Great Canadian Skyline Thread II

[905er]

That Edmonton pic is an absolute stunner!!.. It's a shame there's an election sign on that bike though.. but nevertheless, great publicity shot for that candidate.

[MolsonExport]

Originally Posted by thomax

Sunset Over Hamilton, taken by DroneFate, posted by TourismHamilton, on Twitter

Nice shot

[Nouvellecosse]

Originally Posted by 905er

That Edmonton pic is an absolute stunner!!.. It's a shame there's an election sign on that bike though.. but nevertheless, great publicity shot for that candidate.

A shame? To me that adds to it! It's silly, quirky, and unexpected.

[Pavlov]

Originally Posted by rousseau

I probably shouldn't have used the word "chaotic." What I'm getting at is the wide range of styles in Toronto that bump up against each other due to how the city is evolving. Developers aren't turning empty fields into streets and streets of brownstone rowhouses like in Brooklyn 150 years ago, but are transforming Toronto by means of infill projects on a scale, and with an impact, that I don't think is happening anywhere else.

As much as Hong Kong is a teeming metropolis, there's not a whole lot of variety going on here (don't mean that as a value judgment).


https://www.google.ca/maps/@22.3185661,114.16808,570a,35y,39.25t/data=!3m1!1e3

Ah, I see understand what you're saying now. Makes sense.

[Martin Mtl]

Originally Posted by yaletown_fella

I agree that Toronto sorely lacks in prewar and classical midrise/highrise. And as a resident and classic architecture fan, Im very critical in this regard.

Although I would also argue that Toronto actually has the edge in sheer number of attractive upscale detached SFH inner-suburban neighbourhoods and punches above its weight in this regard, especially considering it was built so much later than Montreal and Brooklyn.

Have you been in Westmount, Outremont, Ville Mont-Royal, NDG ? The wealth of upscale sfh in these places is overwhelming. They were all build when Montreal was still the largest city in the country and it shows.

[Monolith]

Unit 131 Alexander Street Vancouver-39 by ONIKON Creative, on Flickr


Unit 803 1333 West 11th Avenue Vancouver-26 by ONIKON Creative, on Flickr

[TorontoDrew]

I wonder how long those rail loines will stay as is. They sit on some of the priciest reaestate in the country.

[giallo]

They may be buried, and operate underground in the distant future (that little downtown stretch of track), but they aren't going anywhere. That section of the city is an extremely busy part of the Port of Vancouver, and generates way more money than any land sale ever would.

[Monolith]

Originally Posted by TorontoDrew

I wonder how long those rail loines will stay as is. They sit on some of the priciest reaestate in the country.

What giallo said is so true. Also, the port is in the process of expanding the nearby terminal.

[Coldrsx]

It will most certainly be built over and upon.

[craner]

^ With some 700 footers (at least) I hope. Van skyline could really use some taller towers.

[TallBob]

Still waiting someday for Calgay to get a 900 footer.... might be a few years and it probably won't be an Office tower, unfortunately.

[giallo]

Originally Posted by craner

^ With some 700 footers (at least) I hope. Van skyline could really use some taller towers.

View cones are an almost unshakeable force at this point in time in downtown Vancouver. The cones are like Vancouver's version of the 2nd amendment.

I could happen, but I've given up hope. The suburbs are where all the height is going.

[itom 987]

If anyone showed me this photo in 2005 I would have had a hard time believing it was Edmonton.

Morning Ride by wanted to say hello, on Flickr

[Chadillaccc]

By me

[TorontoDrew]

View from the Island by A Great Capture, on Flickr

After the Rain by A Great Capture, on Flickr

DJI_0019 by Clement Lo, on Flickr

Downtown Toronto. by Bau Chinh, on Flickr

Untitled by amber dawn pullin, on Flickr

[WhipperSnapper]

905 sprawl on the north edges of the respective cities is the most chaotic thing happening in Toronto. High rises, stacked townhouses, midrises thrown around big box malls and fairly new tract subdivisions. Oshawa's tallest building is as close to farmland and as far away from the downtown as one can get.

See if it continues with a pro development province with eyes on the greenbelt

[yaletown_fella]

I do suspect the anti sprawl legislation was largely greenwashing to help further inflate the value of land of homeowners across the GTA through artificial scarcity. The artificial scarcity is also what skyrocketed the value of condos, because thats the vast majority of whats available in a high demand market. Entities like TREB have a lot of lobbying power. Ha there been a large supply of newly built SFH I suspect that even condos in the 416 would be a lot more reasonably priced.

Of course, the biggest problem is cheap money printing and low rates, but the artificial scarcity is a big reason why a condo in Oshawa is so much pricier than a condo in Buffalo.

[isaidso]

Originally Posted by Hali87

Another factor is the nature of the protected views themselves - they're public views looking downward from a hill that sits above Downtown. Contrast this with somewhere like Vancouver (protected public views, but mostly looking upward toward the mountains) or San Francisco (higher prioritization of downward/outward views from private spaces, ie. from inside buildings, which is conspicuously not-a-consideration here). The result in Halifax has been a lot of wide, squat towers at the bottom of a hill where a lot of other cities' view priorities would tend to encourage the opposite. Although there's a certain irony that so many buildings here have ended up so wide, ostensibly to protect views

I have mixed feelings about the Maritime Centre itself and it tends to look better from some angles than others. It contrasts nicely with the Maple, although for a long time it just stood resolutely on its own at that end of Downtown, giving a stark "edge of the continent" atmosphere that's less pronounced these days. I'm curious to see if it ends up getting fully reclad/refreshed.

I'd rather they just took the sucker down. The proportions and scale are the issue. A re-clad won't fix that. The Maritime Centre, Scotia Square, and those 70s apartment blocks over looking the naval shipyards are the 3 big developments Halifax got wrong.

[isaidso]

Originally Posted by rousseau

I probably shouldn't have used the word "chaotic." What I'm getting at is the wide range of styles in Toronto that bump up against each other due to how the city is evolving. Developers aren't turning empty fields into streets and streets of brownstone rowhouses like in Brooklyn 150 years ago, but are transforming Toronto by means of infill projects on a scale, and with an impact, that I don't think is happening anywhere else.

As much as Hong Kong is a teeming metropolis, there's not a whole lot of variety going on here (don't mean that as a value judgment).

I used to find the jumbled collision of architecture, scale, and quality jarring but my views have done a complete 180 the last 20 years. I now view it as Toronto's trump card. It might look messy and/or ugly compared to Haussmann's Paris but I've come to prefer it. In Toronto you never know what's around the next corner. Some times it's ugly but it's never dull. To my shock, I started finding Paris predictable and the repetitiveness almost insipid by Day 3.

When you become accustomed to a certain level of 'chaos' (for lack of a better word) you find anything less a tad boring. Some may think it mad to prefer Toronto to Paris .....but I do.