Great Canadian Suburban Skyline Thread!

[Monolith]

Metro Vancouver

Pinecone Burke Provincial Park by clearbrook4, on Flickr

[someone123]

Originally Posted by Acajack

But if you want stuff that is really nice like a pool or tennis courts you're looking at 1000 a month or more.

Really? Mine has a pool, hot tub, gym, etc. and it's around $400 a month. We have security on site too. The condo fees include gas but not much else. This is a larger complex. The value is actually really good. The fees cover maintenance for the building envelope so stuff like painting, roofing, and window cleaning is covered in addition to landscaping.

The most challenging cost has been insurance which has been ballooning in BC.

I do know some people who pay exorbitant condo fees in Ontario ($1,000+), although they are in pretty nice buildings.

When I look at moving into a detached house it's a pretty hard sell. I'd have to pay $400,000-500,000 extra to get something worth moving into. The cost of a nice house in many markets. It would be nice to own the land (which in an urban setting will remain valuable even if the house burns down) and not have the strata risk though (you never know what ridiculous stuff they will do, and opposing even stuff they aren't supposed to do can be a big PITA).

[Monolith]

North Vancouver
North Shore Night by Clayton Perry, on Flickr

[Klazu]

Brentwood (Burnaby) skyline today and 7 years ago.

[Metro-One]

Great contrast. I remember Brentwood impressing me back in 2013! Now it must look amazing driving westbound along the #1 before Willingdon.

[Coldrsx]

Do 2003-2013-2020... anyone got a pic?

[dreambrother808]

Originally Posted by Metro-One

Great contrast. I remember Brentwood impressing me back in 2013! Now it must look amazing driving westbound along the #1 before Willingdon.

Yes, it looms large from that perspective and has a small downtown vibe.

[Klazu]

Originally Posted by Coldrsx

Do 2003-2013-2020... anyone got a pic?

Sorry, but my time living here only goes back to 2012, so I don't have any earlier photos. I doubt that the difference would be as noticeable, as the pace of development in the last few years has been relentless and it's only going to continue. Brentwood in 10 years will be almost unrecognizable from the 2020 shot as so many new towers will fill all the gaps...

[giallo]

Thanks for the pics and comparison, Klazu.

[SpongeG]

Metrotown as seen from West Coquitlam

2020-04-27_08-06-53 by snub_you, on Flickr

[LeftCoaster]

^^ Metrotown still holding steady as my favourite suburban skyline in the country.

Big increases for areas like Mississauga and Brentwood but Metrotown, especially given its location at the top of a ridge, still reigns supreme IMO.

[WhipperSnapper]

Metrotown's pedestrian experience is far nicer than Mississauga too. I liked Coquitlam too. It is/was only a few blocks.

[logan5]

Originally Posted by WhipperSnapper

Metrotown's pedestrian experience is far nicer than Mississauga too. I liked Coquitlam too. It is/was only a few blocks.

Metrotown is not great, but I guess with miss’s huge roads, it’s even worse than Metrotown. Coquitlam has done a decent job of creating a cohesive tower neighbourhood, amp bough the mix of retail is terrible. The scenery around Coquitlam centre is pretty nice, so that helps the pedestrian experience.

[someone123]

Originally Posted by logan5

Metrotown is not great, but I guess with miss’s huge roads, it’s even worse than Metrotown. Coquitlam has done a decent job of creating a cohesive tower neighbourhood, amp bough the mix of retail is terrible. The scenery around Coquitlam centre is pretty nice, so that helps the pedestrian experience.

Metrotown is poorly set up today, although that is more due to a sequence of old planning decisions rather than a single cohesive bad plan.

One problem is that the SkyTrain runs along Central Blvd, not through the mall or along Kingsway. Kingsway is a traffic sewer. The mall itself is inwardly focused and is designed to ensnare shoppers, so it's not a good pedestrian hub for the area. Large-scale commercial development is inherently at odds with the goals of designing good public transportation and space.

Pushing Sussex Ave through what's now the mall footprint as part of the Metrotown redevelopment might help a bit, and on the positive side this area is better than it would be as a purely suburban car-oriented mall. But as an urban neighbourhood it's not very satisfying.

[MolsonExport]

From my first hand experiences, the pedestrian experience in Metrotown and Missingsausage City Centre is absolutely wretched. It goes to show you: Tall buildings do not a downtown make.

[spaceprobe]

Originally Posted by someone123

Metrotown is poorly set up today, although that is more due to a sequence of old planning decisions rather than a single cohesive bad plan.

One problem is that the SkyTrain runs along Central Blvd, not through the mall or along Kingsway. Kingsway is a traffic sewer. The mall itself is inwardly focused and is designed to ensnare shoppers, so it's not a good pedestrian hub for the area. Large-scale commercial development is inherently at odds with the goals of designing good public transportation and space.

Pushing Sussex Ave through what's now the mall footprint as part of the Metrotown redevelopment might help a bit, and on the positive side this area is better than it would be as a purely suburban car-oriented mall. But as an urban neighbourhood it's not very satisfying.

Burnaby's plans are to flip Metrotown's malls inside out and to run roads through the current mall footprint to make a true pedestrian oriented "downtown".

[flipper316]

Like how Metro and Brentwood are basically 2 competing town centres on 2 ridges and with a valley floor on the bottom.

[Doady]

In my experience, the pedestrian experience of Mississauga City Centre is nicest where there are high-rises. The parts of the City Centre that remain undeveloped land and 50s/60s office buildings with no underground parking and 70s shopping mall surrounding by parking lots are the parts where the pedestrian experience is the worst. Anyone who says the more recent and taller development hasn't improved the pedestrian experience in any way doesn't know what the fuck they are talkiing about.

[scryer]

Originally Posted by spaceprobe

Burnaby's plans are to flip Metrotown's malls inside out and to run roads through the current mall footprint to make a true pedestrian oriented "downtown".

Personally I think that's going to be a hard sell. Why would I want to give up air-conditioning and heating in all seasons only to be forced to face the elements and to deal with vehicle traffic ontop of that? Especially since the Metrotown area is served well by transit.

I would sincerely hope that Metrotown decides to make most of those roads pedestrian-only high streets. Or roads that only allow service vehicles. It has the opportunity to do so and we don't need a vehicle-centric grid to achieve a downtown feel when what could be made is the downtown of tomorrow.

[zahav]

I wish they would just leave the mall and develop the surface lots for now. Or open up the atriums or soemthing, why destroy the whole mall at this point, seems so unnecessary.

I don't find the pedestrian experience around Metro bad at all, it is pretty walkable, not sure what people mean. It's obviously no downtown Van or TO, but it isn't bad