Showing posts sorted by relevance for query buildings. Sort by date Show all posts
Showing posts sorted by relevance for query buildings. Sort by date Show all posts

Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Urban Tech Links .:. UTL

UTL - Personal observations of the urban world from a backwards Vancouver and backwater BC perspective. Indeed, it's always amazing to see what so many other cities can do, simply because they don't have anything like a Vancouver, Victoria & BC mentality to hold them back.

The Greater_Tokyo_Area is the most populated urban region on the planet.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urban_area#Largest_urban_areas ,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropolitan_area
https://wikimedia.org/Sand_Island_and_Honolulu.jpg Honolulu hasn't permitted any buildings to be as tall as what is in Miami, LA or SF. Indeed, Honolulu, has avoided having a Singapore or especially a HK size skyline. So far, no building has been allowed to be as tall as the Custom_House_Tower in Boston or the Smith_Tower in Seattle. Indeed, no buildings are even allowed to be as tall as the Los_Angeles_City_Hall at 453 feet or 138m.
https://wikimedia.org/Perth_airport.JPG No building in Vancouver is allowed to be as tall as the 2 tallest in Perth & Calgary.
Honolulu and 
Perth, WA are in such nice climate zones. They are a couple of the most isolated major cities on the planet. 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honolulu#Transportation , 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perth#Transport
In some ways, Australia has been able to surpass Canada, despite it having a smaller land area & less population than Canada. Unlike Montreal & especially Vancouver, Perth & especially Melbourne, Sydney & Brisbane, have allowed several taller buildings than what is allowed in Montreal & Vancouver. 
However, Honolulu's_tallest_buildings still haven't been permitted to even be as tall as the 2 tallest in the Giza_pyramid_complex in Cairo, Egypt. 

Urban Tech Links is a basic blog about referencing tall buildings & urban technology in various cities in general. Thus, it's mostly just a list of various urban and tech links. It's also about comparing various cities & infrastructure.
Some cities like to have narrow bridges, short trains & small buildings, like Vancouver, while many others cities reach for the sky. 
There is a point when a lot of major cities start to permit buildings to be taller than the 2 tallest pyramids in Egypt. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egyptian_pyramids 
Paris & London, NYC & Chicago, Tokyo & Seoul...  

www.infrastructurebc.com

The BC part of Canada has tried to keep its infrastructure as small as possible for as long as possible.
It wasn't until the 1970s when strict & stubborn Vancouver started to allow for some buildings to be almost as tall as the 2 tallest Egyptian pyramids. https://skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?searchID=105524651&offset=50 

1973 Royal_Centre_(Vancouver) not quite as tall as .:.
1977 Harbour_Centre not counting the flagpole, its still shorter than the original height of the tallest Egyptian pyramid.
2001 One_Wall_Centre, not including its spire, was the first building in Vancouver & BC to be taller than the tallest pyramid in Egypt. 

For most of Vancouver's history, the city refused to permit any building to be taller than the pyramid on top of the 496' Custom_House_Tower in Boston, the 462' Smith_Tower in Seattle, the 453' Los_Angeles_City_Hall. Of course today they are all just like stumps. 481' and 471' are the original heights of the 2 tallest in the Giza_pyramid_complex.
https://wikimedia.org/Pyramids_of_the_Giza_Necropolis.jpg
https://wikimedia.org/Kheops-Pyramid.jpg
"Initially standing at 146.6 metres (481 feet), the Great Pyramid was the world's tallest human-made structure for more than 3,800 years. Over time, most of the smooth white limestone casing was removed, which lowered the pyramid's height to the current 138.5 metres (454.4 ft)" 
HeightOriginal: 146.6 m (481 ft) or 280 cubits
Current: 138.5 m (454 ft)
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Pyramid_of_Giza 
HeightCurrently: 136.4 metres (448 ft)
Original: 143.5 m (471 ft; 274 cu)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyramid_of_Khafre

"The 1997 study noted that the opportunities for buildings significantly exceeding existing permitted heights were limited. There were a total of five sites where buildings exceeding the 450 foot height limit are possible and two sites in the northwest corner of the Central Business District where heights up to 400 feet (exceeding the 300 foot limit) could be considered." https://council.vancouver.ca/20030515/pe2.htm

Indeed, it's tough to believe that for the longest time, any building in the BC part of Canada had to be considerably shorter than the Washington_Monument in DC or the Philadelphia_City_Hall.

Then Vancouver wouldn't permit any building to be as tall as the Cairo_Tower. 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cairo_Tower "At 187 m (614 ft), it was the tallest structure in Egypt for 37 years until 1998..."
2016 was when a Hotel-Condo was allowed to be slightly taller than the Cairo-Tower. 

The Cairo_Flagpole is the world's tallest flagpole, at 201.952 m (662 ft 7 in) tall. No building in Vancouver is allowed to be as tall.
The Living_Shangri-La tower is close, but not quite.
Of course Vancouver, BC & even Canada can't stop Egypt from building big & tall.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tallest_buildings_and_structures_in_Egypt#Tallest_structures
{The origin of Al-Qahirah is said to come from the appearance of the planet Mars during the foundation of the City of Cairo. The planet Mars, which in Greek was called Ares, was associated with ruin or destruction and was called Al Najm Al Qahir in Arabic. Al Najm Al Qahir is transliterated as "the destroyer star [planet]".} http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cairo#Etymology


https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/the-cairo-washington-dc Washinton, DC made sure that going into the 20th century, it was going to have mostly low rise buildings like Paris & London or Berlin. However, the Greater Paris Region would eventually allow some tall buildings in certain areas. London even moreso. Yet, Greater London & Metropolitan Paris, certainly have allowed some tall buildings. 

Vancouver has been under a multigenerational set of restrictions as well as a small thinking & planning agenda. Part of this might be attributed to a backwater BC mentality. However, some parts of Greater Vancouver are allowed to build on a grander scale.

Edmonton, Seattle, Portland & eventually Calgary will all have underground train stations longer than what's in Vancouver. Yet, Vancouver could have really benefited from having proper big city long stations. Most of the regions bridges are so narrow that its difficult to have a proper bus lane & HOV lane system. But Vancouver & BC are all about inefficiency. Things might eventually improve if enough people someday start to see the growing gap between what most cities allow vs. stubborn Vancouver.

https://metropolisfilm.fandom.com/wiki/Joh_Frederson

Alphaville is one of the best cautionary stories about the AI run, totalitarian smart-city scenario. 

THX_1138 is the quintessential movie about AI & machines running an underground totalitarian city. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/THX_1138#Plot

Logan's_Run is another interesting totalitarian smart-city movie. 

Blade_Runner is one of the best urban Sci-Fi movies ever made.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blade_Runner#Plot

Jacque_Fresco is one of many people throughout history with their own perspectives on civilization. https://www.forbes.com/2007/10/13/jacque-fresco-prediction-tech-future07-cx_1015fresco.html?sh=4107813c607f Some interesting ideas, but perhaps with a utopian angle.


http://www.city-data.com/forum/religion-spirituality/845605-humans-originate-mars.html,
http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/marte/esp_marte_14.htm,
http://mars-earth.com/earthpage.htm

http://fusionanomaly.net/orion.html, http://fusionanomaly.net/bladerunner.html,
http://vigilantcitizen.com/hidden-knowledge/connection-between-sirius-and-human-history

More about, UDL: https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=urban

https://www.polygon.com/gaming/2012/9/11/3318910/nasa-scientist-believes-we-could-all-be-in-a-video-game
Civilization_(computer_game)


The Universe seems to be a vast Multi-channel of space & time that originated from a central point of energy. But what or who started this Big_Bang of cosmic information? Its like a cosmic projection program running inside an immense planetarium. The energy of nature or part of a creators plan. Thus either nature or a conscious creator has set up a cosmic matrix of space & time. Humans are just beginning to try to understand how an intelligent force of creation set this all up. Computer models factor into the study of reality & VR helps to illustrate different phases & parts of the universe.
-
-


The Hundredth_monkey_effect isn't supposed to be true, but in backwards Vancouver & backwater BC, it does seem to be happening. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hundredth_monkey_effect#History
Almost everything in Vancouver is like a watered down knockoff. So many people from different backgrounds keep wanting to hold Vancouver back. The NO FUN CITY mentality keeps emerging, but that's just part of the phenomenon.


This reference blog is of a non profit nature.  


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Friday, October 3, 2025

Fahrenheit 451 (1953 Novel) and height limits

 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 sort of 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 didn't 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 LA wanted to symbolize an F-U to them by keeping buildings under 500 feet until the mid to late 1960s. 

"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 exactly 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 

https://www.c40.org/cities/los-angeles 

By the 1970s, LA, SF, Sydney, Melbourne, Tokyo, Toronto, Montreal and Paris, all had some buildings over 600 feet or even over 200 m. 

https://www.c40.org/cities/vancouver 

Unfortunately by the 1970s, stubborn and backwards Vancouver wanted to go in the opposite direction of most cities. Thus, a kind of censoring agenda was implemented. SF and Sydney and even Seattle, proved that a scenic city by the water can have taller buildings, wider bridges and longer trains than what little Vancouver would allow.

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, or at least 150 m, that's in the category of starting to be a tall building. 

Well, Vancouver, always looking for ways to symbolically project a watered down 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 have been too obvious, so Vancouver generally had an imposed height restriction of 450 feet, with some occasional variations. 

Right through the 1960s only one building in Vancouver, or anywhere in BC had a 30th floor.

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. 


https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=LA+City+Hall

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Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Vancouver, BC & Other Cities

So far, Vancouver hasn't had the same scale of urban development that's common in several other cities. The buildings, roads, trains & bridges are half the size of many of the big cities. Vancouver#Incorporation 1886
Vancouverism : Urban_planning
Vancouver hasn't entered the big leagues of tall buildings. By Canadian standards, BC buildings aren't allowed to be as tall as what many other places permit.
{http://www.vancitybuzz.com/2011/05/vancouver-fantasy-skyline/}
The tallest_buildings_in_Vancouver are among the smaller big buildings of the world. Seattle, Toronto & LA all have an office tower over 70 stories. No office building in Vancouver has been permitted to reach 40 stories, around 500 feet (152.5 m) as of yet. No residential building or any other Vancouver structure is expected to reach 7oo feet (213.5 m) in the near future. The big money of the world hasn't been that interested in Vancouver, but perhaps some year, Vancouver might have an office tower as tall as the 748' MLC_Centre in Sydney. However, this would only happen if the big money really wants to change the height limitations, as was the case for LA and Sydney.
The roof of Vancouver's Living_Shangri-La is 197 m (646 ft)
The Living Shangri-La is about the same size as the Millennium_Tower in San_Francisco.
The World_Tower at 230 m (750 ft) is the tallest residential building in Sydney & remains as one of Australia's tallest.
No Vancouver building makes it onto the first page.
The 1st & 2nd tallest make it onto the 2nd page.
The 3rd & 4th tallest buildings make it onto the 3rd & 4th page.
Australia, Asaia, Europe & the Americas have so many office towers over 40 stories. It remains part of Vancouver's urban character to not have an office level reaching to or above a 40th floor.
Although the Houston_City_Hall is of a similar shape to the Vancouver_City_Hall, Houston really started to think big & tall ever since the 1960s. BC only has 1 building taller than the 630 ft (190 m) BG_Group_Place. 1700_Pacific in Dallas would be the tallest office tower if it were in BC. Although Bankers_Hall was never quite the tallest in Alberta it still would be if it were in BC.
The RBC was the first office building in Vancouver to have more than 35 floors & reach at least 460 feet. The windows go up to 36 & there are 3 more levels above the 36th. Altogether it rises 39 floors above the street.
So its a little taller than the LA_City_Hall. 138 m (453 ft)
The RBC is about as tall as 650_California_Street: 34 story, 142 m, (466 feet) However, what would still be a tower in Vancouver is almost a stump in SF. 650 California Street opened in 1964 & 5 years later was the B of A tower, or 555 California_Street.
The 1914 LCS & the 1973 RBC
It took almost 60 years for Vancouver's planning department to allow something on the scale of the 37 story, 1914 Smith Tower is 141 m (463 ft).
The main section has 35 floors, but there is a hidden level below & also above the 35th floor. http://www.emporis.com/application/?nav=image&id=504517
The floors with windows total 37 which is really at the 39th level, but the overall building is still equivalent to 42 levels. That's because the original owner wanted to credit even the windowless floors. http://www.emporis.com/application/?nav=image&id=334689
So the top floor window is at level 39 & there is the equivalent of 3 more levels above that.
This is the 42nd floor but some of them simply have no windows. http://www.smithtower.com/Facts.html
While this little white building has become a stump in Seattle, it would still be the tallest office tower in Vancouver.
The RBC is around the same height as the LCS & when it opened in 1973 it was Vancouver's tallest building.
Calgary, like Seattle, is not subject to the building limitations of Vancouver. The Pacific_Northwest & Western_Canada continue to develop differently than BC.
The shorter building of Seattle's Union_Square would be among Vancouver's largest office buildings. This is the same case with Calgary's Suncor_Energy_Centre.


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Thursday, November 13, 2025

Airports and Tall Buildings

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_City_Airport

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e0/London_City_Airport_Zwart.jpg/960px-London_City_Airport_Zwart.jpg 

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/58/BACF_departure_London_city_Airport.JPG/960px-BACF_departure_London_city_Airport.JPG 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canary_Wharf#Tallest_buildings Tall buildings there are no problem, despite the airport being relatively close. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seattle-Tacoma_International_Airport Prevented Seattle from having a 1000 foot tall office tower in the 1980s.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logan_International_Airport Runways don't conflict with the tallest buildings in Boston.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmonton_City_Centre_Airport#Closure Once closed, Edmonton could eventually plan for the tallest building in Alberta.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Diego_International_Airport Untill its ever closed, buildings are kept short, because of its location. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Reid_International_Airport Tall buildings are relativly close to a runway.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vancouver_International_Airport Unlike, London and LV, Richmond is forced to have very short buildings, because of YVR.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richmond,_British_Columbia

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Tuesday, April 29, 2025

Why is Metro Vancouver Creating a New Downtown?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybMhTlj-l5s 

Unlike Seattle and Calgary, Vancouver has no office towers over 50 stories. There aren't even any 40 story office towers in BC. Vancouver is firmly against permitting any office tower from having a 40th floor. However, Vancouver cant stop Burnaby and especially Surrey from having an office tower over 40 stories. While a 50 story office tower anywhere in backwater BC still seems unlikely, Burnaby and Surrey will likely be the first 2 cities in BC to have at least a 45 story office tower. 

 https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/50-storey-tower-community-hub-edmonds-burnaby 

So far, stubborn and strict Vancouver has only permitted 2 buildings to be taller than the tallest in Bellevue,_Washington. 

Vancouver has only permitted one building to be taller than the tallest in Vaughan, Ontario.

https://www.skyscrapercenter.com/building/cg-tower/32139 

Since Burnaby and Surrey aren't under the backwards and thwarting restrictions that Vancouver has, Burnaby and eventually Surrey, will have taller buildings than stumpy Vancouver. Indeed, Burnaby already has some buildings taller than Downtown_Bellevue. Surrey will eventually have some buildings taller than the Vaughan_Metropolitan_Centre.          

Vancouver will continue to limit the height of its buildings for as long as possible. Vancouver won't allow a bus and train tunnel near the lion Bridge, let alone a 6 lane highway tunnel. Despite the Iron Bridge needing a parallel bus bridge and a Skytrain bridge, progress remains at a snail's pace. There still seems to be no interest in building a bus bridge next to the Oak and Knight Bridges. A city on the moon and Mars might happen before stubborn Vancouver ever builds a new Fraser Street bus & bike bridge. Not only should there be a Boundary Road Bridge to Richmond, but at least a Boundary bus & bike bridge to the North Vancouver.  

Its like backwards BC keeps hoping that by symbolically refusing to build up proper big city size transportation infrastructure, people will stay away. However, its only because no one has been able to effectively challenge the bottleneck-chokepoint mentality, that not much has been done.

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Tuesday, December 24, 2024

611 Place in L.A. and Place Ville Marie, Montreal

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fe/611Place_LosAngeles.jpg , 
https://calisphere.org/item/c808aa829349df0b62b97853207d216f

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/611_Place Its a 42-story, 189 m (620 ft) skyscraper at 611 West 6th Street in Downtown Los Angeles. It was completed in 1969, some 7 years after PVM in Montreal. 611 Place is a few feet higher or a meter taller, but PVM is much wider building. It would take until the early 21st century before strict Vancouver would permit a building to rival their height.


PVM:

https://mtltimes.ca/business/have-a-look-at-the-changes-on-the-45th-and-46th-floor-of-place-ville-marie The building is equvalent to a 51_story tower, but the main widowed floors stop at 46. Some of the floors and of course the roof, have no windows, as they are mechanical or building plant operation levels.

Although it's not quite the tallest in Montreal, PVM is the tallest wide building in Quebec. It really should have been in the 55-60 story range, but Montreal wasn't ready for a big, bulky NYC office tower on the scale of 28_Liberty_Street or the MetLife_Building. Montreal has some view corridor restrictions, which prevent it to rival the tallest buildings in Austin Texas. However, Montreal is still allowed to have taller buildings than stumpy Vancouver.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/14/Boulevard_Ren%C3%A9-L%C3%A9vesque.JPG Unlike narrowminded Vancover, Montreal has allowed for some tall wide buildings and even some wide streets or boulevards. Wide streets can allow for better accomodation of bus & bike lanes. The Vancouver approach is to try to cram everything into 4 lanes.

"This widening to 8 lanes was requested by the real estate developer planning the construction of Place Ville-Marie . This urban gesture allowed the arrival of several tall buildings, especially in the city center. It is without a doubt the boulevard of skyscrapers since it is on this artery that the largest buildings in Montreal and Quebec are located."
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boulevard_Ren%C3%A9-L%C3%A9vesque_(Montr%C3%A9al)#Historique

 https://montrealjemesouviens.blogspot.com/2012/07/place-ville-marie.html

https://www.voirvert.ca/projets/projet-etude/ecologisation-place-ville-marie

https://www.pcf-p.com/projects/place-ville-marie PVM opened in 1962 & 6 years later, 777-Hornby a stump building in Vancouver with a similar shape, wasn't even allowed to have half as many floors as PVM. However, it would be an impressive building compared to what's in Victoria-Prince+George-Kamloops, but not most real cities.

https://pcfandtypecodewebstuff.s3.amazonaws.com/images/2.lin.PCF.5503_plan-section.max-1600x1600.jpg

https://skyscraperpage.com/cities/?buildingID=937 43, 46 or 50F. 188m/617' https://skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?searchID=107855813&offset=75

https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/staticmap?size=375x375&zoom=18&center=45.501488%2C-73.568466&maptype=satellite&key=AIzaSyCNedHKUJhos7_OH_zp9Xtyw-eV8ylf-78 The Montreal tower.

https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/staticmap?size=375x375&zoom=18&center=49.282982%2C-123.121780&maptype=satellite&key=AIzaSyCNedHKUJhos7_OH_zp9Xtyw-eV8ylf-78 The watered down Vancouver version is just a stump by comparison.

777 Hornby Street
Vancouver BC Canada 
https://skyscraperpage.com/cities/?buildingID=4904 20F 72m/237' https://skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?searchID=107855260&offset=25 It opened in 1968.

https://www.cityfeet.com/cont/listing/777-hornby-st-vancouver-bc-v6z-1s4/cs4415499

"777 Hornby is a 20 storey office, retail and parking complex strategically located at the corner of Hornby Street and Robson Street within walking distance of Vancouver's many amenities and top restaurants." https://www.777hornby.com



The former World_Trade_Center_in_New_Orleans was converted to a 34 story hotel. The building was first completed in 1967 as a 33 story, 407 feet (124 m) structure.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Seasons_Hotel_and_Private_Residences_New_Orleans

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/be/(former)_World_Trade_Center_in_New_Orleans.jpg



https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=611+Place

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Monday, September 29, 2025

Vancouver buildings over 152.4 meters or 500 feet

It took a very long time for Vancouver to have its first building permitted to rise over 500 feet in height. 

152.4 meters = 500 feet and 150 meters = 492.12 feet 

https://skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?cityID=1

 https://www.straight.com/article-371138/vancouver/city-approves-new-policy-taller-buildings-downtown-vancouver While there are some taller resedential towers, Vancouver still has no office tower with at least a 40th floor. Portland,_Oregon has 2. Perth, WA has 2 office towers with at least 50 floors. The_Bow tower in Calgary has 60 floors, when you count all the levels. The Columbia_Center in Seattle has 80 floors in total. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tallest_buildings_in_Vancouver#Cityscape

450 feet is equal to about 137.16 meters and that was the height restriction imposed on Vancouver for most of its restrictive, red-tape history. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tallest_buildings_in_Vancouver

The powers that be tried their damndest to not allow most Vancouver buildings to be taller than the Smith_Tower, Commerce_Court_North and the Los_Angeles_City_Hall until after the year 2000. Of course in 2025 those buildings are like stumps now, but would still be tall by small Vancouver standards.

https://skyscraperpage.com/cities/?buildingID=6965 , https://www.smithtower.com/about/ 

https://skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?cityID=27&searchname=timeline

https://beautifulwashington.com/images/sky-view-observatory/sky-view-observatory-at-columbia-center-9.jpg

https://beautifulwashington.com/king-county/attractions/seattle/448-sky-view-observatory.html  

https://www.seattletimes.com/life/heres-a-cheap-way-to-view-seattles-skyline-coffee-at-the-starbucks-on-the-40th-floor-of-the-columbia-tower The 40th floor of an 80 story building, when you count the mechanical or plant floors as well. Perhaps some day strict Vancouver might permit an office building to have a 40th floor. 

https://skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?cityID=1&status=15

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tallest_buildings_in_Vancouver#Tallest_under_construction_or_proposed 


stumps and towers

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Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Chicago's Sears Tower takes on name of British financial services company

By The Associated Press {CHICAGO - When Chicago residents go to bed Thursday night their beloved Sears Tower, one of the world's iconic skyscrapers and the tallest building in the U.S., will no longer be the Sears Tower. It will be Willis Tower. Or will it? "It's always going to be the Sears Tower. It's part of Chicago and I won't call it Willis Tower. In Chicago we hold fast," Chicago teacher Marianne Turk, 46, said as she stood in line to go up to the building's Skydeck on Monday. Mayor Richard M. Daley, the building's owners and others will be at a Thursday renaming ceremony hosted by Willis Group Holdings. The London-based insurance services company secured the naming rights as part an agreement to lease 140,000 square feet of space in the tower. The building has been known as Sears Tower since it opened in 1973. It's original tenant, Sears Roebuck and Co., moved out in 1992. A real estate investment group in 2004, American Landmark Properties of Skokie, now owns the 1,450-foot (440-meter), 110-story skyscraper. When the renaming was announced in March, a spokesman for Willis Group Holdings said the company understood the "sentimental attraction to the Sears Tower name," but noted the company was bringing hundreds of jobs to the city. The Sears Tower isn't the only well known building to undergo a name change - New York City's Pan Am Building became the MetLife Building and Chicago's Standard Oil Building is now the Aon Center, said Carol Willis, founder and director of The Skyscraper Museum in New York. Historically, skyscrapers have been ever-changing buildings and businesses within themselves, acting as a commodity to compete for high rents and tenants, Willis said. People are mistaken when they see tall buildings as symbols of a corporation, she said. "Skyscrapers are really buildings that are about money," Willis said. "Naming rights are an asset of the building. They can be turned into money and that's what the new owners are doing." It's become common for professional sports teams to sell the naming rights of their stadiums and arenas, as Chicago White Sox fans can attest, when their team's stadium, Comiskey Park, renamed U.S. Cellular Field in 2003. But the public hasn't always taken to renamed skyscrapers. Many New Yorkers still refer to the Sony Building as the AT&T Building, said William Lozito, head of Minneapolis-based brand naming company Strategic Name Development. Getting the public to accept the Willis Tower name will be all the more difficult because the company is British and not immediately recognized by most Americans, he said. "I don't think people are going to let go," Lozito said. "You don't mess with a landmark. It would be like trying to change the name of the Brooklyn Bridge. It's a reference point. I think it's disorienting to try to change the name." The tower's owners acknowledge it will take time for some people to accept the new name, but they're confident it will happen eventually. "It is controversial to a lot of people," said John Huston of American Landmark Properties, who represents the building ownership. "It is an icon, but I believe over time it will become known as Willis Tower and a name that we'll be proud of." Alex Lucas, 29, an Arlington Heights business systems analyst who works down the street from the skyscraper, was so displeased with the name change that he started a Web site, http://www.itsthesearstower.com/. "The people of Chicago do value history," he said. "Just because it's a commercial structure doesn't mean it isn't historical. Chicago is going to lose a big part of what is its identity and I don't know what's going to fill that space."}http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/090716/business/us_sears_tower
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Of course a big city like Chicago has all sorts of buildings.

Soldier_Field isn't that tall, but it sure is big. https://www.soldierfield.com/
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ee/The_Soldier_Field.jpg 

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a9/Soldier_Field_Chicago_aerial_view.jpg


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Monday, March 24, 2025

First residents could move into Senakw's first rental housing tower by the end of 2025

 https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/senakw-vancouver-squamish-nation-construction-march-2025

This area should have had the tallest buildings in Vancouver. However, litle Vancouver isn't allowed to have buildings as tall as some in Brisbane-Sydney-Melbourne-SF-Boston-and-Toronto. While Vancouver remains so strict and restrictive, some the areas outside of, and around Vancouver, are allowing taller buildings. Thus, not only Burnaby, but eventually Surrey will have taller buildings than what Vancouver permits. 

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Tuesday, February 25, 2025

Park Board backs 50-metre pool for new Vancouver Aquatic Centre after outcry over proposed small replacement

 https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/vancouver-aquatic-centre-new-50-metre-pool-feasibility-decision

Vancouver needs to build things that aren't just impressive by Prince George, Kamloops and Kelowna standards.

Nevermind Seattle, strict Vancouver, BC will have less tall buildings than Bellevue.

As of 2025, Vancouver, BC only has 2 buildings taller than what's in Bellevue,_Washington. Eventually, Bellevue will have at least 5 building that are at 600 feet, while Vancouver will only still have two buildings over 600 feet.

Nevermind Toronto, Vancouver must have no building that would rival the tallest in Mississauga and Vaughan.

https://canada.constructconnect.com/dcn/news/projects/2024/11/massive-master-planned-community-aims-to-bring-tallest-towers-to-vaughan

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tallest_buildings_in_Canada#Under_construction

Since BC was never able to build a wall or create a forcefield around it, the next best thing was to continually water everything down as much as possible. Thus, the symbolism to have short trains, mostly narrow bridges & short buildings, is all part of not properly planning for growth.

Singapore and Sydney don't have this problem, as they don't have to contend with anything like Vancouver's type of restrictions.

Toronto is a big city like Chicago. Montreal has restrictions, but not as extreme as Vancouver. Unfortunatly, Montreal has yet to become a big city on the scale of Melbourne, let alone Paris or NYC. 

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Monday, November 10, 2025

Over half of all Metro Vancouver homes projected to be condos by 2051

 https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/metro-vancouver-housing-growth-forecast-condos 

For several decades, trains, bridges and buildings had to be half the size of what real cities allow. Vancouver and especially the Greater Vancouver Region couldn't build a huge wall, so the next best thing was to heavily impose a symbolic resistance to build big. Thus, by watering the scale of almost everything down by imposing a series of overlapping restrictions, Vancouver & BC remained stunted. 

Then, things started to slowly change going into the 21st century. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Wall_Centre Opened in 2001. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rogers_Tower 2004  

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hotel_Georgia_(Vancouver) 2012 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tallest_buildings_in_Vancouver 

While restrictive Vancouver started to allow some taller buildings, its still behind what many other cities permit. Especially that of what's in Melbourne, Sydney & Brisbane...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinnacle_One_Yonge Toronto 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainier_Square_Tower Seattle

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stantec_Tower Edmonton 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telus_Sky Calgary

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victoria_sur_le_Parc Montreal

Since Burnaby, Coquitlam & Surrey aren't under Vancouvers imposed restrictions, they can build taller. Eventually, Vancouver will have to allow taller residential buildings, but its as if there is a strong mind virus determined to hold the scale of everything back. 

Lions+Gate+Bridge Still, a 3 lane crossing with no plans for a bus, train & truck tunnel. Australia has no problem building tunnels near bridges.

YVR-Canada-Line Still, a 2 car train of a joke, when several cities will have 6, 8 or 10 car trains. 


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Thursday, March 6, 2025

The Bentall Centre complex vs...

https://www.bentallcentre.com/burrard-exchange , https://www.bentallcentre.com

 https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/bentall-centre-vancouver-buy-bc-initiative-free-retail-space

The shortest buildings at Bentall_Centre aren't even 25 floors.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/30/Bentall_Centre_2018.jpg

The 3 tallest buildings at Bentall_Centre were not only forbidden to have a 50th floor, they don't even have 40 floors. Indeed, given Vancouver's strict height limitations, it was tough enough just to be permitted to have 35 floors. 

Bow_Valley_Square in Calgary was permitted to build a little taller than the Bentall Centre complex.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0c/Bow_Valley_Square.JPG
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