Building Boom Set to Vault Toronto Past Chicago in Skyscraper Rankings

[Steely Dan]

i feel that these two shots simply must be posted in any chicago/toronto skyline thread.



The Great Lakes: we may have long cold winters, but at least we grow our cities really damn tall!



https://www.flickr.com/photos/erocketship7/44618201742



ACV_1464 by photolitherland, on Flickr

[Maldive]

LOL Steely... the grey (gray) shot looks bigger ;-)

Who cares if T.O. can catch Chicago. Quality of life, new builds that address the street... obvious considerations.

[Maldive]

P.S. think we should twin the cities and celebrate both towns.

Eg. Scrapers aside, Chi-town Second City was wisely? appropriated in Toronto (and Edmonton) yielding a comic legacy unmatched in TV and live history.

[CherryCreek]

Toronto truly amazes me and definitely has every chance of becoming North America's second city, if it isn't already there. The growth and dynamism of that city is crazy. I couldn't abide the weather, but credit where is credit is due in building such an enviable urban fabric!

[PFloyd]

Originally Posted by Maldive

P.S. think we should twin the cities and celebrate both towns.

Eg. Scrapers aside, Chi-town Second City was wisely? appropriated in Toronto (and Edmonton) yielding a comic legacy unmatched in TV and live history.

Chicago is already a Sister City of Toronto

[jd3189]

Originally Posted by lio45

Montreal could potentially act as a relief valve (after all, it used to be what Toronto now is) but it's not likely, in the current and future political context. (Not necessarily a bad thing.)

Probably for immigrants from Francophone countries, although I’ve heard Montreal has a sizable English community and increasing that would only strengthen the bilingual legacy of the city and country as a whole.


Toronto’s growth is amazing, but it doesn’t have to be Canada’s sole largest city. A few other towns could take some of the fire.

[JAYNYC]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

i feel that these two shots simply must be posted in any chicago/toronto skyline thread.

From these two perspectives, Toronto's skyline appears to be twice as large as Chicago's already.

[PFloyd]

Originally Posted by CherryCreek

Toronto truly amazes me and definitely has every chance of becoming North America's second city, if it isn't already there. The growth and dynamism of that city is crazy. I couldn't abide the weather, but credit where is credit is due in building such an enviable urban fabric!

You sound like a reasonable person

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by PFloyd

Chicago is already a Sister City of Toronto

i'm a little surprised that i didn't already know that, but sure enough, it's true.

cool.

[softee]

This recent pic shows even more of the Skyline than the one posted above by Steely: From A Distance by Franklin McKay, on Flickr

[Razor]

^ Real cool shots of both Chicago and Toronto. 2 non coastal world class cities thanks to the ice age.

[Steely Dan]

^^ wow, what a shot!

but that's some RIDICULOUS telephoto zoom going on.

it makes lake ontario look like it's only a few miles wide.

in reality, it's ~30 miles wide at toronto.

[samne]

Originally Posted by softee

This recent pic shows even more of the Skyline than the one posted above by Steely: From A Distance by Franklin McKay, on Flickr

Judging by the vineyards, thats from somewhere Niagara Region. The entire "Golden Horshoe" in one shot!

[wg_flamip]

Originally Posted by CherryCreek

Toronto truly amazes me and definitely has every chance of becoming North America's second city, if it isn't already there. The growth and dynamism of that city is crazy. I couldn't abide the weather, but credit where is credit is due in building such an enviable urban fabric!

By some metrics, New York is already North America's second city. Even if you don't buy that, I'd find it hard to argue Mexico City doesn't blow LA, Chicago, Toronto at al. out of the water by a long shot.

[suburbanite]

Those two across the Lake pics show Chicago's peaks very well. Not only does the city have the legacy architecture, but also its monuments from a time when building a skyscraper was a point of pride and less of an institutionalized affair. It's hard to imagine someone building a Sears Tower nowadays. Owning an iconic office building isn't really a productive use of capital and better left to the pension funds to build and lease out.

Toronto has its memorials from this time as well with the legacy bank towers, they're just scaled down given the relative size of the countries and their corporate base. Unfortunately for skyline fans, despite the building boom, the sweet spot for new office construction is in the 200m-250m range and we're unlikely to get anything that stands out among the sea of condos. Good projects no doubt, but nothing that can anchor a skyline like the beasts in Chicago.

[softee]

Originally Posted by suburbanite

Those two across the Lake pics show Chicago's peaks very well. Not only does the city have the legacy architecture, but also its monuments from a time when building a skyscraper was a point of pride and less of an institutionalized affair. It's hard to imagine someone building a Sears Tower nowadays. Owning an iconic office building isn't really a productive use of capital and better left to the pension funds to build and lease out.

Toronto has its memorials from this time as well with the legacy bank towers, they're just scaled down given the relative size of the countries and their corporate base. Unfortunately for skyline fans, despite the building boom, the sweet spot for new office construction is in the 200m-250m range and we're unlikely to get anything that stands out among the sea of condos. Good projects no doubt, but nothing that can anchor a skyline like the beasts in Chicago.

There are two 300+ metre office proposals (3 if you include one with a spire), hopefully at least one of them will get built within the next 5 years.

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by suburbanite

Unfortunately for skyline fans, despite the building boom, the sweet spot for new office construction is in the 200m-250m range

chicago hasn't built an office tower over 250m in 30 years. and even back when chicago did build really tall office towers, it only ever built 6 that stood above 250m:

sears
aon
franklin center
2 pru
311 s wacker
chase plaza



however, over the past decade+ chicago has built 7 residential/hotel towers above the 250m threshold, including two that are now the city's 2nd and 3rd tallest respectively.

so there's hope.

[suburbanite]

Originally Posted by softee

There are two 300+ metre office proposals (3 if you include one with a spire), hopefully at least one of them will get built within the next 5 years.

The new Commerce Court would barely stand out in that lake pic. Even less so if all the waterfront condos come to fruition.

It's also a terrible proposal so it can stay in purgatory as far as I'm concerned.
Something like East Harbour would do wonders more for the city than adding another 2 million SF of office space in an already saturated location.

[craigs]

Originally Posted by wg_flamip

By some metrics, New York is already North America's second city.

By which metrics?

[wg_flamip]

Originally Posted by craigs

By which metrics?

Population would be the big one.