The Great Canadian Skyline Thread!

[softee]

Originally Posted by logan5

Upon further review, Toronto has a long ways to go to catch up to Chicago. Chicago has 72 buildings that are at least 550 ft. Toronto only has 23. Toronto's clearly #3 though. Not too shabby!

Isaidso made this list for a thread on SSC, buildings are measured to roof height:

Toronto (Not including Mississauga)

100-199m
Built: 180
Under Construction: 49
Proposals: 113

200-299m
Built: 13
Under Construction: 8
Proposals: 17

300m+
Built: 0
Under Construction: 0
Proposals: 3


Chicago

100-199m
Built: 276
Under Construction: 9
Proposals: 25

200-299m
Built: 23
Under Construction: 2
Proposals: 6

300m+
Built: 4
Under Construction: 0
Proposals: 3

[Nouvellecosse]

Wow, great idea guys! We've never had a Toronto vs Chicago discussion before; why didn't I think of that??

[scrapin]

Can't wait to see what Toronto will look like in 5 years from now once all the massive U/C and legit proposals get built, from those shots TO already looks great.

[WhipperSnapper]

Originally Posted by Dr Awesomesauce

Interesting you showed St James Town. I wonder if in 25-30 years we won't view CityPlace in much the same way we view St James Town today.

This makes absolutely no sense. Communities have nothing in common. Why 25 years when it took St Jamestown less than five to become what it is.

[WhipperSnapper]

99% are in Chicago's core skyline. Can't say the same for Toronto. Don't think I've seen 550 feet used before.

Originally Posted by softee

Isaidso made this list for a thread on SSC, buildings are measured to roof height:

Toronto (Not including Mississauga)

100-199m
Built: 180
Under Construction: 49
Proposals: 113

200-299m
Built: 13
Under Construction: 8
Proposals: 17

300m+
Built: 0
Under Construction: 0
Proposals: 3


Chicago

100-199m
Built: 276
Under Construction: 9
Proposals: 25

200-299m
Built: 23
Under Construction: 2
Proposals: 6

300m+
Built: 4
Under Construction: 0
Proposals: 3

[Chadillaccc]

http://robmosesphotography.com/2015/02/18/water-like-ice/

http://robmosesphotography.com/2015/04/04/a-photo-of-taking-a-picture/

[mcminsen]

A downtown Vancouver shot I got today looking east on Georgia Street.


April 25 '15, my pic

[craner]

^Fantastic photo!!

[Dr Awesomesauce]

Originally Posted by WhipperSnapper

This makes absolutely no sense. Communities have nothing in common. Why 25 years when it took St Jamestown less than five to become what it is.

Cheers for the amazing response.

Merely pointing out that St James Town (two words) is a dense, highrise community that was meant to house single, middle-class types. Nothing in common? Seems quite similar to me.

[isaidso]

Wonderful Vancouver photo!

Regarding that table I put together. All I can say is that it would be nice if some people did their homework before weighing in. Yes, Toronto has tons of high rises outside the core but if one actually took the time to pour over the data it would become quickly evident that very few of them are over 100m. That's roughly a 32 floor condo building btw. To put things into perspective, Emerald Park East, one of North York's tallest buildings is only 127m roof height. Emerald Park West only barely squeaks in at 101m roof height.

The totals I compiled would be lower if one only counted the core, but not by as much as some are implying. About 85% of Toronto's 100m+ buildings are in the core. Just saying!

(Sorry for derailing the thread.)

[isaidso]

Originally Posted by Mrs Sauga

Wow seeing Winnipeg right after Hamilton is such a contrast. Though both are similar populations, Winnipeg looks like its on an entirely different level.

Apart from Toronto and Ottawa, Ontario cities quite consistently look and feel small for their size relative to other cities in Canada. That Winnipeg has a downtown baseball stadium and Hamilton does not sums up the phenomenon quite well.

Rather than build up the assets of one's own city, places in Ontario don't bother and just rely on Toronto for a wide array of things. Why try to attract your own baseball team when you can just see the Jays in Toronto. Why try to build your airport up when you can just drive to Pearson? Why build a big museum when you can just drive to Toronto to the ROM? Windsor, Hamilton, KW, Oshawa, St. Catherines/Niagara all do this.

I understand the rationale but the long term effects of it are cities that punch way below their weight. Victoria and Halifax are the same size (or smaller) than these Ontario cities but look and feel much bigger than any of them.

[WhipperSnapper]

Originally Posted by Dr Awesomesauce

Cheers for the amazing response.

Merely pointing out that St James Town (two words) is a dense, highrise community that was meant to house single, middle-class types. Nothing in common? Seems quite similar to me.

Toronto has 1500 residential high rises (two words). Dense high rise communities are commonplace.

St James Town was built by a consortium of developers that targeted middle class types but, unlike Cityplace, it never actually attracted them. Revenues never met expectations and the community quickly developed into what it is today. Several of the developers went bankrupt. St Jamestown North never materialized. Cityplace is a regulated condo community with standardized budgets to prevent what has transpired to early condo communities in the suburbs which have become worthless due to their location and mismanagement of funds.

The two communities really couldn't be any more different.

[WhipperSnapper]

Originally Posted by isaidso

Wonderful Vancouver photo!

Regarding that table I put together. All I can say is that it would be nice if some people did their homework before weighing in. Yes, Toronto has tons of high rises outside the core but if one actually took the time to pour over the data it would become quickly evident that very few of them are over 100m. That's roughly a 32 floor condo building btw. To put things into perspective, Emerald Park East, one of North York's tallest buildings is only 127m roof height. Emerald Park West only barely squeaks in at 101m roof height.

The totals I compiled would be lower if one only counted the core, but not by as much as some are implying. About 85% of Toronto's 100m+ buildings are in the core. Just saying!

(Sorry for derailing the thread.)

I don't need to do my homework. I built these databases. I was referring to high rises in general. Even a 15 storey tower adds to the skyline particularly in these overhead views. North York Centre has a 100 metre limit. There may not be a lot of building that extend far above it but, there are a lot that hover around it.

[north 42]

Originally Posted by isaidso

Apart from Toronto and Ottawa, Ontario cities quite consistently look and feel small for their size relative to other cities in Canada. That Winnipeg has a downtown baseball stadium and Hamilton does not sums up the phenomenon quite well.

Rather than build up the assets of one's own city, places in Ontario don't bother and just rely on Toronto for a wide array of things. Why try to attract your own baseball team when you can just see the Jays in Toronto. Why try to build your airport up when you can just drive to Pearson? Why build a big museum when you can just drive to Toronto to the ROM? Windsor, Hamilton, KW, Oshawa, St. Catherines/Niagara all do this.

I understand the rationale but the long term effects of it are cities that punch way below their weight. Victoria and Halifax are the same size (or smaller) than these Ontario cities but look and feel much bigger than any of them.

We have Detroit for all those things, as we are a part of the Greater Detroit Area, and we don't really rely on Toronto for anything except Pearson. Plus we have our own airport and museum and art gallery in Windsor. I'd much rather be living in a city that is surrounded by many other cities than be isolated like Victoria and Halifax are.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by north 42

We have Detroit for all those things, as we are a part of the Greater Detroit Area, and we don't really rely on Toronto for anything except Pearson. Plus we have our own airport and museum and art gallery in Windsor. I'd much rather be living in a city that is surrounded by many other cities than be isolated like Victoria and Halifax are.

I kind of see it as a double-edged sword. Because of the proximity to Ottawa, there are a number of things that my city of Gatineau doesn't have that a city with 100,000 fewer people like Sherbrooke does have.

On the other hand, we do have more than we'd have if Ottawa and Gatineau were in the same province, as certain things are provincially run.

But even so, through arrangements with the Quebec government our children's hospital requirements are handled by Ottawa's CHEO (although some services are also dispensed at Ste-Justine in Montreal) and our civil law faculty is at the University of Ottawa even though that code of law isn't even used in Ontario.

[MonkeyRonin]

Originally Posted by Dr Awesomesauce

Cheers for the amazing response.

Merely pointing out that St James Town (two words) is a dense, highrise community that was meant to house single, middle-class types. Nothing in common? Seems quite similar to me.

People like to make the City Place-St. Jamestown comparison because they share certain structural similarities, but that only works if you view the neighbourhoods in a vacuum and ignore their contextual economic, cultural, and migratory conditions.

Jamestown was built in a period of urban decline & suburban expansion - important to remember that it wasn't the only neighbourhood to experience that, even the now in-demand Victorian neighbourhoods that surround it did too. People didn't want high-rise apartments downtown, they wanted single-family homes in the suburbs.

City Place on the other hand is being built in a time where anything approximating urban living and proximity to the core is in high demand, and where land values have risen to the point that single-family homes are no longer a viable alternative for most people. At this point, if it went the way of Jamestown (which if it ever did happen, would be for reasons of building maintenance rather than undesirability of the location or apartment living) that'd actually be a good thing - we could do with more affordable housing downtown.

[MonkeyRonin]

Originally Posted by isaidso

Apart from Toronto and Ottawa, Ontario cities quite consistently look and feel small for their size relative to other cities in Canada. That Winnipeg has a downtown baseball stadium and Hamilton does not sums up the phenomenon quite well.

Rather than build up the assets of one's own city, places in Ontario don't bother and just rely on Toronto for a wide array of things. Why try to attract your own baseball team when you can just see the Jays in Toronto. Why try to build your airport up when you can just drive to Pearson? Why build a big museum when you can just drive to Toronto to the ROM? Windsor, Hamilton, KW, Oshawa, St. Catherines/Niagara all do this.

I understand the rationale but the long term effects of it are cities that punch way below their weight. Victoria and Halifax are the same size (or smaller) than these Ontario cities but look and feel much bigger than any of them.

Keep in mind that cities like Winnipeg and Victoria and Halifax feel as big as they do because they serve the same role that Toronto does for their regions. The natural effect of being the hub city of a region is that services, amenities, and people will gravitate to that centre at the expense of the city's hinterland. Similarly, that's why a city like Yellowknife will feel bigger than a similarly sized town in say, Halifax or St. John's orbit, just as Halifax or St. Johns will feel bigger than a city of that size in Toronto's orbit, or why Toronto will feel bigger than a city of its size in Shanghai's.

[Beedok]

Originally Posted by isaidso

Apart from Toronto and Ottawa, Ontario cities quite consistently look and feel small for their size relative to other cities in Canada. That Winnipeg has a downtown baseball stadium and Hamilton does not sums up the phenomenon quite well.

Rather than build up the assets of one's own city, places in Ontario don't bother and just rely on Toronto for a wide array of things. Why try to attract your own baseball team when you can just see the Jays in Toronto. Why try to build your airport up when you can just drive to Pearson? Why build a big museum when you can just drive to Toronto to the ROM? Windsor, Hamilton, KW, Oshawa, St. Catherines/Niagara all do this.

I understand the rationale but the long term effects of it are cities that punch way below their weight. Victoria and Halifax are the same size (or smaller) than these Ontario cities but look and feel much bigger than any of them.

Hamilton has a few museums and whatnot, just not much in the skyline area. Also in Windsor's case I think Detroit is making the bigger impact. Then London and Northern Ontario seem to be fine. It's mostly just the Horseshoe that has a Toronto influence.

[Martin Mtl]

#mtl #mtlphoto #montreal by wswskk on Flickr


The colored version
by Pierre-Luc G. on Fickr


Different Angle by Pierre-Luc G. on Fickr

[Chadillaccc]

Great shots!