canada.

So I'm not sure why it's so surprising that we don't show much boosterism in this section or on the forum in general. We've mostly become content to just do our own thing and quietly enjoy the amazing things happening here and let everyone argue among themselves about silly subjective motion-controlled goalposts.

Your place behind every other major city? Aren't you squarely in the "Big 4-6"?

Besides, the 🞵🞵🞵🞵-measuring contests are far from a main serious feature of the Canada section IMO. Maybe jokingly though; I often see users ridiculing the idea.

[Ashok]

Edmonton is def. underrepresented.

[Xelebes]

Originally Posted by bulliver

FWIW I used to post my Edmonton skyline shots here and they were either ignored, or as Metro mentioned, given patronizing "good job Edmonton, keep working at it" comments, so I stopped bothering.

Can't speak for the other Edmonton posters, but personally I stopped giving a damn what the rest of Canada thinks of us years ago.

I remember years back, perhaps before you logged on, where there was very much a self-depreciating humour amongst us Edmonton posters. In that end, we were the dour side of the booming Alberta economy. For a while, nothing happened in Edmonton except for horror-show infill. Oh the days of murman. . .

[Rico Rommheim]

^ Yeah for the longest time on SSP, all we saw of Edmonton were those ghastly amateurish renders of horrible stubby midrises. The Edmonton proposals were terrible and it reflected poorly on the city. This site is so weird, my girlfriend stumbled on it the other day and was amazed. Amazed that there is a world-wide community of (mostly) men who log on and talk about skyscrapers and some urban issues. I think the page she stumbled on was one I had left open (in disgust mind you) and was one of the latest hyperbolic 🞵🞵🞵🞵 contests concerning skylines. For ordinary real-world people, what goes on here is mind-boggling. Mind-bogglingly retarded.

[Ashok]

LOL SSC has about what, half a million users!

[Daveography]

Originally Posted by lio45

Your place behind every other major city? Aren't you squarely in the "Big 4-6"?

As in, "put in our place." Post a skyline pic - Skyline not tall enough. Post an aerial pic - Downtown not dense enough. Post a street pic - Neighbourhoods not lively enough. New downtown residential towers announced - Streets not complete enough. LRT expansion announced - LRT not metro enough. Mention a leading industrial sector for which we are overlooked - Industries not leader-y enough.

Terrain too flat. Too many commie blocks. River not blue enough. Residents not white-collar enough.

These are all things that have been said when Edmonton comes up in conversation, or when photos are posted of Edmonton that I can remember over recent months and years.

It just gets so tiresome.

Originally Posted by lio45

Besides, the 🞵🞵🞵🞵-measuring contests are far from a main serious feature of the Canada section IMO. Maybe jokingly though; I often see users ridiculing the idea.

I think the people who get involved in them do take it seriously, though; why else would a post by someone subjectively ranking a city skyline over another spawn 6+ pages about how wrong he is, how ridiculous that their city was ranked lower, about the only "true" way to measure a skyline is by some other subjective metric and moving goalpost, etc.?

I know a lot of people take it as a joke - I know I do (but hey I'm from Edmonton, I'm just happy when anyone includes our 150m-capped skyline in any kind of ranking of their favourites ). But that doesn't make it any less tiresome when it occurs again and again, unfailingly once a month at minimum.

[SignalHillHiker]

It's still sort of a compliment, Daveography. The fact people from Canada's large cities react to Edmonton this way shows they consider it more of a peer and evaluate it based on their own big city standards, instead of mentally placing it into a smaller category in which it would probably rank highly.

[lio45]

Originally Posted by Daveography

As in, "put in our place." Post a skyline pic - Skyline not tall enough. Post an aerial pic - Downtown not dense enough. Post a street pic - Neighbourhoods not lively enough. New downtown residential towers announced - Streets not complete enough. LRT expansion announced - LRT not metro enough. Mention a leading industrial sector for which we are overlooked - Industries not leader-y enough.

Terrain too flat. Too many commie blocks. River not blue enough. Residents not white-collar enough.

These are all things that have been said when Edmonton comes up in conversation, or when photos are posted of Edmonton that I can remember over recent months and years.

It just gets so tiresome.

And to top it all off, the Oilers. Icing on the cake.

[O-tacular]

Originally Posted by Boris2k7

Calgary looked really pretty on Friday, with some fresh snow.


Calgary Skyline by Tim M. Shephard, on Flickr

Glad someone managed a picture of that. The hoarfrost and snow were really pretty covering everything. One of those rare times where winter is beautiful. Wanted to take a pic myself but never got around to it.

Edit: I'd also like to say there's a bit of grit to this angle with the chain link fence and old train bridge.

[The_Architect]

Originally Posted by Villaggio

Mont Royal, Old Montreal, the Plateau, the Olympic Park + Botanical Garden, Mont Tremblant and ski mountains up north, real poutine, everything cheaper than in Toronto, etc.

Just FYI, Toronto has gotten a lot of "real poutine" places in the recent years, so this isn't really a unique thing.

Unless you just define "real" as having it in Montreal, which is kind of a cop-out.

[O-tacular]

Originally Posted by Ashok

Edmonton is def. underrepresented.

Haven't seen this angle before. Actually didn't recognize it at first. I like how the Enbridge tower leads the eye towards its taller neighbours. Everything looks denser from this vantage too.

[O-tacular]

Originally Posted by Xelebes

I remember years back, perhaps before you logged on, where there was very much a self-depreciating humour amongst us Edmonton posters. In that end, we were the dour side of the booming Alberta economy. For a while, nothing happened in Edmonton except for horror-show infill. Oh the days of murman. . .

Murman? Lol @ 'horror-show' infill! Thinking of the Venetian?

[O-tacular]

Originally Posted by Rico Rommheim

^ Yeah for the longest time on SSP, all we saw of Edmonton were those ghastly amateurish renders of horrible stubby midrises. The Edmonton proposals were terrible and it reflected poorly on the city. This site is so weird, my girlfriend stumbled on it the other day and was amazed. Amazed that there is a world-wide community of (mostly) men who log on and talk about skyscrapers and some urban issues. I think the page she stumbled on was one I had left open (in disgust mind you) and was one of the latest hyperbolic 🞵🞵🞵🞵 contests concerning skylines. For ordinary real-world people, what goes on here is mind-boggling. Mind-bogglingly retarded.

I wanted to say something like this the other day but figured it would be ironic since I was caught up in the 'hyperbolic 🞵🞵🞵🞵 contest'. Lol! I don't think any ordinary Joe even compares Calgary and Montreal's skylines. They are very different cities. Comparing them is fruitless as neither has similar qualities, and where one lacks the other excels.

[TorontoDrew]

Originally Posted by Rico Rommheim

The Bow looks great from this angle.

Hey Rico, are you really the Frank Oaks model lol?