The Great Canadian Skyline Thread!

[csbvan]

Originally Posted by Bcasey25raptor

Vancouver goes from urbanity to abrupt farmland. It's not just the rainforests to the north.

Head south and drive along the perimeter roads in Richmond and look north, it kind of looks like a simcity style of city planning.

ALR is a different beast entirely. It's intentionally left as farm land, the city/suburbs would have overtaken it already if it were possible.

[1overcosc]

Ottawa has that sort of thing in abundance. The Central Experimental Farm, the Greenbelt... lots of land that is basically rural inside the city. Too much of it, actually. It results in the city having too large a footprint, IMO.

The Experimental Farm especially. It starts 600m away from the area that will soon be our main secondary skyline.

[niwell]

It seems that way in Calgary, and especially on the North / Eastern edges because it goes from being dense suburbia to massive plot farms. While plenty of other Canadian cities have a sudden divide between urban and rural, it's not that stark. In the GTA you still often get older houses lining concession roads just outside the urban area, and small narrow farm plots. Same with the Lower Mainlaind. It has a lot to do with how the land was originally subdivided, settled and farmed. Also because Calgary suburbia tends to abut wide road allowances while other places build right up to the roadway.

This is a clear divide, but not as stark: http://goo.gl/maps/fbd3O

as this: http://goo.gl/maps/YcZhA

[Dylan Leblanc]

Originally Posted by Chadillaccc

Edmonton

http://www.stockaerialphotos.com/-/galle...-11e3-a867-49d81daa6362-edmonton-alberta

Looks like a mini Ottawa

[Chadillaccc]

Originally Posted by VivaPhysicality

Vancouver is like that too, and it's amazing. Pure wilderness 20 minutes from downtown.

On the other hand, part of me also wishes Vancouver was the size of Toronto or bigger. There would just be more stuff to do in the city.

In a perfect world, I'd have quick access to mountains, rainforest, and ocean but also have quick access to a multicultural megacity.

Yeah that is definitely a huge plus of both of these cities, especially the mountains are only 10 min from Vancouver, 30 min from Calgary. Not to mention that the enormous park areas surrounded entirely within the urban areas are wild and totally awesome like Stanley Park, Nose Hill, Burnaby Lake, and Fish Creek all being over 3 km2, with the two in Calgary being over 11 km2 each.




http://www.stockaerialphotos.com/media/9...rev=05a3b362-858d-4363-b398-ef0aca0de8ee

http://www.stockaerialphotos.com/media/9...rev=05a3b362-858d-4363-b398-ef0aca0de8ee

[Bcasey25raptor]

Calgary didn't feel very environmentally interesting to me, felt very sterile.

[Chadillaccc]

I could tell from your photos that you didn't see much of the city at all, basically just downtown and Forest Lawn. We have the two largest urban parks in the country (parks that are completely surrounded by the urban area of the city) at 13.5 km2 and 11.3 km2, get out and see them when you're here next. They're looking great and green already! The Paskapoo Slopes, all river pathways, Bowmont Natural Environment Park, St. Patrick's Island, etc. are all great to in spring/summer/fall though.

[Bcasey25raptor]

Originally Posted by Chadillaccc

I could tell from your photos that you didn't see much of the city at all, basically just downtown and Forest Lawn. We have the two largest urban parks in the country (parks that are completely surrounded by the urban area of the city) at 13.5 km2 and 11.3 km2, get out and see them when you're here next. They're looking great and green already! The Paskapoo Slopes, all river pathways, Bowmont Natural Environment Park, St. Patrick's Island, etc. are all great to in spring/summer/fall though.

I spent a lot of time near the river and went to nose hill with my mother.

The city itself is great, but Most of what I saw didn't scream natural to me.

[Rico Rommheim]

by Mokita

[O-tacular]

Originally Posted by Bcasey25raptor

Calgary didn't feel very environmentally interesting to me, felt very sterile.

That's because you're used to the lushness of Vancouver. The prairies are much harsher. If you explore the parks and river areas though you will find lots of hidden treasures. Edworthy park for instance has some of the eastern most Douglas Fir trees on the continent. Didn't even know that until I hiked there last summer. Nose hill is one of the last remaining fescue grasslands and has beautiful flowers. Fish Creek is an amazing Riparian forest ecosystem in the middle of the city with abundant wildlife and a lot of native history including teepee rings, buffalo bones and burial grounds. Next time you come to visit you should explore one of them.

[O-tacular]

Here's a really interesting area I have never been to in the city that Speedog posted about in the Calgary PublicRealm thread. It is in the city's extreme NW. I plan on visiting this summer.

Originally Posted by speedog

With respect to Bearspaw Legacy Park and Haskayne Legacy Park, it will be interesting to see how the CoC develops Bearspaw Legacy Park as it is currently quite a rugged and very much wild area. Haskayne Legacy Park will be much more easily accessible and is also much easier to develop into an accessible space for the general public.

The area contained within what will be Bearspaw Legacy Park is quite different from a lot of what can be found in other Calgary parks and I dearly hope that it is left pretty much undeveloped and difficult to access except for those that wish to work a bit in their adventures and not have to rely upon paved or graveled, relatively level paths.

Some pictures from the area - some are mine, some have been scoured from the web. Some of mine were taken with my S3 in failing light and I have to apologize for the poorer quality - you can still see how unique this area is though. A very thickly forested trail which one needs to hike on to get to these cliffs with plenty of elevation changes...









The above are all my pictures, the following have been gleaned off of the web - note that this area is referred to by some locals as Little Arizona, not sure as to why...

[O-tacular]

This is Fish Creek:



http://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Fish-Creek-Bench-Szmurlo.jpg

[niwell]

Originally Posted by O-tacular

That's because you're used to the lushness of Vancouver. The prairies are much harsher. If you explore the parks and river areas though you will find lots of hidden treasures. Edworthy park for instance has some of the eastern most Douglas Fir trees on the continent. Didn't even know that until I hiked there last summer. Nose hill is one of the last remaining fescue grasslands and has beautiful flowers. Fish Creek is an amazing Riparian forest ecosystem in the middle of the city with abundant wildlife and a lot of native history including teepee rings, buffalo bones and burial grounds. Next time you come to visit you should explore one of them.

Another interesting area is Bowmont Park on the north side of the Bow River in the city's NW, particularly the area near Silver Springs. Which until I went there never realized was named after actual springs!

But yes, even compared to Ontario the landscape in Calgary can appear barren. Whenever I went to Toronto as a kid I was always shocked how green the ravines were and how quickly anything left to nature become completely overgrown.

[Chadillaccc]

Originally Posted by niwell

Another interesting area is Bowmont Park on the north side of the Bow River in the city's NW, particularly the area near Silver Springs. Which until I went there never realized was named after actual springs!

Bowmont Park is easily my favorite park in the city so far. With the huge sandstone cliffs, being able to swim in the bow river, hike up the desert coulees, walk through the forest and chill on a little beach all in a 1 hour hike (or much longer if you want), it's really great. The natural springs right at the end of waterfall valley are really nice too when you're walking in from Silver Springs.



Back to skylines!!




http://www.stockaerialphotos.com/media/4...ta?from=latest_medias&hit_num=1&hits=100



http://www.stockaerialphotos.com/-/galle...8-4fba-8c26-73447e64b108-montreal-quebec




http://www.stockaerialphotos.com/-/galle...e-bc80-aad499e29b9f-toronto-city-skyline




http://www.stockaerialphotos.com/media/2...rev=913598d1-efab-4897-a354-b9f4aac2977c

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[Calgarian]

Originally Posted by middeljohn

That's not really a skyline pic in the true sense. It's more a pic of Oliver, which is a highrise residential neighbourhood bordering the city core. All of the 100m+ buildings are just to the left of it.

Oliver is kind of like the Edmonton version of the Beltline, looking forward to watching that neighbourhood grow.

[Calgarian]

Originally Posted by Bcasey25raptor

I spent a lot of time near the river and went to nose hill with my mother.

The city itself is great, but Most of what I saw didn't scream natural to me.

Natural here is just grassland, so Nose Hill is very much natural. When you come from BC and have massive temperate rainforest surrounding your city and within (Stanley Park), it can change expectations when traveling elsewhere.

[1overcosc]

The barrenness of the grassland landscape is beautiful in its own way. I for one would rather that cities like Calgary embrace the characteristics of their bioregion, rather than try to force foreign landscapes into the area, like the way the sunbelt cities in the states try to put lawns on deserts.

[edm_guy]

Spring time in Edmonton can be very green and lush, especially in the river valley.



(Source:https://www.pinterest.com/grammajay2/my-edmonton/)


(Source: My own photo)


(Source: My own photo)

[Bcasey25raptor]

Originally Posted by Calgarian

Natural here is just grassland, so Nose Hill is very much natural. When you come from BC and have massive temperate rainforest surrounding your city and within (Stanley Park), it can change expectations when traveling elsewhere.

To be fair, My expectations are a little high.

Some of the landscape was rather interesting with hills, ravines, and the river edges themselves being quite nice.

But the entire trip there the only thing that really bugged me was a lack of trees.

I mean you have trees, no denying this, but you don't have as much as I'm used to nor are they as compact as they are here.

But yes, I'd overall say Calgary is pretty nice. You're close to banff and banff itself is amazing.

anyways I should probably post a skyline picture before I get too off topic.

Vancouver from False Creek