Great Canadian Skyline Thread II

[J.OT13]

Hull in the foreground and Ottawa across the river. Based on tower cranes in Ottawa, I would date this 2021.


https://www.ledroit.com/2022/09/06/centr...nt-deja-cee5f05842eac1f9d444068514e759a3

[WhipperSnapper]

Mississauga vibe

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by WhipperSnapper

Mississauga vibe

Oh yeah?

This is what it looks like at street level:

https://www.google.com/maps/place/93+Rue...4931a754c!8m2!3d45.4314204!4d-75.7138932

[WhipperSnapper]

Posting a random snapshot of street level doesn't change my opinion that the image reminds me of Mississauga.

[Hali87]

Originally Posted by J.OT13

What cities have height restrictions?

- Montreal to protect views of Mount Royal;
- Downtown Ottawa to protect the dominance of Parliament;
- Vancouver to protect views of the mountains.

Does Halifax have height restrictions? Any other city?

There are 3 main sets of height/building envelope restrictions in Halifax:

- Viewplanes: these are a bunch of sightlines between specific points on Citadel Hill and specific points in the Harbour, adopted in the 1970s. Buildings aren't allowed to "intrude" into these, vertically or horizontally. This is how the Maritime Centre (big grey waffle-shaped building) ended up at such a weird angle relative to the street grid.

- The Ramparts Bylaw: no buildings located outside the Citadel's walls should be visible from [a specific point inside the central courtyard of the Citadel]. This is not quite the same as saying no new buildings can be taller than the Citadel, because the effective limit changes based on the distance from the Citadel. Also adopted in the 1970s. This is why there are no obvious peaks in the main skyline from most angles.

- Newer urban design policies re: sunlight penetration etc: there are a lot of street- or site-specific envelope restrictions that are intended to preserve sunlight penetration and mitigate wind on certain high streets like Spring Garden. These are based around ratios between street width and streetwall/podium height, with any towers having to be set back by a certain distance/proportion, and usually with maximum heights related to the street width and/or block depth. This approach also seems to also be used in much of Victoria's downtown and parts of Vancouver (Granville St. comes to mind).

Edit: these all tend to apply downtown much more than in other parts of the city/metro. The region's tallest existing building is in the South End, the tallest U/C are in the North and West Ends, and the tallest proposals are in Dartmouth.

[WhipperSnapper]

Every city has (shadowing) height restrictions and view cones

Montreal has a geodetic height limit as tall as their hill. Ottawa is confused as having one.

Richmond, BC is probably the strictest of them all. It has a geodetic height limit of 47 metres (often confused as a building height limit) A building 2 metres above sea level has a maximum height of 45 metres.

[Rico Rommheim]

Originally Posted by Acajack

Oh yeah?

This is what it looks like at street level:

https://www.google.com/maps/place/93+Rue...4931a754c!8m2!3d45.4314204!4d-75.7138932

That looks like Longueuil, actually.

[harls]

Originally Posted by Rico Rommheim

That looks like Longueuil, actually.

Nah, we only got a couple of mean stroads here.

That parking lot next to the McDonalds needs something, post haste.

[The Great Scaper]

Originally Posted by J.OT13

What cities have height restrictions?

- Montreal to protect views of Mount Royal;
- Downtown Ottawa to protect the dominance of Parliament;
- Vancouver to protect views of the mountains.

Does Halifax have height restrictions? Any other city?

Victoria has had crazy height restrictions. Up till about 20 years ago I believe it was only 10 stories. Then they relaxed it to 14 for a narrow strip of land between Douglas and Blanchard Street and again only 10 stories for a neighborhood called Harris Green. Now it's 19 stories I believe between Blanchard and Douglas Streets. How ever they've approved and built 25 and 23 stories buildings but because the developer restored the old Hudson Bay Building. It will be interesting to see in the Harris Green Neighborhood there's a 5 tower proposal which the tallest is being proposed at 32 stories. There's also a 32 story proposal in Vic West. I'm really hoping that Victoria will break the 30 story height limit one of these days. With housing prices being some of the highest in Canada and such a lack of supply I think they will approve these developments.

[Rico Rommheim]

MGLX cars by Michael Berry, on Flickr


Out of the port by Michael Berry, on Flickr


Montréal by Dominic Hains, on Flickr


_LIO5371 by Amalia Liogas, on Flickr

[Martin Mtl]

Photo: @bernardbrault


Photo: @bernardbrault


Photo: @bernardbrault


Photo: @bernardbrault

[biguc]

Originally Posted by The Great Scaper

Victoria has had crazy height restrictions. Up till about 20 years ago I believe it was only 10 stories. Then they relaxed it to 14 for a narrow strip of land between Douglas and Blanchard Street and again only 10 stories for a neighborhood called Harris Green. Now it's 19 stories I believe between Blanchard and Douglas Streets. How ever they've approved and built 25 and 23 stories buildings but because the developer restored the old Hudson Bay Building. It will be interesting to see in the Harris Green Neighborhood there's a 5 tower proposal which the tallest is being proposed at 32 stories. There's also a 32 story proposal in Vic West. I'm really hoping that Victoria will break the 30 story height limit one of these days. With housing prices being some of the highest in Canada and such a lack of supply I think they will approve these developments.

Victoria has two restored Bay buildings downtown?

I was wondering what was up with that taller building out by the arena. I guess the height limits are kind of flexible in Victoria outside of the immediate downtown.

[Innsertnamehere]

Montreal looking like a beast in those shots. Now if only a building could break through the height limit.

[WhipperSnapper]

The height limit is tall enough (considered very tall when I joined the forum ) to create a dynamic skyline with peaks and valleys and prevent that dreaded table top look. That's attainable than trying to break through the height limit however arbitrary with something in the 250 metre range. The current downtown skyline already blocks much of the view from the top of the hill and the view above the tallest downtown towers is of a flat landscape with a few distant hills. I guess sunrise and sunset could be spectacular.

[kool maudit]

Two buildings that I always thought would do well in the Montreal skyline, were it to abandon its height limit, are Hong Kong's Bank of China and Seattle's Columbia Seafirst.

A scaled-down Ping An Centre at maybe 320m would be a good peak as well.

[WhipperSnapper]

That Seattle tower would be at home in Toronto. I think Cleveland's tallest would compliment Montreal.

[Innsertnamehere]

Also - Hamilton has a height limit of 24-30 storeys in the downtown, depending on the site. Very similar to Montreal's, it's based on the height of the adjacent escarpment.

Unlike Montreal's, it's actually quite low. Basically every single tower of the ~40 towers proposed and under construction in the downtown are maxed right up to the height limit, with a handful peaking a few metres above.

[harls]

Originally Posted by Rico Rommheim

Saskatchewan - I'm Wide Open.

I like it.

I can't see any way that this can be misinterpreted. Scott Moe, get on it.

[MolsonExport]

Wootsville

[J.OT13]

Thanks for the responses on height restrictions in other parts of Canada. I do wish we could soften those restrictions in certain places, even if it's just a corner of downtown or whatever it might be. It feels like the cure (height restrictions) is sometimes worse than the disease (taller towers), often resulting in densely packed buildings that restrict sunlight and cause wind tunnel effects. At least, that seems to be largely the case in Ottawa.