Great Canadian Skyline Thread II

[someone123]

I like that Halifax has jumbles of weird buildings like this. There are not many cities where you'd see something like that blue 3-storey wooden Eastlink building next to a big brick hotel and then a new highrise wedged onto a narrow lot. Toronto has a similar dynamic but it is a different style of city.

Halifax has lots of nice but compromised streetscapes that just need 1 or 2 new buildings, so it's getting a lot out of the building boom that is happening.

Park Lane seems pretty innocuous. I think the storefronts are full and the inside, well, I haven't seen since about 2004.

[isaidso]

Originally Posted by kool maudit

Park Lane is really kind of built into everything, particularly post- the Martello condos. I doubt it's going anywhere.

It was that last bit of '80s in the early '90s, opened up just as people tired of malls and began exploring the actual downtown again.

I agree that it would be a big undertaking but they'll eventually have to do something. That mall has always been dead. If it were out in the burbs it might stay as is for decades but it's on Spring Garden Road. All of those mini-malls on Spring Garden Road are weird imo.

Spring Garden Place is a dud, the one with Pete's Frootique is a dud, and the one attached to Mills Brothers is a dud. None of them work.

[Nouvellecosse]

I don't find Park lane that dead. There's always plenty of people milling about when i'm in there. It's definitely not as upscale as its initial ambitions seemed to hope for though. The new Dollarama which opened about a year ago seems to be its busiest business, while the Source and cinema seem to be the other focal points. The gym beside the cinema also seems to be very active. The upper level always seems to have some vacancies but the main level is always fully occupied from what I've seen.

[MonctonRad]

Thought I would add my own Halifax photo to the thread.

My middle son lives in the Garden Park apartment building facing Victoria Park, and adjacent to the Public Gardens. They have a rooftop terrace on the building. I was down visiting over the weekend and my son took me up to the top of the building to see the collapsed crane across on the other side of Victoria Park.



This view shows the cluster of buildings on the east side of South Park Street facing the Public Gardens, and the northern bit of Victoria Park. The collapsed crane is clearly visible. Apparently it will take at least several weeks, if not a couple of months to remove the crane (because it is so precariously balanced). The mechanical engineers are having a field day trying to figure out how to do it! My youngest son is doing his masters in mechanical engineering at UNB in Fredericton. Maybe I should send him down to help them figure out how to do it!

[TorontoDrew]

Originally Posted by someone123

I like that Halifax has jumbles of weird buildings like this. There are not many cities where you'd see something like that blue 3-storey wooden Eastlink building next to a big brick hotel and then a new highrise wedged onto a narrow lot. Toronto has a similar dynamic but it is a different style of city.

Halifax has lots of nice but compromised streetscapes that just need 1 or 2 new buildings, so it's getting a lot out of the building boom that is happening.

Park Lane seems pretty innocuous. I think the storefronts are full and the inside, well, I haven't seen since about 2004.

Halifax is un my top 5 downtown cores and Skylines and I have yet to visit it.

[TorontoDrew]

Source: https://cdn.skyrisecities.com
Taken by : Ryan_T

[Kilgore Trout]

Originally Posted by kool maudit

Downtown Montreal, and not central Montreal as a whole but "downtown" specifically, is a bit underwhelming.

I think your analysis is spot on. That's always been one of the things that bugs me about Montreal – it doesn't have any particular spot where the downtown energy is overwhelming.

That said, things are changing with all the new development in pretty much every corner downtown. The whole area already feels much beefier than it did 10 years ago.

[WhipperSnapper]

Originally Posted by someone123

I like that Halifax has jumbles of weird buildings like this. There are not many cities where you'd see something like that blue 3-storey wooden Eastlink building next to a big brick hotel and then a new highrise wedged onto a narrow lot. Toronto has a similar dynamic but it is a different style of city.

Halifax has lots of nice but compromised streetscapes that just need 1 or 2 new buildings, so it's getting a lot out of the building boom that is happening.

Park Lane seems pretty innocuous. I think the storefronts are full and the inside, well, I haven't seen since about 2004.

This is what I don't like about development in Toronto. The jumbled mess is rapidly disappearing. Entire blocks are being assembled and built out as singular developments. Heritage is being preserved by way of facades slapped onto large podiums. I understand the economics of these assemblages. I wish more emphasis was placed on making them look the least like an assemblage. Retaining the heights of the original buildings turned facades is quite convincing that these building retained separate ownership from the new development framing them. Instead, developers push the envelope on density but adding floors on top of the retained facade and it almost always looks comical.

On the other end, a large vacant lot zoned for medium rise will be built out with one enormous floor plate instead of broken up into phases as a result of the insatiable investor driven market. It makes a bland streetscape

[Renn]

Originally Posted by SteelTown

Elisha Vankleef
https://twitter.com/eveekay

Hamilton's come up a lot in the past few years, seems like everyone i know in Toronto is talking about moving there. Are there many new condos being built in the area now?

[hipster duck]

Originally Posted by someone123

I like that Halifax has jumbles of weird buildings like this. There are not many cities where you'd see something like that blue 3-storey wooden Eastlink building next to a big brick hotel and then a new highrise wedged onto a narrow lot. Toronto has a similar dynamic but it is a different style of city.

Halifax has lots of nice but compromised streetscapes that just need 1 or 2 new buildings, so it's getting a lot out of the building boom that is happening.

Park Lane seems pretty innocuous. I think the storefronts are full and the inside, well, I haven't seen since about 2004.

That's really interesting. I was mentioning in the "what does a big city feel like?" thread, that a sign that a city is big is when private commercial users have to resort to creative techniques to turn marginal spaces into productive places. It sounds like Halifax is doing this to a level not seen in a city of its size in North America.

In a 21st century twist, I think the places that feel "big" are the ones that have a mix of buildings of somewhat jarring scales - like the skyscraper beside a house where both floors have been turned into retail uses. Having a street full of buildings of uniform height and age can feel ironically provincial and stale - since it's usually a sign that it was either formerly rich and important, or that it was master-planned and the developer could get away with a tabula rasa.

[vanman]

Originally Posted by someone123

We might be nearing Halifax saturation in this thread but I thought these were interesting too.

I didn't realize Halifax was getting so dense. That looks like a pleasant, walkable core.

[someone123]

Originally Posted by hipster duck

That's really interesting. I was mentioning in the "what does a big city feel like?" thread, that a sign that a city is big is when private commercial users have to resort to creative techniques to turn marginal spaces into productive places. It sounds like Halifax is doing this to a level not seen in a city of its size in North America.

Halifax has some areas where a building might have shops on the ground level, a pub in the basement, a hot pot restaurant upstairs, etc. The configuration along parts of Spring Garden Road reminds me of Robson Street in Vancouver (rankings like this one help explain that https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/canadas-10-most-expensive-streets-includes-3-vancouver-spots). The neighbourhoods there also have a decent amount of mixed use plus a lot of architecture that is very old by Canadian standards.

Another factor there is that there have always been creative local developers willing to work on medium scale projects and adaptive reuse. They will put up an 8 storey building on a narrow lot or build 3 storeys above a row of existing 3 storey Victorian commercial buildings. This is much better for the city's vibrancy than putting up a small number of large condo buildings or office towers.

The downside to this flexibility is that sometimes developers there mess too much with old buildings. Not long ago a developer was proposing to bolt a condo tower onto a 3 storey granite mansion from 1810 or so that is also a national historic site. The city needs strong but fine-grained heritage protection.

[TorontoDrew]

This occurred around 5:10pm yesterday. Super bright and only lasted a few minutes.

Double Rainbow by JamesAnok || ThetaState, on Flickr

And not last night but still a cool shot.

Before the Storm by JamesAnok || ThetaState, on Flickr

[Chadillaccc]

Totally amazing. Wow.



Have I posted these before?


By Jeff Wallace on Flickr : https://www.flickr.com/photos/wherezjeff/48448333031/

DSC09101 by itspoots, on Flickr

[Nite]

Yonge and Eglinton - Toronto


https://urbantoronto.ca/news/2019/09/aerial-view-midtown-toronto

[Martin Mtl]

Montréal-Heure bleue 1 by Pascal Gagnon Photo on Flickr


Montréal-Heure bleue by Pascal Gagnon Photo on Flickr


Montréal-Heure bleue 5by Pascal Gagnon Photo on Flickr

[TorontoDrew]

Originally Posted by Martin Mtl

Montréal-Heure bleue by Pascal Gagnon Photo on Flickr

I like this,it has a very american vibe in a good way. If it were not for Five Roses it could have been mistaken for parts of NYC like Long Island City.

[MonkeyRonin]

https://urbantoronto.ca/forum/threads/torontos-other-skylines.21833/page-12#post-1482610

[Brizzy82]

source





source





source




source





source

[Martin Mtl]

https://www.instagram.com/p/B25L7vuH9vA/


https://www.instagram.com/p/B25Tqnoj3ra/