Canadian Skyline Thread III

[cranes]

Kitchener

https://www.realtor.ca/real-estate/2...view=imagelist

[WhipperSnapper]

On the market for 204 days. Let's get our pennies together and offer 75 cents! We can own a development ... until the loan sharks come a calling for their $100 million

[Architype]

View of Brentwood Burnaby


my photo Jul 01 2024

[MonkeyRonin]

https://urbantoronto.ca/news/2024/06/misty-veil.56248


https://urbantoronto.ca/news/2024/07/view-private.56413

[GeneralLeeTPHLS]

(Toronto, I took this from Wards Island a couple hours ago)
Warding Away by Josh Kennington Photographics, on Flickr

[Martin Mtl]

A little blurry, but I like how it shows Montreal's layers.


https://x.com/Montreal/status/179435...206011/photo/1

[hipster duck]

Originally Posted by MonkeyRonin

Great shot! New York, Chicago and Toronto are the only cities in North America that have vistas like this.

I like how there's 4 clear layers of progressively taller structures:

There's the midrise-to-low highrise foreground from Moss Park to about Church Street, where buildings are 100 meters or lower.

Then there's the 30-50 storey layer from Church St. to the eastern side of the financial district where the buildings are in the 150-200 meter range.

Then there's the financial district bank towers that are in the 200-290 meter range.

And, finally, topping it off, there's the CN tower lording over everything else.


Most North American skylines have one, maybe, two of these layers.

[FrAnKs]

[Harley613]

Hot Take: Ottawa is on track to have far and away the longest nearly continuous skyline in Canada, and nothing else even comes close aside from Yonge St. A little over 21kms is being built/planned over the next 10 years. There are also impressive nodes planned for outer areas in Orleans, Kanata, Barrhaven, and Riverside South that are not in this image. Ottawa has always had the weakest skyline of the major cities, but it's rapidly becoming one of the heavy hitters with one of the most unique skylines in North America.



The entire width of Calgary


Nearly the width of Edmonton

Downtown Vancouver to South Westminster


Montreal from Lasalle to the East End


Toronto from the Lake to the 401

[TorontoDrew]

Originally Posted by FrAnKs

What are all those little grass covered mounds?

[Pavlov]

Originally Posted by Harley613

Hot Take: Ottawa is on track to have far and away the longest nearly continuous skyline in Canada, and nothing else even comes close aside from Yonge St. A little over 21kms is being built/planned over the next 10 years. There are also impressive nodes planned for outer areas in Orleans, Kanata, Barrhaven, and Riverside South that are not in this image. Ottawa has always had the weakest skyline of the major cities, but it's rapidly becoming one of the heavy hitters with one of the most unique skylines in North America.

I appreciate the enthusiasm, but that ain't a skyline.

[Zeej]

Yeah sorry, not a continuous skyline. Great to see Ottawa filling in though!

[Nouvellecosse]

Originally Posted by Pavlov

I appreciate the enthusiasm, but that ain't a skyline.

I'm surprised it took so long for anyone to say something.

[J.OT13]

Yeah, I might say longest continual area with occasional tower clusters, but not quite a continuous skyline. I think Vanier to Lincoln Fields could arguably be called a continuous skyline in 10-20 years, so 12 kilometers. That still arguably beats every other Canadian City but Toronto. What we lack in height (which will be less bad outside the traditional downtown), we make up in density and spread.

[kool maudit]

Ottawa's "skyline" doesn't only lack height. It lacks meaning.

Actually, that's not true. The skyline formed by Parliament Hill, the Supreme Court, the Chateau Laurier etc. has a meaning. It is a glyph pointing to the story of Confederation, of Canada and of the institutions we have made.

This enormous, abstracted line of third-rate office blocks, investor condos and what probably are elderly care homes or similar once you get down to the smaller blocks... that's nothing. That is just aggregated life. It doesn't cohere into anything and it isn't a symbol of anything.

[niwell]

Originally Posted by kool maudit

Ottawa's "skyline" doesn't only lack height. It lacks meaning.

Interesting take and actually vibes with my experience moving to Ottawa from Calgary wayyy back in 2001. I'd never visited before and when first navigating the city it was quite jarring to see clumps of highrises everywhere but no big defining cityscape outside the Parliament area (which was rarely visible when based out of Carleton University). Took me a while to get my bearings and figure out where downtown actually *was* when taking buses to various locations. I was quite familiar with Toronto which had highrises everywhere but where it's always pretty clear where the focal point is.

Don't get me wrong, it was pretty cool seeing these developments way outside of the downtown but it's not what one pictures when thinking of a "traditional" North American skyline. FWIW I was much more impressed with the neighbourhoods outside downtown which I wasn't used to in comparison to Calgarly.

[Acajack]

I think the story's been told a few times before on here that with the federal government as the main client for office buildings there is a huge downward push on design and architectural quality as the feds don't want to be seen as splurging on fancy Ottawa digs with the money of Canadians from across the country.

Of course there is a lot of office space in Ottawa not occupied by the feds but the basic mindset still permeates the entire commercial real estate market in the city.

Whereas in other cities where private corporations dominate there is more of an impetus to make a powerful statement with a nice HQ building.

[kool maudit]

It may well be good urbanism, and I have nothing against highrises or TOD or densification or whatever else. But the skyscraper skyline is a specific thing, and at its best it has connotations that are analogous to the spires and domes of Rome signaling Christendom, or the minarets of Istanbul and so on.

In Canada, Toronto came into its supremacy as a cluster of enormous, powerful banks surmounted by a towering communications spire (Owen Pallett's "prince of buzz"). It says something. It's more than the sum of its parts.

Can a line of random hospitals, modest office blocks, condominiums and whatever else speak similarly? Ottawa is our federal capital and that is its role and meaning. It might also build itself into an attractive city through skilled planning, but it's hard to consider the consequent lump of aggregate density as a "heavy-hitting" skyline when it says so little about the purpose of this place.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by kool maudit

It may well be good urbanism, and I have nothing against highrises or TOD or densification or whatever else. But the skyscraper skyline is a specific thing, and at its best it has connotations that are analogous to the spires and domes of Rome signaling Christendom, or the minarets of Istanbul and so on.

In Canada, Toronto came into its supremacy as a cluster of enormous, powerful banks surmounted by a towering communications spire (Owen Pallett's "prince of buzz"). It says something. It's more than the sum of its parts.

Can a line of random hospitals, modest office blocks, condominiums and whatever else speak similarly? Ottawa is our federal capital and that is its role and meaning. It might also build itself into an attractive city through skilled planning, but it's hard to consider the consequent lump of aggregate density as a "heavy-hitting" skyline when it says so little about the purpose of this place.

With scant few exceptions, Ottawa seemingly renounces any visions of capital-esque aesthetics a mere block away from the Parliament Buildings and its immediate neighbours.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by kool maudit

It may well be good urbanism, and I have nothing against highrises or TOD or densification or whatever else..

It's not even "good urbanism". Better urbanism that what was being done before, perhaps.