https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmonton
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmonton#Public_transit
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tallest_buildings_in_Edmonton
https://www.flickr.com/photos/kurt-b/51118510836
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multnomah_County,_Oregon While Portland is so tiny when compared to NYC, it still has the potential to become a big city like Seattle, someday.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clark_County,_Washington Vancouver, WA is basically a suburb of Portland. However, V-WA could eventually become like a smaller version of Jersey_City,_New_Jersey.
Its a case of a smaller river city next to a larger river city, that is part of a metropolitan area.
The New_York_metropolitan_area is the most densely populated and the biggest in the US.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_metropolitan_area#Geography
The Portland_metropolitan_area could potentially become as big as the Seattle_metropolitan_area, some day. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portland_metropolitan_area#Metropolitan_statistical_area
Seattle is already a larger city than Boston. However, the Seattle_metropolitan_area still isn't quite as big as the Greater_Boston Area.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seattle_metropolitan_area#Geography
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greater_Boston#Metropolitan_Area
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_England Boston
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_Northwest Seattle
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_Northwest#Population
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quebec_City-Windsor_Corridor Montreal and Toronto
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calgary-Edmonton_Corridor No hindrence from backwards BC.
Then there is backwards Vancouver and the Lower_Mainland part of BC. Short trains and mostly narrow bridges are hindering the region, by design. The regional passenger rail and the freight rail lines all need to be properly upgraded.
Don't forget the provincial backwater that is Victoria,_British_Columbia. At least Greater_Victoria has the potential to become a major island metropolitan area, someday. There should be a 4 track passenger and freight line between Victoria and Nanaimo and even up to Comox.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vancouver,_Washington "Founded in 1825 and incorporated in 1857, the city was originally established around Fort Vancouver, a fur trading outpost, and is situated directly north of Portland, Oregon..." It is part of the Portland_metropolitan_area.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vancouver, BC
| Gastown | (1867–1886) |
| Granville | (1870–1886) |
| City of Vancouver | (1886–present) |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Vancouver
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metro_Vancouver_Regional_District
The costs of the new 'alternative plan' are expected to save money over the next 15 years but balloon several billion dollars higher after that. https://www.biv.com/news/economy-law-politics/metro-vancouver-slashes-sewage-plant-cost-by-39b-but-risks-long-term-bill-11303969
So much money down the toilet when it could have gone towards longer trains and wider bridges. Instead of having a proper regional express bus network with a series of bus bridges, busses are forced onto the mostly existing narrow bridges.
https://www.skyscrapercenter.com/building/scotia-tower/4396 138 m / 453 ft with 35 floors
https://www.skydb.net/building/134544260/scotia-tower-vancouver Height 138 m (452 ft) Floors 35
https://skyscraperpage.com/cities/?buildingID=65 452 feet https://skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?searchID=110142950&page=3
https://skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?cityID=1
https://skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?cityID=1&status=15
Despite The Scotia Tower in Vancouver opening in 1977, it's still a prominent, but small building on the skyline.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scotia_Tower 1977
https://abc7.com/post/la-city-hall-crash-car-slams-steps/17933164/
Sometimes a person just might be having a bad day, but other times a person might want to take over a building.
https://www.cbsnews.com/losangeles/news/downtown-la-city-hall-crash
If its determined after due process, that this person had malicious intent, they will be facing sever punishment.
L.A. City Hall evacuated after vehicle crashes near steps; driver in custody after standoff https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-10-03/vehicle-crashes-into-steps-of-l-a-city-hall-prompting-closure-of-surrounding-streets
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fahrenheit_451 Two decades before Ray_Bradbury would start writing what would eventually lead to his F 451 novel, LA was close to imposing a 451 foot height limit. However, the LA City Hall would end up being slightly taller than 451 feet. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los_Angeles_City_Hall "Dedication ceremonies were held on April 26, 1928. It has 32 floors and, at 454 feet (138 m) high..."
"A City Council ordinance passed in 1905 did not permit any new construction to be taller than 13 stories or 150 ft (46 m) in order to keep the city's architecture harmonious. City Hall's 454 ft (138 m) height was deemed exempt as a public building and assured that no building would surpass one third its height for over three decades until the ordinance was repealed by voter referendum in 1957." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los_Angeles_City_Hall#History
https://laist.com/news/entertainment/city-hall-tall 454' not 451 feet, but close nonetheless. LA didnt have to wait until 1953, because it was pondering a 450'-455 foot height restriction in the mid to late 1920s. Of course NYC and Chicago already had tall buildings in the 1920s, so perhaps a
"The writing and theme within Fahrenheit 451 was explored by Bradbury in some of his previous short stories. Between 1947 and 1948, Bradbury wrote "Bright Phoenix", a short story about a librarian who confronts a "Chief Censor", who burns books. An encounter Bradbury had in 1949 with the police inspired him to write the short story "The Pedestrian" in 1951. In "The Pedestrian", a man going for a nighttime walk in his neighborhood is harassed and detained by the police. In the society of "The Pedestrian", citizens are expected to watch television as a leisurely activity, a detail that would be included in Fahrenheit 451. Elements of both "Bright Phoenix" and "The Pedestrian" would be combined into The Fireman, a novella published in Galaxy Science Fiction in 1951. Bradbury was urged by Stanley Kauffmann, an editor at Ballantine Books, to make The Fireman into a full novel. Bradbury finished the manuscript for Fahrenheit 451 in 1953, and the novel was published later that year." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fahrenheit_451#Writing_and_development
F 451 was published in 1953, on 10-19.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13079982-fahrenheit-451
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fahrenheit_451#Historical_and_biographical_context
https://www.sparknotes.com/lit/451/summary
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fahrenheit_451#Writing_and_development
Did Metropolis_(1927_film) help to restrict the height of tall buildings in LA for several decades?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropolis_(1927_film)#Influences
Whether the LA City Hall is 454', 453' or 452 feet, it's not 451 feet, but still close enough.
https://www.latimes.com/visuals/photography/la-me-fw-archives-20190403-htmlstory.html "The 32-story, 454-foot-tall Los Angeles City Hall opened with a three-day public celebration April 26-28, 1928. Construction started in 1926."
https://www.skyscrapercenter.com/building/city-hall/4376 138.4 m / 454 ft
https://buildingsdb.com/CA/los-angeles/los-angeles-city-hall "The Los Angeles City Hall reaches an architectural height of 453ft (138m). It has a total of 32 floors, 28 above ground and 4 basements..."
https://www.travelinusa.us/visit-los-angeles-city-hall "At the time of construction, a regulation was in effect in the city that prohibited buildings taller than 150 feet. Los Angeles City Hall was therefore an exception and, at an impressive 32 stories and a height of 452 feet, it remained the tallest building in Los Angeles until 1964 when Union Bank Plaza opened."
https://waterandpower.org/Museum2/Los_Angeles_City_Hall_1928.html
While there isn't any direct correlation with the F 451 story and Vancouver, BC imposing a height limit, there is something peculiar. Some people might consider that if a building is around 500 feet in height, that's in the category of starting to be a tall building.
Well, Vancouver, always looking for ways to symbolically project a stunted or scaled back city, height restrictions were at the top of the list.
Somewhere in-between the 1950s & 60s, Vancouver started to refine its height restriction mandate. Thus, as several cities in the 1970s started to allow for taller buildings, Vancouver has never allowed any office tower to have 40 floors. Perhaps an imposed 451 foot height limit would be too obvious, so Vancouver generally had an imposed restriction of 450 feet, with some occasional variations.
The first residential building to have at least 40 floors. https://skyscraperpage.com/cities/?buildingID=921 1973 https://skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?searchID=110144876&page=3
The first residential building to have more than 45 floors. https://skyscraperpage.com/cities/?buildingID=3 2001 https://skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?searchID=110144876&page=6
It wouldn't be until the early 21st century before Vancouver would permit 2 buildings to rise above 600 feet. https://skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?searchID=110144876&page=8 , https://skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?searchID=110144876&page=9
https://skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?countryID=1 Vancouver has no building that makes it onto the first page. Burnaby just barely makes it.
https://skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?searchID=110144876&page=10 However, Vancouver has another chance to actually have some taller buildings. https://skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?countryID=1&status=15 Over the decades, various plans have been stopped, due to all the red tape B$ and extreme restrictions.
Vancouver has had quite a history of limiting, restricting, thwarting & censoring proper big city stuff.
The Westin_Bonaventure_Hotel should have been twice the height. It's only a 367-foot (112 m), 33-story hotel, but it should have been at least as tall as the Westin_Peachtree_Plaza_Hotel in Atlanta or the Renaissance_Center in Detroit, or The_Stamford in Singapore.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westin_Bonaventure_Hotel#Floors_and_elevators
https://socallandmarks.com/index.php/2022/09/16/bonaventure-hotel/
https://www.sfgate.com/la/article/los-angeles-bonaventure-hotel-history-19511087.php
https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/the-bonaventure-hotel-los-angeles-california
https://movie-locations.com/travel/la/travel-downtown-05.php
http://www.experiencingla.com/2013/02/tour-o-downtown-part-i.html
https://portmanarchitects.com/project/the-westin-bonaventure
| Number of rooms | 1,358 |
|---|---|
| Number of suites | 135 |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westin_Bonaventure_Hotel#Floors_and_elevators
It would take LA a long time to have a much taller hotel tower.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renaissance_Center 73 floors at 727 ft (222 m)
| Number of rooms | 1,246 |
|---|---|
| Number of suites | 52 |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renaissance_Center#History
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westin_Peachtree_Plaza_Hotel
| Number of rooms | 1,068 |
|---|---|
| Number of suites | 40 |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westin_Peachtree_Plaza_Hotel#Architectural_details
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swisshtel_The_Stamford 73 floors at 226 metres (741 ft)
| Number of rooms | 1,252 |
|---|
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swisshotel_The_Stamford#History
The Vancouver Mind Virus keeps hindering the city. The Backwards BC Mentality makes sure that BC remains as a provincial backwater when compared to Ontario, Quebec and Alberta.
