Canadian Skyline Thread III

[WhipperSnapper]

I strongly disagree that the Dolly Parton building drowned out by drab, forgettable, boxes is the best thing from the boom. They are setting new height records and this is a skyline thread.


All things considered, the listing price is meaningless. There have been $1 listings that have sold for many millions.

[craner]

Originally Posted by Biff

Pffft...when is Toronto gonna start to build some real buildings? It is getting a healthy table-top looking skyline - an 800' tabletop albeit.


Great angle TorontoDrew.

Ha - that’s actually a legitimate gripe - although at least there are some valleys between the 800’ tabletop clusters.

Very cool location you shot those from TD.

[scrapin]

TorontoDrew always coming through with the great pics!

When is Toronto gonna build a 400 meter skyscraper?

[TorontoDrew]

Originally Posted by WhipperSnapper

I strongly disagree that the Dolly Parton building drowned out by drab, forgettable, boxes is the best thing from the boom. They are setting new height records and this is a skyline thread.


All things considered, the listing price is meaningless. There have been $1 listings that have sold for many millions.

That Dolly Parton building might be my favorite high-rise in the city.

[MolsonExport]

Originally Posted by scrapin

TorontoDrew always coming through with the great pics!

Second that.


I want to bike out to the end of that peninsula, except I don't live in Toronto.

[MolsonExport]

Originally Posted by Wigs

Probably one of the best things about Kitchener's high-rise boom is that this building doesn't standout like it used to

The good old days:



Source: Flar

[kwoldtimer]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

The good old days:



Source: Flar

Too bad the twin was never built,

[TorontoDrew]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

Second that.


I want to bike out to the end of that peninsula, except I don't live in Toronto.

It's a nice ride when it's not too windy. It's roughly a 12km loop to the tip and back. It's interesting to see how nature is taking over on the remnants of a city's structures and its infrastructure.

Where do other Canadian cities send their cleanfill?

A little History in images. (images sourced from, https://tommythompsonpark.ca, https://payload.cargocollective.com)

1972


1978


1979


1980


1982


1985


1994


1998


2005


The city has been actively planting native vegetation over the years and has let mother nature do it's thing. The vast majority of trees got there through natural sources, seed carried by wind, water, and birds. Does anybody know how big the spit will get?

2020


Right now, all the beaches are just old bricks, stones, and other remnants of the city, but I'm hoping the plan is to turn them into real beaches one day. These would be beaches used mostly by downtown residents with bikes, and would not get as busy as those used by daytrippers from the burbs like Woodbine Beach.

I'm not sure if any of you watched that show Life After People, but it's kind of like that over there. You get a glimps of how mother nature can recycle almost all signs of human development in just a few decades.




View of the city from the rubble strewn tip of Leslie Street Spit by Phil Marion (238 million views), on Flickr

[MolsonExport]

^Super interesting photo history.

I had no idea it was (largely) man-made (rather like much of Ile Ste. Helene and all of Ile Notre-Dame, in Montreal, to create land for Expo 67...Back when Montreal thought big)









Source: https://ville.montreal.qc.ca/memoire...-cite-du-havre

[TorontoDrew]

I just watched a documentary on this, pretty interesting.

[Wigs]

What a monumental effort Expo '67 was. My Dad was lucky to attend as a 17 year old.
It seems like the late 60s Montréal was at its zenith? New subway, flashy skyscrapers, some groundbreaking architecture, arguably the most successful world's fair of the 20th century.

[WhipperSnapper]

Hardly clean infill. Don't think standards were as high in the 1970s. Dredging from the mouth of the Don River has been dumped in containment ponds built in the 1980s on the right side of the peninsula. The smallest pond on the upper right in 1995 is filled in by 2020. The second pond is now filled in too. No surprise; that shit is polluted

[MolsonExport]

Originally Posted by Wigs

What a monumental effort Expo '67 was. My Dad was lucky to attend as a 17 year old.
It seems like the late 60s Montréal was at its zenith? New subway, flashy skyscrapers, some groundbreaking architecture, arguably the most successful world's fair of the 20th century.

My Dad met my mom in '67 and took her there (Expo 67) on a few dates. Married her in '68; I came along in '69.

My dad loved talking about Expo 67. He's long gone now.

Montreal's zenith was 1967. Skyscrapers going up everywhere (had the second tallest skyline in NA for a period in the mid sixties). The metro came on line. Expo. Superhighways and underground expressways. Canada's centennial.

But clouds were forming. That asshole de Gaulle shat on Canada during our birthday (vive le Quebec Libre) from Montreal City Hall). By 1968, the FLQ had dramatically ramped up its terrorism. In 1970, we had the so-called October crisis. In 1976, the Parti Quebecois swept to power, and nearly every house in my neighbourhood went up for sale (including ours, but we couldn't sell, so luckily, I grew up in Montreal). The Olympics nearly bankrupted the city, and the unfinished, unloved Big Owe was a gaping reminder of Montreal's relative stagnation. 1980 was the first Quebec referendum. Montreal had two nadir periods in my life: late 70s-late 80s, and mid to late 90s (lead up and aftermath of the second referendum).

I almost miss outsiders telling me how things were in Montreal during my lifetime.

[ScreamingViking]

Originally Posted by TorontoDrew

I'm not sure if any of you watched that show Life After People, but it's kind of like that over there. You get a glimps of how mother nature can recycle almost all signs of human development in just a few decades.




View of the city from the rubble strewn tip of Leslie Street Spit by Phil Marion (238 million views), on Flickr

I loved Life After People. And those shots look like the "beach" is covered in sugary breakfast cereal.

I'd think Lake Ontario's processes will make short work of it all.

[ScreamingViking]

Originally Posted by WhipperSnapper

Hardly clean infill. Don't think standards were as high in the 1970s.

And a lot of "problems" were solved in those fills.

Much of the industrial lands along Hamilton Harbour were built on fill. I'm sure the police would find a treasure-trove of old bones and such in the layers beneath the surface, nevermind the inevitable barrels of unknown toxic substances.

[ScreamingViking]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

I almost miss outsiders telling me how things were in Montreal during my lifetime.

So New Brisavoine is actually missed?

[Architype]

Originally Posted by ScreamingViking

I loved Life After People. And those shots look like the "beach" is covered in sugary breakfast cereal.

I'd think Lake Ontario's processes will make short work of it all.

That's a delightful picture, "Lake Oncheerio"?

[ScreamingViking]

Originally Posted by Architype

That's a delightful picture, "Lake Oncheerio"?

Good one.

The beach looks like Fruit Loops. Maybe that should be its name.

[WarrenC12]

Great pictures. If I'm not mistaken the Montreal F1 Grand Prix, happening as we speak, is entirely on Ile Notre-Dame.

[zoomer]

Excellent Toronto and Montreal shots including Rico's on the previous page. That Toronto 'beach' is crazy, great vantage point and point of interest itself, lol.

So if Expo 67 was the zenith for Montreal, what was/is it for Toronto? Still to come? What about Vancouver? Easy to say Expo 86, but was that just the tipping point to a peak that occured around 2010 or despite challenges is it getting better and moving towards a zenith in the next decade or two? In terms of urban experience I would like to think that most if not all Canadian cities are moving forward although for many a zenith in this regard would have been before they became autocentric.