Skyline Growth in Your City since the 1960s

[Yuri]

Originally Posted by CaliNative

While the tallest may not be especially tall, S.P. has a huge number of buildings in the 20-35 floor range. A vast dense hi rise core.

Indeed. If we use this 400ft (122m), then São Paulo must have hundreds. It’s impossible to count really.

But note the 2 intruders on the Top 5, made previously from buildings of the 1940’s-1960’s. It seems São Paulo is finally thinking of building higher.

———————————————

About Calgary, even though transformation was impressive and very welcomed, the streets seems way too wide. Despite all the density, they don’t feel cosy.

[Nite]

Winnipeg


1960 - 0
1970 - 1
1980 - 1
1990 - 2
2000 - 2
2010 - 2
2020 - 2
2022 - 3 (includes 1 U/C)

[Nite]

Burnaby

1960 - 0
1970 - 0
1980 - 0
1990 - 0
2000 - 0
2010 - 0
2020 - 9
2022 - 38 (includes 19 U/C)

Metrotown Skyline - Burnaby


Brentwood Skyline - Burnaby


Lougheed Skyline - Burnaby

[MAC123]

Damn what happened in Burnaby in the last 3 years?

[Nite]

Surrey

1960 - 0
1970 - 0
1980 - 0
1990 - 0
2000 - 0
2010 - 0
2020 - 3
2022 - 10 (includes 5 U/C)

[Innsertnamehere]

Originally Posted by CaliNative

Skyscraper construction in most Canadian cities has far surpassed that in most American cities of similar size. Why? Is financing easier? Zoning more easy? Less nimbyism? Do Canadians like skyscraper living more?

Even by Canadian standards Calgary is impressive - Ottawa and Edmonton are almost identical in size and their skylines are a fraction of the size.

Why Canada outperforms the US on skyscraper construction - I think it mostly has to do with more residential construction and better transit systems which more easily support high densities (i.e. less need to build extremely expensive mega-parking decks).

Toronto's major office buildings getting built right now basically have 0 parking in them, like 1-200 spaces for 1.5 million sf of office space. A similar size building in Houston or LA would probably have 3,000+ spaces. Most residential buildings getting built in Toronto have less than 1 parking space for every 4 or 5 units, and increasingly, 0 residential spaces (only spaces for visitors and contractors / deliveries). These lower ratios are also common even in mid-sized cities, if not quite as extreme.. even in Hamilton, a city of only about half a million people, new apartments going up downtown often have parking ratios of 1 space for every 2 or 3 units.

Makes it A LOT cheaper to build. There also isn't cultural stigmas against apartments and public transit nearly to the extent that there is in most parts of the US, which leads to more demand for apartment units.

[iheartthed]

Originally Posted by MAC123

I'd want to see this for NYC, but I wouldn't know where to find accurate info.

According to SSP's database, this is the count of +400' towers completed in NYC per decade since 1960:

1960: 52
1970: 60
1980: 82
1990: 38
2000: 61
2010: 90
2020-2022: 28

And Jersey City:

1960: 0
1970: 0
1980: 1
1990: 5
2000: 8
2010: 14
2020-2022: 5

[iheartthed]

Originally Posted by Innsertnamehere

Even by Canadian standards Calgary is impressive - Ottawa and Edmonton are almost identical in size and their skylines are a fraction of the size.

Why Canada outperforms the US on skyscraper construction - I think it mostly has to do with more residential construction and better transit systems which more easily support high densities (i.e. less need to build extremely expensive mega-parking decks).

Toronto's major office buildings getting built right now basically have 0 parking in them, like 1-200 spaces for 1.5 million sf of office space. A similar size building in Houston or LA would probably have 3,000+ spaces. Most residential buildings getting built in Toronto have less than 1 parking space for every 4 or 5 units, and increasingly, 0 residential spaces (only spaces for visitors and contractors / deliveries). These lower ratios are also common even in mid-sized cities, if not quite as extreme.. even in Hamilton, a city of only about half a million people, new apartments going up downtown often have parking ratios of 1 space for every 2 or 3 units.

Makes it A LOT cheaper to build. There also isn't cultural stigmas against apartments and public transit nearly to the extent that there is in most parts of the US, which leads to more demand for apartment units.

It's due to Canada's stricter land use policies.

[mousquet]

It's quite simple over here in Paris. You just take a look at the list of tallest buildings:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...and_structures

Except for the Eiffel Tower that's not a building, but an experimental structure to show off French engineering in 1889, nothing to exceed 100m (300+ ft) dates prior to the late 1960s.

Of course there was no 'pre-war' skyscraper here. Even though France invented Art Deco, local buildings of that style are in the 5-10 stories range.

In a nutshell, Paris had no so called skyline before the 1960s. It was pretty much all mid-rise buildings.

[iheartthed]

Originally Posted by Nite

Toronto buildings over 400ft

1960: 2
1970: 7
1980: 20
1990: 26
2000: 33
2010: 58
2020: 154
2022: 228 (includes 59 U/C)

What source did you use? This differs quite a bit from SSP's database for Toronto:

1960: 3
1970: 17
1980: 5
1990: 8
2000: 20
2010: 89
2020-2022: 27

[Wigs]

Originally Posted by Altoic

To be honest I thought the same thing.

Glad I wasn't the only one

[Klippenstein]

Originally Posted by iheartthed

What source did you use? This differs quite a bit from SSP's database for Toronto:

1960: 3
1970: 17
1980: 5
1990: 8
2000: 20
2010: 89
2020-2022: 27

I think he's listing them cumulatively and if it was built in one decade only adding it to the following decade as if the count was taken in the first year of the decade. It's a little confusing as noted by others. Whereas you're listing the number built during the specific decade presumably. The numbers seem pretty similar if you understand the method.

[iheartthed]

Originally Posted by Klippenstein

I think he's listing them cumulatively and if it was built in one decade only adding it to the following decade as if the count was taken in the first year of the decade. It's a little confusing as noted by others. Whereas you're listing the number built during the specific decade presumably. The numbers seem pretty similar if you understand the method.

Yeah, I thought about that after I posted. That makes sense.

[Innsertnamehere]

Originally Posted by iheartthed

It's due to Canada's stricter land use policies.

stricter regs aren't universal across Canada though. Calgary is known in Canada for being extremely sprawling, yet it maintains a significant downtown residential and commercial population.

Same thing with cities like Ottawa and Edmonton.

Apartments are more common in Canada basically regardless of city size, location, income, and regulatory context. Even small, 20-30,000 person cities with very low land use regulations see regular apartment building construction.

Land Use regs definitely influence it in places like Toronto and Vancouver, but it's ultimately based on, in my opinion:

1. slightly lower average incomes
2. greater acceptance of public transit
3. lower parking rate requirements on average, dropping construction costs
4. greater acceptance of apartment living
5. different finance structures which more easily enable financing of large-scale apartment projects

[Nite]

Originally Posted by Klippenstein

I think he's listing them cumulatively and if it was built in one decade only adding it to the following decade as if the count was taken in the first year of the decade. It's a little confusing as noted by others. Whereas you're listing the number built during the specific decade presumably. The numbers seem pretty similar if you understand the method.

exactly

[JManc]

Originally Posted by Innsertnamehere

Why Canada outperforms the US on skyscraper construction

Canada is damn cold that developers build tall buildings so people can live closer to the sun. I thought this was common knowledge

[Nite]

Originally Posted by Innsertnamehere

Even by Canadian standards Calgary is impressive - Ottawa and Edmonton are almost identical in size and their skylines are a fraction of the size.

Why Canada outperforms the US on skyscraper construction - I think it mostly has to do with more residential construction and better transit systems which more easily support high densities (i.e. less need to build extremely expensive mega-parking decks).

Toronto's major office buildings getting built right now basically have 0 parking in them, like 1-200 spaces for 1.5 million sf of office space. A similar size building in Houston or LA would probably have 3,000+ spaces. Most residential buildings getting built in Toronto have less than 1 parking space for every 4 or 5 units, and increasingly, 0 residential spaces (only spaces for visitors and contractors / deliveries). These lower ratios are also common even in mid-sized cities, if not quite as extreme.. even in Hamilton, a city of only about half a million people, new apartments going up downtown often have parking ratios of 1 space for every 2 or 3 units.

Makes it A LOT cheaper to build. There also isn't cultural stigmas against apartments and public transit nearly to the extent that there is in most parts of the US, which leads to more demand for apartment units.

Downtown Ottawa and Edmonton are under strict height limits.
with the closure of Edmonton downtown airport a few years ago, the height limit was removed and immediately Edmonton built the tallest building in Canada outside of Toronto.

.

I expect a lot of new taller towers in Edmonton going forward, not that it has a bad skyline already or anything



As for Ottawa, it's downtown still has a strict height limit but outside of downtown,. it's tallest are now being built


but Downtown Ottawa is still incredibly dense

[DCReid]

Originally Posted by iheartthed

What source did you use? This differs quite a bit from SSP's database for Toronto:

1960: 3
1970: 17
1980: 5
1990: 8
2000: 20
2010: 89
2020-2022: 27

Does Toronto beat Dubai? I'm too lazy to count but assume Dubai is #1.

[MAC123]

Originally Posted by DCReid

Does Toronto beat Dubai? I'm too lazy to count but assume Dubai is #1.

In what exactly? Buildings over 400 ft ? Pretty sure that's Hong Kong.

[Metro-One]

Originally Posted by MAC123

Damn what happened in Burnaby in the last 3 years?

To be honest it just seemed to have hit critical mass. There have been many towers in these areas since the 70s, but we’re always in the 200 to 350ft range.