https://skyscraperpage.com/database/metro , https://skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/links
Showing posts sorted by date for query Stumps and Towers. Sort by relevance Show all posts
Showing posts sorted by date for query Stumps and Towers. Sort by relevance Show all posts
Friday, August 28, 2026
Wednesday, July 22, 2026
Western Canada's tallest tower, topped off by a world-class observation deck attraction, would give Vancouver a striking new landmark
https://skyscraperpage.com/b165343/vancouver/595-west-georgia-street
Towers instead of stumps.
https://skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?countryID=1&status=15
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tallest_buildings_in_Vancouver#Timeline_of_tallest_buildings
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tallest_buildings_in_Calgary#Timeline_of_tallest_buildings
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tallest_buildings_in_Seattle#Timeline_of_tallest_buildings
Unfortunately, Vancouver has such an imposed watered down or scaled back approach to the size of things.
A 3 lane Lions+Gate+Bridge that still has no BRT, truck and LRT tunnel next to it.
The shortsighted YVR-Canada+Line. Instead of designing longer stations that could accommodate 5 car trains, the 50 m stations can only accommodate 2.5 car trains, some day.
Sunday, May 3, 2026
Just mostly more stumps or some real Towers in Vancouver?
https://cityhallwatch.wordpress.com/2026/05/02/opinion-the-yiyby-critique-bilsker
https://www.skyscrapercenter.com/building/the-stack/35667 Only 38 floors.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Centre_(Vancouver) Just 37 stories.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbia_Center Seattle's tallest has 76 stories.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ship_Canal_Bridge 12 lanes consisting of three 4 lane sections.
Mostly short buildings, short trains and narrow bridges are all part of the imposed symbolism to keep Vancouver small and backwards.
While Seattle had its first 50 story office tower in 1969 and Calgary in 1984, stubborn Vancouver still won't permit any office tower to have a 40th floor.
A 30-35 story office tower would be impressive if it was in Victoria, Kelowna, Kamloops and Prince George. However, what's impressive in backwards Vancouver & backwater BC isn't impressive in Alberta, Ontario, Quebec, Washington State, Victoria State, NSW, Queensland & WA...
Stumpy buildings, short trains and narrow bridges makes for the Vancouver trifecta of B$ city planning.
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Fort+McMurray,+AB 10 lanes. Only the TCH bridge between Surrey and Coquitlam in BC has been allowed to have as many lanes as this. Some people still wish that everything could have remained funneled into just 2 or 3 lanes each way.
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Quesnell+Bridge 8 lanes in Edmonton.
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Hwy.+2A+Red+Deer+City+Centre+Bridge 6 lanes.
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Calgary,+AB 10 lanes.
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Calgary,+AB 8 lanes.
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Lethbridge,+AB It has 6 lanes. Being from backwards Vancouver, its amazing that this 6 lane bridge wasn't funneled into just 2 lanes each way. That's what happened with the Knight_Street_Bridge.
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Hwy.+2A+Red+Deer+City+Centre+Bridge As a 5 lane TCH crossing, it only has 1 less lane than the 6 lane Iron Bridge in congested, backwards Vancouver. Since Alberta isn't under anything like the imposed BC restrictions, this crossing will likely be eventually upgraded to have 6 lanes, plus 2 wide emergency lanes & 2 wide shoulders that could provide 4 lanes each way, some day.
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Winnipeg,+MB A TCH bridge with 9 lanes, because no one from narrow-minded Vancouver was able to get them to narrow this crossing. The TCH Iron Bridge in Vancouver just has 6 lanes. No bus and LRT bridge has ever been built next to it, so far.
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Winnipeg,+MB A 6 lane crossing.
As of 2026, congested Vancouver only allows 2 bridges to have 6 lanes. A total of 5 lanes were removed from 3 Vancouver bridges. Had Vancouver built a series of proper bus and bike bridges, no lanes would have been removed.
Despite NW trying to be one of the smallest cities in BC, Surrey is set to become the biggest city in BC. Fortunately, small NW & backwards Vancouver can't stop that from happening. However, narrowminded NW was able to force a narrower new bridge to Surrey.
This bridge-replacement is one of the best examples of BC bottleneck-chokepoint planning today.
McBride_Blvd. and Royal_Ave_in_New_Westminster are mostly 4 lane corridors.
King_George_Boulevard and Scott_Road both are at least 4 lanes wide. One might think that the new bridge should have had 10 lanes, or at least 8 lanes, because two 4 lane boulevards, a 4 lane avenue and a 4 lane road, are all funneled into a bridge that opened with only 2 lanes each way. The old bridge that it replaced was also a 4 lane crossing. A congestive approach to transportation planning is the name of the game in backwards B.C.
.jpg/960px-Stalewasem_Bridge_(2026-03).jpg)
At the very least, this new 4 lane bridge should have had enough room for 2 wide emergency lanes, 2 wide shoulders and especially, 2 bus lanes. There should have been a provision for a lower deck for LRT, bus and truck lanes, given that this is supposed to be a seaport region.
The narrowmindedness planning by Greater Vancouver to still have mostly narrow crossings, has made it very difficult to implement a proper regional express bus network, let alone BRT.
The first 2 Skytrain lines only have station lengths that can barely accommodate the new 5 car trains. The YVR Line or the C Line, has stations than can only accommodate a 2.5 car train, some day. Given that the Skytrain network is a multibillion dollar transit system, all of the stations should have been designed to gradually accommodate 8-10 car trains, but that's what a proper big city would do.
https://vancouver.citynews.ca/2026/05/02/expo-86-40-years-later-the-memories-live-on
Four decades later and Greater Vancouver remains so far behind with the scale of its infrastructure.
What is Happening with Lansdowne Mall in Richmond?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H9_GQWyo8h0
Boston and Las_Vegas allow much taller buildings than what's permitted in Richmond. Those cities don't use their airport as an excuse to have stumps. Even San_Diego has taller towers than Richmond.
Despite New_Orleans being on a delta, it has much taller buildings than Richmond as well.
Boston & LV have longer trains, while N.O. never totally got rid of their streetcars like Richmond had.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lansdowne_station_(SkyTrain) A little 2 car joke of a train that's expected to do the job of what a big size or at least medium size city can do.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rseau_express_metropolitain#Rolling_stock 4 cars.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skyline_(Honolulu) 4 cars.
Fortunately, Montreal & Honolulu opted to not have something like a 2 car YVR-C Line joke of a train.
When stations can't easily be extended, Selective_door_operation can turn a 4 car rain into a 6 car train.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selective_door_operation#International_variations
Unfortunately, the YVR-Canada_Line wasn't designed to have 4 or 5 car trains. The stations were only designed to just accommodate a 2.5 car train. However, with Selective_door_operation, a 2.5 car train could become a 4.5 car train. Perhaps, even a 5 car train with 3 full-length cars accessing the station platform. To still be running a 2 car train to Richmond and a Richmond-Delta tunnel that's still only 2 lanes each way, is a very sad joke.
So much more should have been done between 1986 and 2010. Especially, since 2010 and 2026.
https://vancouver.citynews.ca/2026/05/02/expo-86-40-years-later-the-memories-live-on
Everything is so much more difficult & costly to do in backwards BC.
Saturday, January 31, 2026
Why Greater Toronto Has Several Skylines
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eI9WJa9Q8dA
Of course many large urban areas around the world have more than 1 or 2 skylines or tower clusters.
For the longest time, no building in Vancouver or BC, was allowed to be as tall as the 1930s CIBC tower, which is now a stump.
https://www.blogto.com/city/2017/05/toronto-lost-observation-deck-commerce-court-north/
https://www.torontojourney416.com/canadian-bank-of-commerce-building/
https://www.25king.ca/the-history
It wasn't until the early 1970s when stumpy, Vancouver allowed a building to be taller than the L.A. City Hall, or the Smith Tower in Seattle.
The 1930s CIBC tower, the L.A. City Hall and the Smith Tower, would still be prominent towers in Vancouver, but stumps in their own cities.
Despite Vancouver being divided by an inlet and a river, the city wasn't able to build a huge wall along Boundary Road. Thus, the KEEP THEM OUT agenda was a little thwarted. The various White city councils tried to do the next best thing. That was to symbolically impose various restrictions as a reluctance to think, plan and build on a BIG city scale. The time especially from 1960 to 2000 had predominantly White City Hall and its councils continually impose several overlapping restrictions.
Since Vancouver can't control immigration or the movements of non-white people, keeping things small and backwards, means that less people will move there than to Toronto, Montreal, Calgary and Edmonton. However, with a mild winter climate, more and more people want to move to backwards BC, especially small-minded Vancouver and provincial Victoria.
In spite of immigration and Multiculturalism, Vancouver was to perpetually promote its small scale agenda.
While the first Skytrain line can finally run 5 car trains, the stations weren't designed to become long enough to eventually accomodate 9 car trains like the big city Montreal Metro has.
The 2nd and 3rd Skytrain lines are still only running 2 car joke trains. Running 8-10 car trains is what a proper big city would do, but not backwards Vancouver.
Narrow bridges provides strong symbolism of the cities narrow-mindedness. When bridges are too narrow, its difficult to have a proper express or rapid bus system. The reluctance to build parallel bus and HOV bridges helps to maintain the congestive planning approach that is vancouver and the Greater Region.
Vancouver's refusal to build parallel bike bridges has meant that 2 lanes were removed from the Burrard Bridge, 1 lane from the Cambie Bridge and 2 lanes from the Granville Bridge.
Keeping buildings symbolically short when compared to what scenic Sydney, Auckland, SF and Seattle allow, also helps to maintain Vancouver's reluctance to enter the big and tall urban scale. In fact, the scenic setting that Vancouver is in has been used as the main excuse to continually scale the city down. Yet, several scenic cities around the world are either able to have wider bridges, wider roads, longer trains or taller buildings.
The world is mostly composed of non-white people. Canada has less than 1% of the world's population and stubborn Vancouver symbolically remains as a small provincial backwater on the Pacific Rim.
https://centralparktower.com.au Unlike Perth, Vancouver forbids 50 story office towers and Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne size residential towers.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/108_St_Georges_Terrace In fact, no office building in Vancouver has been permitted to have a 40th floor. However, since Burnaby and Surrey aren't under the restrictive controls of Vancouver, they will eventually allow office towers over 40 stories.
Despite Australia having less people than Canada, Perth is allowed to have taller buildings, wider bridges and longer trains than Vancouver. Taller buildings, wider bridges and longer trains are even less likely in Halifax than whats in Brisbane or Queensland.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Q1_(building) To see buildings on a similar scale of what Brisbane allows, one has to get to Greater Toronto. Brisbane is allowed to have some buildings that would even be impressive in Melbourne and Sydney.
While Montreal is allowed to have taller buildings than Vancouver, Montreal isn't allowed to have Sydney size towers. Especially not on the scale of what Melbourne and Toronto permit.
Saturday, November 22, 2025
The small Westin Bayshore Hotel in Vancouver
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/westin-bayshore-vancouver-best-luxury-hotel
https://vancouversbestplaces.com/vancouver-hotels/vancouver-westin-bayshore-hotel
Of course the Vancouver location wasn't allowed to be as big as the Westin in Seattle. Just like the Hotel+Vancouver wasn't designed to be as tall and especially as wide as the Royal+York+Hotel.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westin_Seattle "The hotel originally consisted of a single 40 story tower, today's south tower, reaching a height of 121 m (397 ft). The tower was topped out in January 1969 and the hotel opened on June 29, 1969." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westin_Seattle#History "The 137 m (449 ft), 47-story north tower opened in June 1982..."
While Vancouver is only warm for half of the year, at best, the old Bayshore Inn wasn't allowed to be as big as anything in Waikiki.
https://corporatemeetingsnetwork.ca/2025/05/01/tackling-vancouvers-hotel-shortage-crisis/
Unlike Seattle, Vancouver no longer has its first 40 story hotel. Perhaps if the city had allowed a much taller condo tower, the hotel tower could have been saved. Or, a new double tower combination of a 55 story hotel and 65 story condo tower. Instead, the old landmark was replaced with 2 stumps that have less than 40 stories.
Other cities seemed to be more interested in cultivating their hotel and tourism industry. Even encouraging more hotel towers. However, Vancouver with its very strict (multigenerational) imposed height restrictions, kept falling behind.
https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2017/sep/27/wipe-out-era-1970s-vanish-vancouver
After several decades of keeping Vancouver hotels short and small, now the city realized that there aren't enough hotel rooms for the tourism industry.
https://globalnews.ca/video/11127278/biv-vancouver-needs-thousands-more-hotel-rooms
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/vancouver-tourism-risk-hotel-development-construction-policies
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyatt_Regency_Seattle Vancouver has yet to permit a big, bulky hotel like this.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainier_Square_Tower While this isn't a hotel, its 60m taller than the tallest building in Vancouver.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telus_Sky No hotel, just an office and residential tower. However, its about 22m taller than the tallest in Vancouver.
The (unofficial) rule is that almost everything in Vancouver has to be scaled back or watered down in size.
Tuesday, September 30, 2025
Tall and Wide Buildings
https://www.reddit.com/r/skyscrapers/comments/1nufoeh/the_1960s_and_the_1930s
While they would be giants by little Vancouver standards, they are just average when compared to the modern big stuff around the world.
https://www.reddit.com/r/skyscrapers/comments/1nuivgm/chicago_skyline_in_the_1950s Now stumps in Chicago, but they would still be tall towers in stumpy Vancouver.
https://www.reddit.com/r/skyscrapers/comments/1ntv4x8/chicago There are plenty of Vancouver size stumps in Chicago, NYC, Toronto & Melbourne...
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/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
stumps and towers
Tuesday, May 13, 2025
Marina City in Chicago
Marina_City (MC) "The complex consists of two 587-foot (179 m), 65-story apartment towers, opened in 1963" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marina_City#Architecture
https://skyscraperpage.com/cities/?buildingID=107021 The 57 story Butterfly tower in Vancouver is 586 feet, so its only 1 foot shorter than Marina_City. MC was able to fit in 65 floors into the same height.
https://reveryarchitecture.com/projects/butterfly/
https://westbankcorp.com/body-of-work/the-butterfly
https://www.canadianarchitect.com/revery-unveils-design-of-the-butterfly
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tallest_buildings_in_Chicago
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cf/Chicago-00.jpg Marina City is in the top, middle part of this picture and is hardly noticeable on the Chicago skyline.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tallest_buildings_in_Chicago#Tallest_buildings
Being from smallminded Vancouver, its always amazing to see how so many cities are allowed to be on a big scale.
Tuesday, January 7, 2025
The (stumpy) Post in Vancouver
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/sony-pictures-imageworks-global-headquarters-vancouver-the-post
https://storeys.com/quadreal-graeme-scott-the-post-vancouver-heritage-revitalization-amazon/
What could have been a nice, impressive double 55 story office complex is just another Vancouver stumpy building+complex. In that part of the very restrictive city, the building complex wasn't even allowed to have a 25th floor.
It's all part of the Vancouver stump agenda.
Had Bankers_Hall 1 & 2 in Calgary only been 26 stories, they would just be another stump complex. However, at 52 stories, they remain impressive.
Although Bankers_Hall isn't quite as tall as City_National_Plaza in L.A., both are 52 story complexes. 
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/27/PaulHastingsCityNationalTwinTowers.jpg
https://thelocationportal.com/city-national-plaza Fortunately, these towers in L.A. and Calgary weren't Vancouverized stumps.
https://www.skyscrapercenter.com/building/city-national-tower/1395
https://buildingsdb.com/CA/los-angeles/city-national-plaza/
The stump mentality was firmly in place for LA until the late 1960s, when a building was finally allowed to be taller than the 454' LA+City+Hall.
https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=The+Post+in+Vancouver
Tuesday, December 31, 2024
Los Angeles City Hall (454 ft or 138 m)
The LA_City_Hall should have been at least 500' tall, but it's only 454'. That still makes the Los_Angeles_City_Hall one of the taller ones around the planet, but it's become a stump of a building in downtown L.A.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los_Angeles_City_Hall#History "...was completed in 1928. 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.[9] Therefore, from its completion in 1928 until finally surpassed by the topping off of Union Bank Plaza in 1966, City Hall was the tallest building in Los Angeles..."
https://laist.com/news/entertainment/city-hall-tall Not 451 feet, but 454 feet, because there was no F 451 novel yet. The 454' LA City Hall was like an unofficial F-you to the taller buildings in NYC and Chicago. Perhaps even Metropolis_(1927_film). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropolis_(1927_film)#Influences
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_K._Dick PKD was born in 1928, the same year that the LA City Hall opened.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fahrenheit_451 "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#Title
https://laist.com/news/entertainment/city-hall-tall From 2016.
The agenda to not permit any building in LA to be taller than City Hall was the case for several decades. Even Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane & Perth weren't allowed to have buildings taller than the LA_City_Hall for a long time. Of course it took until the early 1970s for Vancouver to allow a building to be a little taller than the LA_City_Hall.
City Hall is really like a stump on the modern LA skyline. It can easily be obscured by the taller towers.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tallest_buildings_in_Los_Angeles#Tallest_buildings
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Union_Bank_Plaza Completed in 1968.
| Roof | 157.28 m (516.0 ft) |
|---|---|
| Technical details | |
| Floor count | 40 |
| Floor area | 68,525 m2 (737,600 sq ft) |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Union_Bank_Plaza#History Not only the first building permitted in LA to be over 500 feet, but having at least a 40th floor.
Just as LA got its first 40 story building in 1968, PKD had a book out in the same year. Do_Androids_Dream_of_Electric_Sheep?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Do_Androids_Dream_of_Electric_Sheep?#Plot
https://medium.com/@ejasp2/metropolis-v-s-blade-runner-1982-871baea0eea0
https://www.bartleby.com/essay/Comparison-between-Metropolis-and-Blade-Runner-P3JDKCLEC8BRS#
While Philip_K._Dick set E. Sheep in SF, Blade_Runner was set in LA.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blade_Runner#Production
Thursday, December 19, 2024
Towers vs. BC stumps
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPDf_AhsMFg
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empire_State_Building
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tallest_buildings_in_New_York_City#History
In accordance with small scale planning and symbolism, Vancouver isn't allowed to have what would be a tall building in Seattle and Calgary. In LA, its not just the buildings that are taller, the mountains are taller there as well.
Monday, April 1, 2024
Stumps and Towers in various cities
Every city starts out with stumps and several cities eventually have some tall towers.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tallest_buildings_in_Brisbane#Timeline_of_tallest_buildings
https://mapfight.xyz/compare/queensland-vs-us.fl
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tallest_buildings_in_Brisbane
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brisbane_Square At 151 m (495 ft) it's just another Vancouver like stump, especially, AMP_Place.
Queensland & especially Florida have grown substantially over the decades. A year round warm climate is certainly part of the big attraction. Something that Canada just doesn't have.
The Southeast_Financial_Center and One_Biscayne_Tower in Miami.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tallest_buildings_in_Brisbane
Another Vancouver type stump is the Miami_Center, which is 484 ft (148 m) tall and has 34 floors. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tallest_buildings_in_Miami#Tallest_buildings
One_Biscayne_Tower contains 39 floors and is 492 ft (150 m) tall. Today it's just another Vancouver stump size building in downtown_Miami.
The Miami_metropolitan_area, like Brisbane and the Gold_Coast, have been able to grow & flourish on a large scale, because they aren't under anything like the very restrictive Vancouver & BC limitations.
The BC part of Canada is very mountainous like Switzerland. Usually, SW BC is the most mild part of Canada during the winter. Thus, it's the best place to avoid most of the harsh Canadian winters. Yet, there has been quite a lacking approach to building & expanding infrastructure. Combined with very strict zoning & a haft-assed approach to urban planning, one can clearly see a much larger scale of things in Seattle, Calgary, Edmonton & Portland.
https://mapfight.xyz/map/ch 23 Switzerland's can fit into BC. Yet, BC has yet to reach the population of 1 CH.
Wednesday, September 13, 2023
The Stack Tower, or is it just another stumpy office building in Vancouver, BC?
It's all about Stumps+and+Towers.
There is no office tower in Vancouver or BC that has ever been allowed to have a 40th floor. Seattle has the 76 story B of A tower & Toronto has the 72 story BMO tower. That's because those cities aren't under anything like the restrictions and limitations that Vancouver has. If you can't build a wall around BC, the next best thing is to limit or reduce the scale of things. Then continually fall behind with the overall infrastructure.
Vancouver not only has limited the scale of office towers, but residential towers as well. It would seem that there is more of a demand now for residential towers than office towers.
Seattle, Calgary & Edmonton all have allowed a residential tower to be taller than anything in Vancouver.
https://thedigitallabyrinth.blogspot.com/search?q=Vancouver+House
London, UK for the longest time, refused to permit taller buildings. Then eventually as the land became so expensive, they eventually started to allow some towers that even rivaled that of Paris & Frankfurt. Some of the towers would not even be stumps when compared to those in NYC & Chicago.
https://vancouversun.com/news/local-news/no-rooms-at-the-inns-knock-on-effects-of-vancouvers-hotel-shortage If the city would allow taller buildings, then the hotel companies could build more rooms on the lower half, while providing condos on the upper half. Or, visa versa.
https://storeys.com/vancouver-hotel-shortage-council-motion Fortunatly, many other cities are able to keep up with getting more hotel rooms built. https://vancouver.citynews.ca/2023/09/08/vancouver-hotels-shortage-city-councillor/
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/metro-vancouver-hotel-supply-shortage-demand
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/city-of-vancouver-hotel-room-shortage-new-policies
Of course by the late 1800s, Montreal & Toronto had a sense of becoming major cities. Then by the early & mid 1900s, it became even more apparent. In the early 21st century, Vancouver is still stuck in a multi-decade rut of wanting to stunt, thwart or hold back the city in any way possible.
https://thedigitallabyrinth.blogspot.com/search?q=The+No+Fun+City
Most of the regional bridges or crossings have been deliberately kept so narrow that it's almost impossible to have a proper regional express bus network to compliment the short sighted Skytrain stations.
All the narrow bridges should have had additional Bus+and+HOV+Lane bridges by now.
https://thedigitallabyrinth.blogspot.com/search?q=HOV
The stump city has so much potential, but only if Vancouver reaches for the sky.
Saturday, June 18, 2022
The Iron Bridge and the old Champlain Bridge
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ironworkers_Memorial_Second_Narrows_Crossing
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Champlain_Bridge_(Montreal,_1962-2019) Both became classic 6 lane bottlenecks or chokepoints. That's because more than 6 lanes of traffic connected to such bridges.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel-De_Champlain_Bridge An 8 lane bridge with 2 REM tracks. While I would like it to have been 10 or 12 lanes with 4 tracks, its still so much better than what backwards Vancouver would allow. 8 lanes plus 2 HOV lanes & 2 bus lanes, because the REM train isn't running 24 hours.
The+Lion+Bridge+and+The+Iron+Bridge are just too inadequate to be modern transportation crossings.
The inept Lion_Bridge should have had bus & train tunnels built next to it decades ago.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lions_Gate_Bridge An 8 lane road tunnel could allow the Lions-Gate-Bridge to become a foot & bike crossing, but that's what a proper big city would do.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FVfdglQUAAEiQZV?format=jpg&name=large Vancouver Stumps vs. Towers.
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/vancouvers-shrinking-skyline Holding Vancouver back is what you do when you symbolically don't want to accommodate growth. Whit so much scaled back infrastructure, who knows where the money went?
Thursday, February 17, 2022
Stumps and Towers
Stumps+and+Towers is part of a series of posts showing how so many other cities are able to build so much taller & wider that what is permitted in Vancouver, Canada.
https://changingvancouver.wordpress.com/2020/01/06/granville-street-700-block-east-side-4/
https://changingvancouver.wordpress.com/2019/06/03/beatty-street-500-block-2/
https://changingvancouver.wordpress.com/2018/05/17/west-pender-street-east-from-cambie/
https://changingvancouver.wordpress.com/2020/04/16/view-from-harbour-centre-lookout-south-east/
https://changingvancouver.wordpress.com/2018/12/20/west-cordova-and-granville-2/
https://changingvancouver.wordpress.com/2012/01/10/the-marine-building/
https://changingvancouver.wordpress.com/2019/01/31/west-hastings-street-west-from-howe-street/
https://changingvancouver.wordpress.com/2020/09/14/guinness-tower-west-hastings-street/
The stump city could have taken a much better approach to saving some historical buildings, while still growing up like a proper big city.
Sunday, August 2, 2020
The Stumps and Towers of Vancouver, BC
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/30/Spanish_Banks_Vancouver_BC.jpg 2007
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calgary#/media/File:Downtown_Calgary_2020-3.jpg ,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calgary_Metropolitan_Region#/media/File:Calgary_Skyline_May_2018_(cropped).jpg ,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calgary#/media/File:2020_Calgary_Saddledome.jpg ,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calgary_Metropolitan_Region#/media/File:Calgary_Skyline_2015.png ,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calgary#/media/File:Calgary-2387396_1280_(cropped).jpg ,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calgary_Metropolitan_Region
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calgary#/media/File:Downtown_Calgary_2020-3.jpg ,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calgary_Metropolitan_Region#/media/File:Calgary_Skyline_May_2018_(cropped).jpg ,
.jpg){kind=link}
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calgary#/media/File:2020_Calgary_Saddledome.jpg ,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calgary_Metropolitan_Region#/media/File:Calgary_Skyline_2015.png ,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calgary#/media/File:Calgary-2387396_1280_(cropped).jpg ,
.jpg){kind=link}
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calgary_Metropolitan_Region
Sunday, July 5, 2020
Vancouver and Victoria high-rise-towers vs. stumps
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/vancouver-high-rise-towers-1.3434406
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/the-architecture-of-loneliness-how-vancouver-s-highrises-contribute-to-isolation-1.4919548
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/west-broadway-rezoning-1.5637611
https://douglasmagazine.com/opinion-building-heights-victoria-bc/
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/the-architecture-of-loneliness-how-vancouver-s-highrises-contribute-to-isolation-1.4919548
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/west-broadway-rezoning-1.5637611
https://douglasmagazine.com/opinion-building-heights-victoria-bc/
Friday, January 2, 2015
Telus towers and stumps
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telus_Sky ,
http://skyscraperpage.com/cities/?buildingID=3646 Calgary 729' 221m
https://www.google.ca/search?q=Telus+Sky+Calgary&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=Q-mmVK2nCs_hoATJvYHICw&ved=0CCoQsAQ&biw=1600&bih=799
http://changingcitybook.com/2014/10/23/telus-the-residential-tower ,
http://skyscraperpage.com/cities/?buildingID=90197 137m
http://www.vancitybuzz.com/2013/10/amazon-vancouver-office-to-set-up-at-new-telus-garden ,
https://www.google.ca/search?q=Telus+Garden+Residential+Tower+Vancouver&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=39imVL6vDMmTyAT4oYKYAw&ved=0CD0QsAQ&biw=1600&bih=799
Burnaby
http://skyscraperpage.com/cities/?buildingID=1365
http://skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?countryID=1
Friday, February 21, 2014
Stumps and Towers of Australia and Canada, Etc.
https://skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?countryID=8&status=15 Of course Australia would have its first 90 story tower before Canada. Just like it had its first tower over a 100 floors before Canada.
1967 was a key year in Sydney and Toronto skyscraper history.
Australia_Square Tower would have been even grander if it could have been the first office tower in the country to have 60 levels above the ground.
"The original proposal included 58 floors; however, this was reduced to 50." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australia_Square#Design Although its a reduced building, at least it wasn't Vancouverized to be under 40 stories.
This building was quite the The-Real-Thing for NSW and Australia throughout the changing 1960s and beyond. A good start to the nations first 50 story office tower, indeed. However, it could also be seen as a new pillar within the Global Power Structure. The GPS is in its own AI run dreamworld MATRIX of technology, technocracy and conformity.
While I marvel at the various tall buildings around the world, if the big buildings & big cities just become part of a totalitarian system, then only a very small percentage of people at the top will benefit.
Vancouver has taken a multi-decade, thwarting approach towards holding back the scale of the city & its overall infrastructure. However, that has slowly been changing in recent years. Developers might be more motivated to build affordable housing if they can build taller structures.
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