The Great Canadian Skyline thread for CMAs 1 million and under

[LFC]

An interesting angle through the Vineyards in Kelowna, it really gives the downtown core a very dense vibe, looking pretty impressive for a city of 150,000.



photo credit: https://www.reddit.com/r/kelowna/com...from_tantalus/

[SignalHillHiker]

Beautiful, LFC!

[MonctonRad]

Kelowna fascinates me.

One of my favourite medium sized cities in the country (although I have never visited there). I might come this summer.

[LFC]

Originally Posted by SignalHillHiker

Beautiful, LFC!

Some very cool angles from the southern slopes towards downtown Kelowna, u/Scoobybaker on reddit captured this shot well.

Heres a photo looking back towards the winery of Tantulus Hills from where the photo would have been taken, to give some neat perspective on the topography and grapevine area.



https://www.jancisrobinson.com/janci...n%20Talbot.jpg

[P'tit Renard]

Originally Posted by Kilgore Trout

There's a lot of potential though. It's a very linear urban area, so if you revamped the old E&N tracks into a kind of interurban tram-train running from Nanaimo Airport up to Qualicum Beach, you'd have a chance at creating a proper city.

Agreed that Nanaimo has a lot of potential. If Nanaimo can work on building pedestrian friendly multiplex and midrise neighbourhoods to connect to this envisioned interurban, it could become a highly attractive and desirable Côte D'Azur type destination like Nice and Cannes. Same for Kelowna.

[someone123]

Originally Posted by P'tit Renard

Agreed that Nanaimo has a lot of potential. If Nanaimo can work on building pedestrian friendly multiplex and midrise neighbourhoods to connect to this envisioned interurban, it could become a highly attractive and desirable Côte D'Azur type destination like Nice and Cannes. Same for Kelowna.

It is single track with in places small setbacks and at-grade crossings. I always thought Nanaimo was underrated too (I go there multiple times a year and to Victoria once a year or so) but on the other hand Vancouver Island has a turbo version of the retiree mindset and outsized political focus that afflicts all of Canada. The infrastructure is basic and undersized there and you see a lot of resistance to change. There is a debate to be had about how to develop beautiful natural areas around Vancouver Island, the Gulf Islands, etc. but I think it's too far in the BANANA direction with many areas essentially being preserves for longtime residents.

Parts of Nanaimo are also like the DTES in that they have major social malaise and it is hard to develop them even though prices have shot up. You can buy a $600,000 inner city house and there will be ambulances and police coming and going, theft, vandalism, and sometimes violent crime. It's been like that for decades.

[ssiguy]

Nanaimo has something that Kelowna lacks........character. Kelowna reminds me of a classic McCity.......instant city just add foreign money. Nanaimo has a real history, character, and a sense of place that I find lacking in Kelowna. I find Nanaimo {and Kamloops for that matter} a real city and Kelowna I have always viewed as little more than a large collection of houses and strikes me as a city version of a dumb blond........beautiful on the outside and nothing in the middle. Maybe unfair but that's how I have always viewed the two.

As far as skylines go, I think Windsor is underrated.

[MolsonExport]

Originally Posted by LFC

An interesting angle through the Vineyards in Kelowna, it really gives the downtown core a very dense vibe, looking pretty impressive for a city of 150,000.



photo credit: https://www.reddit.com/r/kelowna/com...from_tantalus/

Wow, that is totally awesome

[Metro-One]

Originally Posted by LFC

An interesting angle through the Vineyards in Kelowna, it really gives the downtown core a very dense vibe, looking pretty impressive for a city of 150,000.



photo credit: https://www.reddit.com/r/kelowna/com...from_tantalus/

Nice! Is that your pic? Are you still “helping out” on the wine harvest

While the city proper is 150 000, the urban area is over 230 000 now I think.

[Metro-One]

In Keeping with BC, this new video of mine has a lot of skyline shots of Vancouver, Victoria and Kelowna. Most of them were taken this year via drone.

A new video of mine exploring the variety of film locations throughout southern B.C. Besides the movie clips all the shots are my own taken over the last few years:

• Video Link

[Wigs]

The framing and colours of that Kelowna shot is top notch

[Bobert]

Originally Posted by ssiguy

Nanaimo has something that Kelowna lacks........character. Kelowna reminds me of a classic McCity.......instant city just add foreign money. Nanaimo has a real history, character, and a sense of place that I find lacking in Kelowna. I find Nanaimo {and Kamloops for that matter} a real city and Kelowna I have always viewed as little more than a large collection of houses and strikes me as a city version of a dumb blond........beautiful on the outside and nothing in the middle. Maybe unfair but that's how I have always viewed the two.

As far as skylines go, I think Windsor is underrated.

Kelowna has had a reputation as a university party city and summer getaway location for Vancouverites as long as I can remember. A nice local summer spot with fun activities and attractions for most age groups.

Then there's this....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dj0kWQPPBis

[905er]

Originally Posted by Bobert

Kelowna has had a reputation as a university party city and summer getaway location for Vancouverites as long as I can remember. A nice local summer spot with fun activities and attractions for most age groups.

Then there's this....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dj0kWQPPBis

OMG that video... the cringe factor. LOL

[MolsonExport]

Originally Posted by Bobert

Kelowna has had a reputation as a university party city and summer getaway location for Vancouverites as long as I can remember. A nice local summer spot with fun activities and attractions for most age groups.

Then there's this....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dj0kWQPPBis

[giallo]

There's so much wrong in this one paragraph that I don't even know where to start.

I don't know why I keep falling for your bait, but your view of Kelowna is so ignorant and outdated, I feel like I have to say something as someone who grew up there, and goes back often.

I'd love for you to share how foreign money has made Kelowna into the insta-city it is today. Do tell.

Originally Posted by ssiguy

Nanaimo has something that Kelowna lacks........character. Kelowna reminds me of a classic McCity.......instant city just add foreign money. Nanaimo has a real history, character, and a sense of place that I find lacking in Kelowna. I find Nanaimo {and Kamloops for that matter} a real city and Kelowna I have always viewed as little more than a large collection of houses and strikes me as a city version of a dumb blond........beautiful on the outside and nothing in the middle. Maybe unfair but that's how I have always viewed the two.

As far as skylines go, I think Windsor is underrated.

[someone123]

I like Kelowna and it has a beautiful and unusual setting. It is one of the most constrained cities in Canada though, maybe the most ecologically sensitive/challenging. It's got the lake, with the 1 bridge, the hills that are prone to forest fire, and then the flat areas that are already either developed or are protected agricultural land. I'm not sure how livable it would be if it had 500,000 people or something like that.

[giallo]

Originally Posted by someone123

I like Kelowna and it has a beautiful and unusual setting. It is one of the most constrained cities in Canada though, maybe the most ecologically sensitive/challenging. It's got the lake, with the 1 bridge, the hills that are prone to forest fire, and then the flat areas that are already either developed or are protected agricultural land. I'm not sure how livable it would be if it had 500,000 people or something like that.

Kelowna's future infrastructure woes are going to be massive. I'm not sure how the city will sustain future growth without rezoning the entire valley to low and midrise densities. If it's going to continue to grow within the valley, the city/region really needs to start thinking about a reliable transit system. Most of the growth is happening in the hills and mountains now, and the roads leading in and out of them are already getting choked during rush hour.

Unfortunately, nothing is in the pipeline atm. I think the infrastructure issues are so large and costly that no one wants to even bother to try and doing something about it.

[ScreamingViking]

Originally Posted by ssiguy

As far as skylines go, I think Windsor is underrated.

I totally agree. While Detroit being just across the river does provide advantages, it dominates Windsor's skyline. And I doubt many Canadians spend enough time on the Michigan shoreline to look back at The Rose City.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windsor,_Ontario

One thing I've always loved about Windsor is how so much of its waterfront was kept as parkland, especially just about everything between the distillery and the Ambassador Bridge. I'm old enough to remember when train tracks filled much of that space, and I have no idea if the rail companies still own that land, but when the rails were ripped out something very different could have resulted.

[905er]

Originally Posted by ScreamingViking

I totally agree. While Detroit being just across the river does provide advantages, it dominates Windsor's skyline. And I doubt many Canadians spend enough time on the Michigan shoreline to look back at The Rose City.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windsor,_Ontario

One thing I've always loved about Windsor is how so much of its waterfront was kept as parkland, especially just about everything between the distillery and the Ambassador Bridge. I'm old enough to remember when train tracks filled much of that space, and I have no idea if the rail companies still own that land, but when the rails were ripped out something very different could have resulted.

Windsor is almost completely overshadowed by the Detroit skyline which is much much taller. If Detroit wasn't just across the way, Windsor's skyline would probably get a little more attention or love. It can definitely use one or two taller signature towers though.

[GlassCity]

Originally Posted by giallo

Kelowna's future infrastructure woes are going to be massive. I'm not sure how the city will sustain future growth without rezoning the entire valley to low and midrise densities. If it's going to continue to grow within the valley, the city/region really needs to start thinking about a reliable transit system. Most of the growth is happening in the hills and mountains now, and the roads leading in and out of them are already getting choked during rush hour.

Unfortunately, nothing is in the pipeline atm. I think the infrastructure issues are so large and costly that no one wants to even bother to try and doing something about it.

This is obviously the case, at various scales, for many communities in BC. It's interesting that Kelowna has quietly been one of the most development-happy cities in Canada with their various zoning reforms, despite the real challenges you note. It seems obviously true to me that places like Kelowna can very well grow to significantly larger sizes if a focus on efficiency is maintained, both in terms of land use (apartments becoming the standard building form) and transportation (focusing the majority of growth along areas that can be feasibly served by rapid transit, and investing in this transit) but this would not only be a radical departure from the way it's developed so far but from the standard North American MO, especially in cities of its size. Something's gonna have to give at some point though, where things either change or the city hits capacity in its current form.