Great Canadian Skyline Thread II

[Hali87]

Source

[esquire]

Gorgeous. Feels like there has been a lot of Halifax-Dartmouth beauty posted lately.

[giallo]

rdave posted these in the Kelowna sub-forum, but I figured they should be here as well. They are great shots of Kelowna's small, but growing skyline.

Originally Posted by rdave

Hey guys,

Took some shots these past couple days as well.


Some nice density coming to life



This site on Lawrence and Water is fenced and prepped for excavation

[Metro-One]

That first pic is great.

Also like the last one a lot. It really has a mini sun belt metro look to it with the suburban houses in the foreground and the now obvious core in the distance.

[Chadillaccc]

https://dailyhive.com/calgary/calgary-153-most-expensive-city-world-2019

https://dailyhive.com/calgary/calgary-events-today-thursday-may-10-2018

https://dailyhive.com/calgary/calgary-events-today-thursday-november-14-2019

[esquire]

Kelowna is legitimately joining the ranks of Canada's big city skylines. When was the last time we had a new entrant in that category (not including suburbs like Burnaby, Markham or whatever)?

[MonctonRad]

Originally Posted by esquire

Kelowna is legitimately joining the ranks of Canada's big city skylines. When was the last time we had a new entrant in that category (not including suburbs like Burnaby, Markham or whatever)?

Niagara Falls????

[Chadillaccc]

Kitchener's skyline is growing into the level currently as well.

[Hali87]

Kelowna feels a bit different though, they went from essentially no tall buildings to having a distinct skyline in a very short time (vs Niagara Falls, KWC, etc). Last time I was in Kelowna (~7 years ago) there were maybe 2-3 buildings over 10 storeys in the entire city. Now it seems like all they build are towers.

It would be interesting to see if Kamloops or Abbotsford follow suit. Or maybe an eastern city not known for highrises like St. John's, Moncton, Sherbrooke or Guelph.

[Hali87]

Originally Posted by Chadillaccc

https://dailyhive.com/calgary/calgary-153-most-expensive-city-world-2019

It's interesting how boldly mulitcoloured Calgary's skyline looks in certain lighting, while in this photo it's the textures that stand out.

[Chadillaccc]

Originally Posted by Hali87

Kelowna feels a bit different though, they went from essentially no tall buildings to having a distinct skyline in a very short time (vs Niagara Falls, KWC, etc). Last time I was in Kelowna (~7 years ago) there were maybe 2-3 buildings over 10 storeys in the entire city. Now it seems like all they build are towers.

It would be interesting to see if Kamloops or Abbotsford follow suit. Or maybe an eastern city not known for highrises like St. John's, Moncton, Sherbrooke or Guelph.

Back in 2013, Kelowna had sixteen towers ten storeys and above. It's certainly not a freshly brand new skyline. Even in 2013, eight of those towers were over ten years old.

Guelph will definitely not be joining the pack probably ever. Likely darkhorses are Oshawa, St. Catharines, Nanaimo, Kamloops, Trois Rivieres, and Lethbridge. All due to their diversified economies.

If the economy in New Brunswick ever comes back to a reasonable growth level, I'd expect Saint John rather than Moncton to be where the boom happens, because of the port, but who knows.

I honestly can't see Abbotsford having a highrise boom. Despite how delusionally utopian most Canadians see the Fraser Valley, everything east of Surrey is more conservative than anything you'd see in Alberta, and anything in the country outside of SW Ontario (namely my hometown - Woodstock - and areas along the Erie shore and inland towards Chatham). Abbotsford and Chilliwack are - by a significant margin - the most socially conservative metropolitan areas in the country. I would not expect any advancement in any field of urbanism there for a couple decades.

[Harrison]

Originally Posted by Chadillaccc

Back in 2013, Kelowna had sixteen towers ten storeys and above. It's certainly not a freshly brand new skyline. Even in 2013, eight of those towers were over ten years old.

Guelph will definitely not be joining the pack probably ever. Likely darkhorses are Oshawa, St. Catharines, Nanaimo, Kamloops, Trois Rivieres, and Lethbridge. All due to their diversified economies.

If the economy in New Brunswick ever comes back to a reasonable growth level, I'd expect Saint John rather than Moncton to be where the boom happens, because of the port, but who knows.

I honestly can't see Abbotsford having a highrise boom. Despite how delusionally utopian most Canadians see the Fraser Valley, everything east of Surrey is more conservative than anything you'd see in Alberta, and anything in the country outside of SW Ontario (namely my hometown - Woodstock - and areas along the Erie shore and inland towards Chatham). Abbotsford and Chilliwack are - by a significant margin - the most socially conservative metropolitan areas in the country. I would not expect any advancement in any field of urbanism there for a couple decades.

More socially conservative than Calgary even? Looking at the Federal Election results by riding, 52.5% was the lowest Conservative support for a Calgary riding (Calgary Skyview). For Abbotsford, the Cons won there with 51.4% of the vote and in Chilliwack-Hope they won with 49.6%.

I would expect suburban Calgary to be more socially conservative and anti-development than Abbotsford based on election results (Federal, Provincial and municipal), but that is just me looking at the statistics and not actually living there...

[Pavlov]

Originally Posted by Harrison

More socially conservative than Calgary even? Looking at the Federal Election results by riding, 52.5% was the lowest Conservative support for a Calgary riding (Calgary Skyview). For Abbotsford, the Cons won there with 51.4% of the vote and in Chilliwack-Hope they won with 49.6%.

I would expect suburban Calgary to be more socially conservative and anti-development than Abbotsford based on election results (Federal, Provincial and municipal), but that is just me looking at the statistics and not actually living there...

I don't think federal Conservative vote share is a very good measure for a community's social conservatism (especially in Calgary). There are many reasons why a person (and particularly a Calgarian) might vote for the federal Conservatives completely unrelated to social issues.

[scryer]

Originally Posted by Chadillaccc

I honestly can't see Abbotsford having a highrise boom. Despite how delusionally utopian most Canadians see the Fraser Valley, everything east of Surrey is more conservative than anything you'd see in Alberta, and anything in the country outside of SW Ontario (namely my hometown - Woodstock - and areas along the Erie shore and inland towards Chatham). Abbotsford and Chilliwack are - by a significant margin - the most socially conservative metropolitan areas in the country. I would not expect any advancement in any field of urbanism there for a couple decades.

I actually can see Abbotsford adopting a more progressive urban strategy (or atleast a more dense strategy) because they are sandwiched between the US border, the mountains, they have an international airport that restricts a lot of building around it, and I believe that there are agricultural lands that are protected as well. Truth be told: I can see a lot of other BC municipalities favour density over sprawl because BC has got such a difficult terrain to work with. In fact we are seeing this with Kelowna and Kamloops since it has a lot of similarities with Abbotsford in terms of land restrictions and populations. There was this development being proposed last summer that introduces a dense neighbourhood development around Abbotsford's historical district.

It also helps that Abbotsford has easy access to examples of successful dense planning just a stone's throw away. And we also have to keep in mind that the Expo line will eventually reach Langley so Abbotsford will essentially become the new "Langley" of the Metro Vancouver area with relatively close access to a rapid transit line that leads people into the province's biggest economic centre.

Do I think that there will be towers in Abbotsford? Yes, eventually. The geographic limitations are there and they have easy access to good urban planning. However I will say that if this were to ever be the future of Abbotsford that it would look totally different than the other municipalities since it has a lot of industrial lands in its core, and even with relatively close access to transit into downtown Vancouver (after the Expo line extends), it would still be a very long commute for people to embark on meaning that Abbotsford wouldn't serve the Metro Vancouver area as a bedroom community; it would need to continue to develop its own economic centre or serve as a bedroom community to Surrey.

All in all: I don't think that "conservatism" or any other political mindset has anything to do with it. In fact if I were to be more superficial about 'those who oppose dense developments', I would more likely point a blaming finger at older generations.

[Monolith]

Rain City by Kebbins, on Flickr

[logan5]

Jesus H Christ. Look at that. You got mountains, you got water, you got bridges, and you have a pretty good city scape. The best skyline on the planet!

[Black Star]

^^ Whooly fack.....

[Pavlov]

Originally Posted by logan5

Jesus H Christ. Look at that. You got mountains, you got water, you got bridges, and you have a pretty good city scape. The best skyline on the planet!

Easy, tiger. To begin with...

[esquire]

^ Sigh. Forever my favourite

[scryer]

Originally Posted by Monolith

Rain City by Kebbins, on Flickr

Great pic.

It does desperately show how Vancouver needs to continue to prioritize effective density outside of the downtown peninsula.