Great Canadian Skyline Thread II

[le calmar]

Haha true! It does have/will have an impressive skyline for a city its size.

[Rico Rommheim]

Coming up on next week's episode of SSP : ... Sherbrooke vs Winnipeg

Which city has got the best 'legacy skyline'?

[MolsonExport]

By themselves, tall buildings don't change the pedestrian experience at the street level, unless you are looking up (I recall my first trip to NYC in the mid 80s, and I really hurt my neck after spending so much time looking up....also tripped over many curbs because I was not looking where I was going). The ubiquitous blue glass curtain walls at street level are kryptonite for the downtown urban fabric.

[J.OT13]

Another Ottawa shot, this time Dow's Lake. Debate!

Originally Posted by qprcanada

Crane is up.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/WrfeUwVMB1QmSqTP6

[Rico Rommheim]

If only downtown Ottawa could get a coupe taller buildings to punch past its tabletop skyline, it would then finally get the respect and admiration of the international community.

"Hey look Tohiro, a new 120m tower on the famous Metcalf street!! Look how it creates a sense of awe by breaking what I perceive is the monotony of the tabletop skyline! - You are correct Akira, let's hurry back to Japan and tell everyone that Ottawa, the grand capital of Canada, has now got a skyline worthy of praise!

[ScreamingViking]

Originally Posted by J.OT13

Another Ottawa shot, this time Dow's Lake. Debate!

I would have guessed that is Kelowna.

[ScreamingViking]

Originally Posted by Larch

(taken dec 10/21)

Ham-Bump.

[JHikka]

Originally Posted by Metro-One

Man, Kelowna gets no breaks, it suddenly went from being thought of as a nothing of interest town to being disparaged for not being as urban as Spokane (an urban area nearly three times in size) and now Ottawa! (an urban area five times it’s size!!!)

Welcome to the big leagues.

[TorontoDrew]

Originally Posted by AuxTown

Love Ottawa's informal patios.

[905er]

Originally Posted by TorontoDrew

Love Ottawa's informal patios.

So much class in one photo

[MolsonExport]

Originally Posted by 905er

So much class in one photo

What's for dinner honey? Roasted boots, dear!

And of course the poopoo party of Canada has a tent nearby.

[ue]

Originally Posted by Harley613

I'm not sure if you are being melodramatic, or facetious or you just haven't been to Ottawa. Ottawa's legacy skyline (Google is about 5 years behind) vs. Kelowna's legacy skyline don't even compare. If you compare current and future developments the disparity is even more dramatic. The screencap here of Ottawa doesn't even include new TOD in Little Italy and the countless highrises dotting the inner greenbelt like Westboro, Tunney's Pasture, Lees Avenue and Riverside. Also, Ottawa doesn't have hard height limits outside of specific narrow viewplanes protected by the NCC and is in no way comparable to DC.

Ottawa by harley613, on Flickr

Kelowna by harley613, on Flickr

I'm being a bit melodramatic, but I have been to Ottawa, and while it's a nice city, with good neighbourhoods and museums, etc, for the topic of this thread, skylines, Ottawa falls short due to its pointless height limit Downtown. I'm well aware of the Dows Lake and Bayview towers that will be far, far taller than anything else in the Ottawa region, and that's great to see for breaking the monotony overall, BUT it's not going to change that Downtown core skyline. It's still going to be a bunch of stubby, table top blocks that blend in to each other. If not for Parliament and Laurier, Ottawa would have an unrecognizable skyline, with no clear focal point.

Downtown to Downtown, the new construction in Kelowna makes their skyline appear more interesting and dynamic, and it helps that not everything is the same height. Obviously Ottawa is doing new and exciting things re: skyline development OUTSIDE the core, but I don't see anything groundbreaking in the core itself.

[J.OT13]

In Ottawa's core, the only project that will have a slight impact on the table top and provide a new, modern focal point of interest is this M+M proposal.

400 Albert St | 78/98/116m | 23/29/35f

Two shortest towers have broken ground. Construction on the 35 fl tower, which will be the tallest in the core, beating Place de Ville C (29 floors, 112 meters) as per Harley's post #19112, has not begun yet.

[ue]

^ It's nice, but there's many nice buildings in Downtown Ottawa. Although a bit bland feeling like CBDs often do, at street level, Downtown Ottawa is fine. It's walkable and has decent scale. The point of this thread is skylines, though, and in that regard, Ottawa's skyline is a paltry excuse for a capital city in its size range (look at Edmonton and Calgary). A sleek, new, exciting tower that's merely 4m taller than the previous tallest, is not going to shake things up. The only way you're going to see anything change is for buildings at least 20-30m taller than the table top (so 130-150m tall, if not more) in the few remaining emptier lots to be built. But that's not going to happen because of a useless height limit.

[TorontoDrew]

Originally Posted by 905er

So much class in one photo

Such a diverse cross section of Canada as well. Thank God those freedom fighters are out there fighting for our freedom. They disserve a statue, maybe even a holiday.

[905er]

Originally Posted by TorontoDrew

Such a diverse cross section of Canada as well. Thank God those freedom fighters are out there fighting for our freedom. They disserve a statue, maybe even a holiday.

LOL ..give those losers a National Holiday. Bunch of pathetic degenerates.

Back to skylines.. Ottawa needs something in the range of 150m in the CBD to break up the stubbiness.. I just don't get the height limits. 150m isn't even all that tall by most larger Canadian city standards.

[WhipperSnapper]

I don't care for the height limit (assuming it's some arbitrary number than based on shadowing) or that the skyline can hold a ten course meal for giants. Ottawa has many complete high rise blocks in part to built square footage being distributed evenly. The goofy height limit, IMHO, was a positive effect until now.

[Harley613]

Originally Posted by ue

^ It's nice, but there's many nice buildings in Downtown Ottawa. Although a bit bland feeling like CBDs often do, at street level, Downtown Ottawa is fine. It's walkable and has decent scale. The point of this thread is skylines, though, and in that regard, Ottawa's skyline is a paltry excuse for a capital city in its size range (look at Edmonton and Calgary). A sleek, new, exciting tower that's merely 4m taller than the previous tallest, is not going to shake things up. The only way you're going to see anything change is for buildings at least 20-30m taller than the table top (so 130-150m tall, if not more) in the few remaining emptier lots to be built. But that's not going to happen because of a useless height limit.

Once again, there is no general 'height limit' and there hasn't been since Campeau built Place de Ville in the late 60's. This is a myth that has been propagated for decades. There are only protected view planes that protect the prominence of Parliament from certain angles and are administered by the National Capital Commission. These view planes only cover a small portion of the core of the city. Aside from that there are continually updated community design plans by the City of Ottawa that suggest maximum heights for each area of the city, but those are not hard height limits and have always been flexible.

https://publications.gc.ca/collectio...3-2007-eng.pdf

Views by harley613, on Flickr

[itom 987]

Ottawa's height limit is just as stupid as the height limits in Montreal and Vancouver.
Using a height limit to be vain and not winning anyone over.

[Rico Rommheim]

Ottawa is building towers 40, 50 and 60+ floors tall. They're just not downtown. I don't see a problem here. I don't see how a 50 floor condo tower will help Ottawa's downtown aesthetics.