https://www.reddit.com/r/CityPorn/comments/1rc5hlj/seattle Another scenic city thats allowed to have taller buildings than Vancouver, BC.
Showing posts sorted by date for query buildings. Sort by relevance Show all posts
Showing posts sorted by date for query buildings. Sort by relevance Show all posts
Monday, February 23, 2026
Saturday, January 31, 2026
Sydney's First 300m Towers
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUuy94brhLI Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, GC City & Perth, are all allowed to have taller buildings than little stumpy provincial Vancouver, Canada.
How Sydney´s Skyline Will Change by 2030 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lzz6aXvTZko Unfortunatly, the AI voice nation wasn't set to an Australian standard.
Friday, January 30, 2026
Tree-inspired office tower concept proposed for revived Waterfront Station project
Singapore, Perth, Sydney, Seattle, SF and Miami are allowed to have tall buildings right near the water, because they are allowed to be big and tall cities.
Vancouver has several restrictions which prevent it from becoming a proper big city.
Wednesday, January 14, 2026
Mild Victoria, BC
Victoria has been a provincial backwater for most of its history. Despite being in a mild winter setting, it's so small when compared to Edmonton, Winnipeg, Quebec City and Halifax.
https://www.onevictoriaplace.ca
https://skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?cityID=37&status=15
While Edmonton was eventually allowed to have a tall building, even by Toronto, Calgary and Montreal standards, Victoria was always supposed to have shorter buildings than Winnipeg, Quebec City and Halifax. That's part of the KEEP THINGS SMALL mentality on V. Island.
Victoria should have had its first LRT line by now, but that might improve urban mobility. Eventually, Victoria and Nanaimo will merge into one linear urban area. Eventually, the Comox_Valley_Regional_District will have over 100,000 people, the Regional_District_of_Nanaimo will have over 200,000 people, the Cowichan_Valley_Regional_District will exceed 100,000 people and the Capital_Regional_District will have over 450,000 people.
Of course there doesn't seem to be any big regional scale planning from Sooke to Courtenay. Perhaps the island's urban planners will wait until there is 800,000 and over a million residents on the island.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vancouver_Island#Demographics
So, as more people discover that Victoria and Vancouver are the mildest winter cities in Canada, more people just might want to move there. Especially, when Canadian Snowbirds don't feel as comfortable with Florida, Texas & California.
Sunday, January 4, 2026
Does Los Angeles have the Most Confusing Skyline?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2ljqamDgwg
Back in the day, the KEEP L.A. SHORT crowd really wanted to make sure that no building in SoCal was as tall as the tallest Egyptian_pyramid. Thus, the Giza_pyramid_complex was taller than anything in LA until the late 1960s.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Pyramid_of_Giza "Initially standing at 146.6 meters (481 feet), the Great Pyramid was the world's tallest human-made structure for more than 3,800 years."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los_Angeles_City_Hall#History "It has 32 floors and, at 454 feet (138 m) high..." https://calisphere.org/item/cf1903e53170db536690f3f8690925a0 Just a little pyramid on top of a building that is shorter than the tallest pyramid in Egypt.
.jpg/960px-Los_Angeles_City_Hall_(from_the_West).jpg)
.tif/lossy-page1-800px-Pyramids_from_afar_(2).tif.jpg)
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e9/Pyramids_from_afar_%282%29.tif/lossy-page1-800px-Pyramids_from_afar_%282%29.tif.jpg
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giza
https://rarehistoricalphotos.com/vintage-photos-los-angeles-1940s-1960s
Of course LA would eventually allow some buildings to be twice as tall as the tallest Egyptian pyramid.
https://www.commercialcafe.com/blog/evolution-downtown-la-visual-timeline/
https://skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?cityID=26&status=15
https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=LA+City+Hall
https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=The+Transamerica+Pyramid+in+SF
Wednesday, December 3, 2025
Westham Island Bridge, B.C....
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westham_Island_Bridge So, it would take until the mid 2020s for this wagon road era bridge to be seriously considered for upgrading.
https://deltasheritage.com/buildings/wib.html Whenever a new bridge is built, it should have 2 wide lanes, 2 bike lanes & 2 sidewalks.
https://lifesincrediblejourney.com/explore-historic-westham-island/
https://seabc.ca/rehabilitation-of-westham-island-bridge-and-alexandra-bridge/
The Marpole_Bridge_(1889) was another wagon road era crossing that took a very long time to be upgraded.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marpole_Bridge_(1889)#Congestion_and_replacement
The 1970s Arthur_Laing_Bridge (ALB) should have had at least 6 lanes, plus 2 wide shoulders.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Laing_Bridge#Since_opening There also should have been 2 sidewalks & 2 bike lanes. By now, there should have been a bus+and+bike+bridge built next to it.
Several decades after the removal of the (wagon road) Fraser_Street_Bridge_(1894), no replacement has ever been built.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fraser_Street_Bridge_(1894)#Provincial_government_headache
At the very least, it should have been replaced with a bus+and+bike+bridge in the 1970s.
https://www.richmond-news.com/local-news/photos-and-video-was-this-the-unluckiest-bridge-between-richmond-and-vancouver-4475444 However by now, there should have been a new 4 lane bridge with 2 emergency lanes, 2 bike lanes & 2 sidewalks.
https://evelazarus.com/the-fraser-street-swing-span-bridge
The joke that is the Knight_Street_Bridge (KSB) was deliberately designed to be another quintessential BC bottleneck-chokepoint. The bridge should have opened with 6 lanes & 2 wide shoulders or emergency lanes. Pulse, 2 wide sidewalks & 2 bike lanes.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knight_Street_Bridge#Maintenance,_upgrades_and_incidents Instead, the middle of the bridge is just 2 lanes each way, with 2 narrow sidewalks & no bike separate bike lanes. The KSB should have had a parallel bus+and+bike+bridge built next to it decades ago.
Tuesday, December 2, 2025
Broadway Plan Solar Access Policies
Over the decades, Vancouver planners have ingeniously used shadow restrictions to hold back the scale of the city. Vancouver is cold, dark and depressing for half of the year. Even a 10-20 story stump can cast a shadow. However, when summer does return every year, some people like to have more shade from buildings and trees.
The gentrification of the Downtown Eastside
https://cityhallwatch.wordpress.com/2025/12/01/events-before-dec9th-dtes-mass-rezone-public-hearing
I really like tall buildings, but...
The city should be able to use leverage to get developers to not only match, but add more social housing and affordable housing in general.
Saturday, November 29, 2025
2538 Birch Street
https://storeys.com/vancouver-2538-birch-street-broadway-rental-tower-controversy-construction/
https://www.shapeyourcity.ca/2538-birch
Seattle and Calgary have never used shadow restrictions to the extent that Vancouver has. Vancouver has used almost every excuse possible to not permit buildings to be as tall as those in Calgary and Seattle.
https://cityhallwatch.wordpress.com/2020/07/13/shadow-analysis-2538-birch/
Seattle is a little ways south of Vancouver and Calgary is a good ways NE of Vancouver.
https://cityhallwatch.wordpress.com/2020/07/13/support-vs-oppose-statistics-2538-birch/
Saturday, November 22, 2025
World’s Tallest Towers Comparison
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09pmnf8npA8
There was a time when no structure in BC was allowed to be as tall as Blackpool Tower. Then there was a time when no building in Vancouver was allowed to be as tall as the Seattle Space needle or the Calgary Tower. Even in late 2025, only one Vancouver building has been allowed to be taller than the Calgary Tower.
Burnaby, Coquitlam and especially Surrey, don't have such imposed height restrictions as stumpy Vancouver. Thus, Burnaby, Coquitlam and Surrey will all be having taller buildings than Vancouver.
If Montreal can ever have its equivalent of La_Defense or Canary_Wharf, then it might be able to have some tall buildings that would be impressive by Melbourne and Toronto standards. Perhaps even Chicago or NYC standards.
Thursday, November 13, 2025
Airports and Tall Buildings
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_City_Airport
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.
Wednesday, November 12, 2025
Cities, the BIG and the small of it
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CN_Tower
1815' divided by 581' is almost 3.13 times the height of a stump in Vancouver.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harbour_Centre "Skyscraperpage lists the buildings height to the roof as being only 139.6 m (458 ft). This is stated to be the height from the Hastings Street entrance while the height from the back entrance on Cordova Street is 146 m (479 ft). It also lists the buildings pinnacle height to the tip of the antenna as being 177.1 m (581 ft)." STUMP!
This Vancouver stump is only 32% of the CN Towers height.
.jpg/960px-A_look_downtown_(759827996).jpg)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Canadian_Place The BMO. Unlike Chicago, Toronto has no 100 story office towers.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bentall_Centre_(Vancouver)#Three_Bentall_Centre A 32 story BC office stump.
Being from small Vancouver, its amazing that Canada even has one megacity. Toronto is certainly a big city on a lakeshore like Chicago is. Montreal isn't allowed to have buildings as tall as Melbourne, let alone NYC. Montreal has allowed only one office tower to be over 50 floors and a few residential towers in the 60s.
Calgary has more 50+ story office towers than Denver and Perth. No 40 story office tower exists in BC. The office section of the Harbour_Centre doesn't even have a 30th floor and the revolving restaurant is closer to being like 35 floors up. However, with the overall building being 481 feet, it would be equivalent to 40 floors, if the windows went right up to the top. The flagpole has no windows, but the flag would be like the equivalent of being 48 floors up.
Not just Toronto & Montreal, but Edmonton and Seattle have longer underground train stations than backwards, congested Vancouver.
The Iron+Bridge, Oak+Street+Bridge, Knight+Street+Bridge & the Arthur+Laing+Bridge should all have a bus+and+bike bridge built next to them. The extremely inadequate Lion+Bridge should have already had a bus and train tunnel close to it.
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.
Thursday, October 30, 2025
Why Phoenix doesn't have Skyscrapers
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vC9SxNejPI4 Its sad when buildings from other cities are shown as if its Phoenix.
Why the Fifth-Largest City in the U.S. Doesn’t Have a Single Skyscraper https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qD4WGb0UjwM
World Cup lodging shortfall predicted in Vancouver
The proposed 27-storey hotel tower at the edge of Stanley Park is drawing pushback from West End residents over its scale https://vancouversun.com/news/proposed-west-end-tower-that-aims-to-fill-vancouvers-hotel-shortage Parking lots and almost delapadeted buildings should be selected first. This building still seems to be in reasonable shape.
https://www.biv.com/news/real-estate/vancouver-needs-10k-more-hotel-rooms-says-report-10508458
https://vancouversun.com/news/vancouver-major-hotel-policy-overhaul-room-shortage
Lots of people in some parts of the West_End end are still accustomed to stumpy buildings, despite the very high land costs.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b0/Vancouver-stanley-park.jpg/960px-Vancouver-stanley-park.jpg Many other cities aren't afraid to build tall close to the water or parks.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4c/Vancouver_west_end.jpg/960px-Vancouver_west_end.jpg People shouldn't be displace just becaus of a new development. An agreement should be reached so that they can still remain in the new structure. However, it's the height issue that usually keeps popping up. A lot of people that still remember Vancouver as a provincial backwater of a city want it to remain that way for as long as possible.
https://www.shapeyourcity.ca/2030-2038-barclay-st , https://stop2030barclay.ca
https://henriquezpartners.com/projects/2030-barclay The height proposal is at lest a dozen floors too short, it should be about 20 stories taller.
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/2030-barclay-street-vancouver-stanley-park-hotel-tower
https://storeys.com/marcon-barclay-street-vancouver-hotel The issue here is that a lot of people don't want a stump replaced with an atempt of a taller building. The people that live there should have the option to live in the new building. If the city and the developer could reach an agreement to allow the current residents to move into the lower floors of the tower. Then remain there at a reasonable rental rate for as long as they want. Then eventually after all the former residents have moved on or passed on, the lower floors could be repurposed into hotel rooms. If a developer in such a situation could agree to that, then the city should allow them to build 15-20 floors higher than 27 stories.
That gets back to the height restriction issue in Vancouver. Other cities have allowed tall buildings right up to the edge of a park. It seems that no one from Vancouver was able to ever stop Sydney. Rather, the Vancouver Mind Virus (VMV) never made it there to thwart big, bustling Sydney.
.jpg/960px-Global_Citizen_Festival_Central_Park_New_York_City_from_NYonAir_(15351915006).jpg)
Of course it would have been great if there was future space south of the Hotel+Vancouver (with only 507 rooms) to build a 55-65 story tower. A VPL and Hotel+Vancouver tower could have been started there in the mid 1950s, but Vancouver was still too much of a provincial backwater then. The Fairmont_Royal_York is nice and wide with 1,363 rooms.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westin_St._Francis "...the St. Francis one of the largest hotels in the city, with more than 1,254 rooms and suites."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hilton_San_Francisco_Union_Square "Renovated in 2017, it is the largest hotel on the West Coast,[8] with 1,921 rooms."
Fortunately, Sydney, Melbourne, SF and Toronto were never under anything like a Vancouverization agenda. Somehow that backwards mentality was never adopted in most real cities.
https://bcbusiness.ca/industries/real-estate/land-values-how-the-hotel-shortage-in-vancouver-is-coinciding-with-a-boom-in-tourism The BC Mind Virus is so firmly entrenched that its still very difficult to properly upgrade things.
Tuesday, October 28, 2025
Surrey primed to surpass Vancouver population in the very near future
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/surrey-vancouver-population-estimates-rennie Fortunatly, the Vancouver Mind Virus won't be able to stop Surrey from having taller residential buildings. While Vancouver still won't permit any office tower to have 40 floors, Surrey will very likely have the first office tower in BC to have more than 40 stories.
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/surrey-metro-vancouver-population-growth-forecast-bc-city-2038
Wednesday, October 22, 2025
The Municipality of Monaco
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Municipality_of_Monaco
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monaco#Administrative_divisions
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rail_transport_in_Monaco
Despite being so much smaller than WV, Monaco can still have taller buildings and even wealthier people.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Odeon_Tower , https://www.skyscrapercenter.com/building/tour-odeon/2728
https://www.skyscrapercenter.com/building/le-millefiori/9036
https://www.skyscrapercenter.com/building/lannonciade/9037
https://www.skyscrapercenter.com/building/parc-saint-roman/10179
https://www.skyscrapercenter.com/building/columbia-palace/11239
Ground broken for three towers at north end of Victoria's downtown
https://www.biv.com/news/ground-broken-for-three-towers-at-north-end-of-victorias-downtown-11378830
Despite Victoria being the most mild winter city in Canada, it was supposed to be a provincial backwater for as long as possible. Buildings were to be kept smaller than the tallest in Edmonton, QC, Winnipeg & Halifax.
https://skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?cityID=37&status=15
In typical upside-down BC fashion, Edmonton is a mighty capital in cold winter Northern Alberta, while Victoria excels as a stunted & thwarted small city in mild SW BC.
Before Victoria could ever rival Edmonton, it would first have to rival Halifax, then Winnipeg and then Quebec_City.
Perhaps someday, Regina might equal or rival Winnipeg, but not likely Edmonton. After Toronto, Edmonton is the largest of the Canadian provincial capitals. Both cities are worlds away from the extreme imposed restrictions of Vancouver and Victoria.
Tuesday, October 21, 2025
Adelaide, SA
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adelaide
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tallest_buildings_in_Adelaide#Cityscape
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tallest_buildings_in_Adelaide#Tallest_buildings
After several decades, Adelaide will finally have a couple of buildings that will even be tall by Perth standards.
Wednesday, October 15, 2025
The Battle continues over Vancouver Aquatic Centre
https://globalnews.ca/video/11480236/battle-continues-over-vancouver-aquatic-centre-renovations
There isn't officially a Vancouver Mind Virus (VMV), but somehow through the decades, the KEEP VANCOUVER SMAL AND BACKWARDS mentality keeps manifesting.
https://cityhallwatch.wordpress.com/2025/10/15/aquatic-centre-25vs50m-officials-misled "This scandal exposes how Vancouver’s development approval processes can be corrupted if staff predetermine outcomes and manufacture justifications rather than conducting evidence-based analysis. If municipal staff can systematically mislead elected representatives on a project this significant—with technical evidence this clear—what other decisions have been corrupted in the past or could be corrupted in the future?"
Why have a modern full-size pool, when there can be a half size, Half-A$$ED pool? That's the VMV resurfacing again.
https://vancouversun.com/news/proposed-vancouver-aquatic-centre-seeks-height-density-relaxations "Swimmers have mounted a court petition over plans to replace the 50-metre Olympic-sized pool with one half that length"
A scaled down Vancouver+Aquatic+Centre is part of the pay more to get less mentality. One of the most obvious ways to perpetuate the BC antigrowth agenda is to go backwards and build smaller infrastructure. Where does the money go if it's not always going towards proper big city size infrastructure?
Half sized buildings, half sized trains, half sized bridges, that's the VMV & BCMV in action.
https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=SHIT-BOX
https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=Lions+Gate+Bridge An absurd 3 lane bridge without a parallel bus and train tunnel to help relieve this quintessential chokepoint.
https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=Canada+Line A 2 car train that should have started with 5 cars, but can only be expanded into a 2.5 car train, someday.
https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=Richmond-Delta+Tunnel No provision for a train tunnel, because that would make it easier to have a line connecting YVR with the Tsawwassen+ferry+terminal. Just like there is no desire to have a train between YVR and the Horseshoe+Bay+ferry+terminal.
This Vancouver and BC Mind Virus is horrible, because it keeps stunting the potential of BC by watering down the infrastructure.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)