Future Canadian Skylines

[lio45]

Originally Posted by MTLskyline

How far from Downtown Sherbrooke is this?

2 km west of downtown's western boundary, about 3 km away from the "core" of downtown (Wellington Nord / City Hall).

Sherbrooke really still has only one downtown street (Wellington), it would be great to see this on a parallel street like rue des Grandes-Fourches along the Saint-François River.

IMO it would have been great to see this unit volume scattered all over downtown instead, filling up the many holes. 82 King O, King/Gordon, King/Peel, Belvedere/Montcalm, Frontenac/Goodhue (ex-Nettoyeur building), that quick list of five have all been vacant spots where developers have tried to build stuff in the past years. I'm not even counting the downtown holes where no one is going to build stuff (for example the parking at 310 King O ), that short list was only the vacant downtown lots where development projects are attempted and don't make it past the stage of the sign on site to show off the projected building...

[Innsertnamehere]

found this on Hariri Pontarini's website for the one yonge proposal, this is the biggest size I could find:


http://www.hariripontarini.com/proje...ial/01-1-yonge

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by lio45

2 km west of downtown's western boundary, about 3 km away from the "core" of downtown (Wellington Nord / City Hall).



IMO it would have been great to see this unit volume scattered all over downtown instead, filling up the many holes. 82 King O, King/Gordon, King/Peel, Belvedere/Montcalm, Frontenac/Goodhue (ex-Nettoyeur building), that quick list of five have all been vacant spots where developers have tried to build stuff in the past years. I'm not even counting the downtown holes where no one is going to build stuff (for example the parking at 310 King O ), that short list was only the vacant downtown lots where development projects are attempted and don't make it past the stage of the sign on site to show off the projected building...

Intéressant. I used to think Gatineau had by far the worst downtown of all of the cities in its "class" in Quebec (Gatineau, Trois-Rivières, Sherbrooke, Chicoutimi), but now I am thinking it might not be the case.

[lio45]

I would not really put Gatineau in the same "class" as Sherbrooke, Trois-Rivières, and Saguenay. IMO Longueuil (pop. 231 409 as of the time of the 2011 census) is a much better "city class"-match for it.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by lio45

I would not really put Gatineau in the same "class" as Sherbrooke, Trois-Rivières, and Saguenay. IMO Longueuil (pop. 231 409 as of the time of the 2011 census) is a much better "city class"-match for it.

Laval?

[caltrane74]

Originally Posted by Innsertnamehere

found this on Hariri Pontarini's website for the one yonge proposal, this is the biggest size I could find:


http://www.hariripontarini.com/proje...ial/01-1-yonge

Toronto's skyline is looking good. But it could certainly do with a bit more bulk.

[Ramako]

Originally Posted by caltrane74

Toronto's skyline is looking good. But it could certainly do with a bit more bulk.

Yeah, it's got a good spine going up the Bay-Yonge corridor, but some more towers on University, Church and Jarvis would help beef it up.

[lio45]

Originally Posted by Acajack

Laval?

Laval is super suburban with no downtown at all and is on the other, faraway side of the island compared to downtown Montreal. I think Longueuil is a much closer match.

(Not that it matters too much anyway... while you could say that Sherbrooke and Trois-Rivières are comparable, Gatineau has no real equivalent. Some things in Gatineau will be worse than expected for its size (because Ottawa supplies that for it) and other things will be better than expected for its size (because the size of the metro area allows it). Just like Longueuil. Sherbrooke has more universities, but Longueuil has much bigger residential towers.)

[Rico Rommheim]

Originally Posted by lio45

Just like Longueuil. Sherbrooke has more universities, but Longueuil has much bigger residential towers.)

And oddly enough, the University of Sherbrooke seems to have a bigger presence in Longueuil than it does in Sherbrooke.

[frenchcanadian3]

My addition to the thread. Sketch Up really adds easiness to making future skyline renders! http://www.flickr.com/photos/96619949@N08/
more are on the way, and i always try to improve.

[Innsertnamehere]

Tip: use google earth like me.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by lio45

Laval is super suburban with no downtown at all and is on the other, faraway side of the island compared to downtown Montreal. I think Longueuil is a much closer match.

For the new merged Gatineau, you are right. It has a mix of everything, sort of like Longueuil. And this would be even truer if St-Lambert had stayed with the merged Longueuil.

But anyway... maybe I was thinking of the ''old'' Gatineau, east of the Gatineau River. (Where I live.)

Whenever I go to Laval it always seems like a bigger version of it.

But yeah, the inclusion of Hull into Gatineau adds another dimension that is very similar to Longueuil, with an older historic but somewhat struggling central sector, close to the river's edge. Looking out to the bigger city across the water.

[lio45]

Originally Posted by Rico Rommheim

And oddly enough, the University of Sherbrooke seems to have a bigger presence in Longueuil than it does in Sherbrooke.

Actually IIRC the Sherbrooke facilities dwarf the Longueuil campus in every single possible aspect except "number of stories of the tallest building on site".

[isaidso]

Originally Posted by Ramako

Yeah, it's got a good spine going up the Bay-Yonge corridor, but some more towers on University, Church and Jarvis would help beef it up.

I've often pondered why I'm so impatient for buildings to shoot skyward despite the unprecedented boom. 10 years ago the skyline consisted of the CBD. New developments in Yorkville, City Place, and East Bayfront have pushed the boundary far further in every direction vastly increasing the geographic footprint.

The enlarged area looks undeveloped compared to the CBD. Mentally, it won't feel like it's come together till it all fills in. I suppose north American cities never look 'done' in the way European cities do, but Toronto more so than many other cities on this continent.

[travis3000]

The reason Toronto can look like it's not that full is due to the reason it has multiple skylines. It's not like Calgary or Vancouver or many other cities where all their tall buildings are clustered together. Toronto has North York skyline, then another cluster at Yonge & Eglington, another at Yonge & Bloor, then the downtown cluster which is finally merging with Southcore and Cityplace (which is why the most impressive skyline shot will always be from the island as it picks up all three of these areas), and then there's Etobicoke Lakeshore which is about to get a massive 750ft tower, and then there's random clusters at the 427, and then another whole massive skyline in Mississauga.

Toronto is massively spread out, the fact that we can say that our skyline is already one of the nicest in North America is amazing. And we also have more buildings u/c, planned, approved than any other city in Canada and in North America. Things are only going to get better and better over the next decade as hundreds of new buildings "fill in" the gaps.

[RyeJay]

Originally Posted by travis3000

Toronto is massively spread out, the fact that we can say that our skyline is already one of the nicest in North America is amazing. And we also have more buildings u/c, planned, approved than any other city in Canada and in North America. Things are only going to get better and better over the next decade as hundreds of new buildings "fill in" the gaps.

I wish only the best for Toronto, and want this building boom to continue, but let's wait and see what the markets do before we predict optimistic projections for construction into the next decade.

We don't know if the condo market will begin to correct itself with lower prices and lower construction starts, achieving a soft landing -- or if prices will continue rising and abruptly run out of willing buyers, and crash.

Despite that, Toronto likely has a bright future ahead of it with office towers; and rental towers will likely become more common as far as residential is concerned, pending what happens with the hot condo market.

[LeftCoaster]

Originally Posted by travis3000

The reason Toronto can look like it's not that full is due to the reason it has multiple skylines. It's not like Calgary or Vancouver or many other cities where all their tall buildings are clustered together. Toronto has North York skyline, then another cluster at Yonge & Eglington, another at Yonge & Bloor, then the downtown cluster which is finally merging with Southcore and Cityplace (which is why the most impressive skyline shot will always be from the island as it picks up all three of these areas), and then there's Etobicoke Lakeshore which is about to get a massive 750ft tower, and then there's random clusters at the 427, and then another whole massive skyline in Mississauga.

Huh? Vancouver has many skylines, probably nearly as many as Metro Toronto, and it's half the size.

[OTSkyline]

I love Toronto's Skyline but as mentioned it is pretty spread out.. Let's face it Mississauga's skyline with the Absolute World Towers alone are better than many other cities.

I just hope that Toronto will develop and construct more towers on the harbourfront or going from East-West. This will make a more dramatic impact and better looking skyline from the lake (as that is where more of the TO skyline shots are taken anyways). Now the development all along Young makes it long and thin and so looking from the lake a lot of that skyline is hidden anyways.

[caltrane74]

The condo market is cooling dramatically. There were times in the boom, when 3000 new (unbuilt) units would be sold in a month. Those days, are over, and I think going forward we will be lucky to see 900 to 1000 brand new units sold per month. This is actually a twofold decrease in part due to builders bringing supply off the market, and selling what they have in inventory, and also a fact that the market is just less now than it was in the past.

I don't doubt that in a few years time, the market for condos will get hot again, but we will likely never every see 27,000 brand new condo units sold in a single year ever again. That number is just mindboggling.


__________

I think that the Yonge and Bloor (Yorkville Skyline) is now just part of the downtown Toronto skyline. It use to be a skyline unto itself, but now with Aura, and the Bay Street Towers it has morphed into one giant mega skyline, which will be triple peaked, with College Park (Aura), Central Business District (FCP) and Yonge and Bloor (One Bloor/Holts)

[travis3000]

Originally Posted by LeftCoaster

Huh? Vancouver has many skylines, probably nearly as many as Metro Toronto, and it's half the size.

I don't know why I typed in Vancouver. Vancouver is a poor example.