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.
Showing posts sorted by date for query stump. Sort by relevance Show all posts
Showing posts sorted by date for query stump. Sort by relevance Show all posts
Tuesday, December 2, 2025
Thursday, November 20, 2025
The Post building complex sells for over $1.1 billion
https://vancouversun.com/news/quadreal-sells-the-post-heritage-building-vancouver This stump building+complex doesn't even have 26 floors. It's not much taller than this 22 story stump in LA.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_National_Plaza This was the first office complex to rise over 50 floors in LA.
https://skyscraperpage.com/cities/?buildingID=2301 52 stories opened in 1972.
https://www.skyscrapercenter.com/building/city-national-tower/1395
LA and then Calgary were able to have a double tower complex of over 50 floors, but Vancouver just has a double stump thats not even 25 floors.
https://www.brookfieldproperties.com/en/our-properties/bankers-hall-west-175 47 stories
https://skyscraperpage.com/cities/?buildingID=6993 1989
https://skyscraperpage.com/cities/?buildingID=7073 2000
52 floors in total.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bankers_Hall_Towers_%281%29_%288068206826%29.jpg
https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=The+Post+building+complex
Wednesday, November 19, 2025
Zara's billionaire founder buys Amazon-anchored The Post office complex from QuadReal in downtown Vancouver
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/the-post-amazon-vancouver-quadreal-pontegadea-acquisition
This stump building+complex isn't even 26 floors.
It's so incredibly small when compared to what big cities allow.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bankers_Hall 52 stories in Calgary.
https://www.stockaerialphotos.com/-/galleries/cities/calgary/-/medias/a1d07eb9-561e-4f75-9235-64c07d7320ee-penn-west-plaza-calgary The Post isn't that much higher than this stump in Calgary. https://www.stockaerialphotos.com/media/8e457764-fd2f-4e0c-9944-09fc86185f5d-penn-west-plaza-i-and-ii
https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=The+Post+building+complex
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.
Thursday, October 30, 2025
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 21, 2025
Winnipeg
https://streets.mn/2017/12/01/twenty-urbanist-observations-from-a-trip-to-winnipeg
If you are from narrow-minded Vancouver, you might be amazed as to how wide some of the streets are in Downtown_Winnipeg.
https://www.tourismwinnipeg.com/plan-your-trip/neighbourhoods/display,neighbourhood/5/downtown
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/300_Main_(Winnipeg) "Standing at 141.7 metres and 42 storeys, it is the tallest building in Winnipeg as well as in Manitoba."
https://skyscraperpage.com/cities/?buildingID=108830 466 feet.
https://skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?cityID=58&status=15
It took several decades for Winnipeg to finally have a building taller than the Foshay_Tower in Minneapolis.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foshay_Tower "It has 32 floors and stands 447 feet (136 m) high..."
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d3/Foshay_Tower_Highsmith.jpg/500px-Foshay_Tower_Highsmith.jpg While the Foshay Tower would be like the 2nd tallest building in Winnipeg, it's become a stump in Minneapolis.
https://versus.com/en/minneapolis-vs-winnipeg Greater M might have 4 million people before Greater W has even 1 million people.
https://worldmeasure.com/cities/minneapolis-usa/compare/winnipeg-can
Friday, October 3, 2025
The Scotia (stump) Tower in Vancouver
https://www.skyscrapercenter.com/building/scotia-tower/4396 138 m / 453 ft with 35 floors
https://www.skydb.net/building/134544260/scotia-tower-vancouver Height 138 m (452 ft) Floors 35
https://skyscraperpage.com/cities/?buildingID=65 452 feet https://skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?searchID=110142950&page=3
https://skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?cityID=1
https://skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?cityID=1&status=15
Despite The Scotia Tower in Vancouver opening in 1977, it's still a prominent, but small building on the skyline. The windows only go up to the 34th floor, where as the windows on the real Scotia Tower in Toronto go up to the 68th floor.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scotia_Tower Opened in 1977 with 34 floors, plus 2 windowless levels and at least 2 underground floors. Given its prominence on the skyline, the city would not permit it to have a 40th floor.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nauru_House Melbourne 52 floors
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/25_Martin_Place Sydney 67 floors
Monday, September 29, 2025
Will the Tribune East Tower in Chicago ever be built?
https://www.reddit.com/r/skyscrapers/comments/1nsu0xw/will_tribune_east_tower_chicago_be_built
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tribune_East_Tower 1,442 ft (439.5 m) 113 floors.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tribune_Tower 1925
A 463-foot-tall (141 m), 36-floor building. Today, it's just another old Chicago size stump, but in if it was in Vancouver, it would still be an impressively tall tower.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tribune_Tower#Architecture
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/07/06/tribune-tower-100-years-chicago-magnificent-mile Even a centuray later, this would be one of the tallest office towers in backwater BC.
Tuesday, July 22, 2025
City of Burnaby switches to height-based building policies, abandoning density limits
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/burnaby-height-based-development-framework
Fortunately, Vancouver can't stunt and stump Burnaby anymore than it could with Parramatta, NSW. Vancouver is trying its darndest to prevent any buildings from rising above 200 m. Unlike Vancouver, Burnaby doesn't try to look for any excuse to hold its city back.
https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=building+shadowing+policies
Friday, July 11, 2025
The Rise and Fall of an Awkward Dining Trend
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgejGeLwrj4
The Space_Needle became an instant Seattle landmark since the early 1960s. The same for the Calgary_Tower by the late 1960s.
https://www.spaceneedle.com , https://www.calgarytower.com
Both were possible, because Seattle & Calgary aren't under anything like Vancouver's imposed restrictions.
The H._R._MacMillan_Space_Centre opened in October 1968, some 4 months after the Calgary Tower & 6.5 years after the Space Needle. Of course Vancouver was behind, as usual. The first thing that you notice is that there is no tower. It's a classic stump of a building.
https://thecdm.ca/partners/industry/the-hr-macmillan-space-centre
https://www.spacecentre.ca/celebrating-55-years
https://www.reddit.com/r/vancouver/comments/qhnz76/tbt_vancouver_planetarium_1968
The movie Final_Destination_Bloodlines provides a CGI depiction of what an actual tower, not a stump would look like. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Final_Destination_Bloodlines#Plot
While Final_Destination_Bloodlines was filmed in Vancouver, it was set in New York State.
Something peculiar happened in Seattle in 2025.
https://people.com/space-needle-crack-glass-floor-absolutely-safe-11770526
https://wrif.com/2025/07/08/crack-space-needle-glass-floor/
https://cryptogmail.com/is-the-space-needles-glass-floor-cracking-heres-the-real-story/
Final Destination: Bloodlines Movie Clip https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0iQhOmebDqo
https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=Seattle
Friday, May 23, 2025
401 West Georgia Street
https://www.skyscrapercenter.com/vancouver/401-west-georgia/25079 This could have been a nice slender 50 story tower, but instead its just a 22 story stump.
https://www.biv.com/news/real-estate/institutions-flirt-with-premium-offices-in-vancouver-10691979
Thursday, April 10, 2025
Thursday, April 3, 2025
Just another stump in Swiss Cottage, London, UK
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swiss_Cottage#Urban_development
https://www.hamhigh.co.uk/news/24198051.new-owner-pledges-finish-swiss-cottage-tower-block/
https://www.housingtoday.co.uk/news/regal-to-increase-numbers-of-homes-in-proposed-24-storey-block-to-make-scheme-viable/5131568.article Not 48, only 24 floors.
https://www.architectsjournal.co.uk/news/government-approves-contentious-grid-tower
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chalcots_Estate Only 23 stories, not 46.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swiss_Cottage#Transport
Thursday, March 20, 2025
The Typical Vancouver Size Stump Building
Given that most proper big cities around the world are permitted to build much taller & wider buildings than what is allowed in strict & stubborn Vancouver, BC, a curious thing has happened over the decades. When a tall tower is built in another city, next to it will be a Vancouver size stump of a building. However, the Vancouver stump isn't always part of the complex, The Vancouver Size Stump might be across the street or a block or so away. Yet, such a stumpy building can provide an excellent example of the larger scale that most big cities are allowed to exist upon.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Centre_(Vancouver) "The skyscraper stands at just under 145m tall and 37 storeys. Royal Centre was the tallest building in Vancouver upon completion in 1973..."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Canadian_Place The windows go up to 72 stories, plus a few levels above that. The BMO tower in Toronto is about twice the height of the RBC in Vancouver. The 32 story BMO tower in Vancouver is a stump when compared to the 72 story BMO tower in TO.
A Vancouver Size stump in tall Toronto.
A Vancouver Size Stump in Perth, WA.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exchange_Tower,_Perth It's a 40-storey skyscraper in Perth, Western Australia. Completed in 1992, the 146-metre (479 ft). Stubborn Vancouver just won't permit any office building to have a 40th floor.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/140_St_Georges_Terrace "140 St Georges Terrace is a 30-storey skyscraper in Perth, Western Australia. Opened in 1975, the 131-metre (430 ft) tower was known as the AMP Building..."
.jpg/640px-Elizabeth_Quay_February_2016_(cropped).jpg)
Vancouver is a very tiny part of the BC land area. Even in the Greater Vancouver Region, Vancouver is a small component. Thus, while stubborn Vancouver wants to keep its stumpy agenda, other BC cities are more accepting of allowing significantly taller structures. https://skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?stateID=1&status=15
BMO Tower in Chicago and Toronto...
A Toronto bank tower exists in Chicago.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BMO_Tower_(Chicago) 51-story, 727 feet (222 m)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_Union_Station
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Canadian_Place (BMO Tower Toronto) 298 m (978 ft) 72 stories
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Canadian_Place#History_and_architecture
"Exchange_Tower is a 36 storey 146 m (479 ft) tower in the First Canadian Place complex."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bentall_Centre_(Vancouver)#Three_Bentall_Centre "Completed in 1974, it stands at 122 m or 32 storeys tall. Bank of Montreal is the main tenant of this building."
Thursday, March 13, 2025
The Post building in Vancouver
The+Post should have been the first 2-3 million sq.ft. building+complex in Vancouver. However, due to the rainy cities watering down agenda, it's only a little more than one million sq.ft. Thus, instead of being in the 55-60 story range, it wasn't even permitted to have 25 floors.
https://www.mcmparchitects.com/projects/the-post-on-georgia-archived
Not only did The-Post-on-Georgia Street have to be shorter than Toronto's small Simpson-Tower, The Post had to be shorter than the Old+City+Hall+in+Toronto.
https://storeys.com/quadreal-graeme-scott-the-post-vancouver-heritage-revitalization-amazon
https://thepostvancouver.com/experience While its a nice looking structure, its amazing how short the complex is.
While one side of Manulife+Centre+in+Toronto was Vancouverized with a stump of less than 25 stories, the other side of the complex has more than 50 floors.
If you are visiting from Calgary or Montreal and especially Toronto, you might be shocked to see how short the buildings are in Vancouver.
https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=The+Post+in+Vancouver
The Old City Hall and The Simpson Tower in Toronto
The Old_City_Hall opened in 1899 at a height of 103.64 m (340.0 ft). Even in the 21st century, many parts of Downtown Vancouver aren't allowed to have buildings taller than Toronto's Old City Hall.
The Post is a stumpy building+complex in Vancouver. Despite the high land costs, strict Vancouver wouldn't permit it to be taller than Toronto's Old City Hall. The Stump, rather The Post, should have been taller than the LA City Hall, the Philadelphia_City_Hall and the Manhattan_Municipal_Building. It should have really been closer in size to that of the Seattle_Municipal_Tower or even the Tokyo_Metropolitan_Government_Building.
Library Square in Vancouver just like The Post, wasn't allowed to have 25 floors, when they both should have been well over 50 stories.
https://www.skyscrapercenter.com/building/library-square/25126 84.1 m / 276 ft
https://www.da-architects.ca/projects/library-square Strict Vancouver just doesnt allow buildings in that part of the downtown to be taller than The Old City Hall in Toronto.
https://viewpointvancouver.ca/2018/10/05/library-square-best-new-public-space-in-vancouver
Unfortunatly, Library Square and The Post are so scaled back or watered down, they would hardly be impressive in most proper big cities around the world. Library Square and The Post should have both been in the 50-60 story range, but don't even have a 25th floor. This was a lost opportunity for Downtown Vancouver to have a proper size big city and government complex.
The Simpson_Tower opened in 1968. It has 33 floors and is 144 m (472 ft) high. It would be equivalent to being the tallest building in BC until 1973. Even in 2025, most office towers in Vancouver aren't allowed to be taller than this 1968 Toronto stump.
The Simpson-Tower is only 18 feet taller than the LA+City+Hall.
The Simpson Tower has become just like another Vancouver size stump in Toronto.
It's really astounding that not only did The+Post+in+Vancouver have to be shorter than the Toronto Simpson Tower and the LA+City+Hall, it had to be shorter than the Old City Hall in Toronto. Now that's very small, but it fits in with the small-minded Vancouver mentality. Indeed, Vancouverization is about a backward, rainy city that has a multigenerational restrictive agenda to water everything down. Even the mountains north of Vancouver are shorter than the mountains north of L.A. WTH?
https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=The+Post+building+complex
Wednesday, March 12, 2025
The One in Toronto is soon to become Canada's tallest building
https://www.blogto.com/real-estate-toronto/2025/03/one-toronto-canada-tallest-building
In order to provide a sense of scale, a couple of short bindings in the area are referenced. These small buildings would be among the tallest in stumpy Vancouver.
Two_Bloor_West is like a classic Vancouver stump building, but in Toronto.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two_Bloor_West#History In 1972, it was already taller than any building in BC at, 148.74 m (488.0 ft) with 34 stories. Even in 2025, its equivalent to being the 2nd tallest office tower in Vancouver & BC.
2_Bloor_East opened in 1974 at 135 m (443 ft) with 35 stories. It would still be among the 10 tallest office towers in Vancouver. However, in Toronto its just another stump of a building.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2_Bloor_East#History
Even The+Simpson+Tower from 1968, would still be among the tallest office towers in Vancouver. Yet, it's just another stump in Toronto.
Vancouver just isn't allowed to have buildings as tall as those in Seattle & Calgary, Toronto & Montreal or LA & SF. However, stumpy Vancouver is allowed to build what would be impressive by Victoria-Prince+George-Kamloops standards. Its all part of the backwards Vancouver and think small BC mentality.
If you can't build a wall around BC, the next best thing is to constantly remind everyone with imposed small-scale symbolism. Unfortunatly now, BC is several decades behind with its infrastructure.
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.
.jpg)
Of course one of the stump buildings in the Toronto complex is still a little taller than its stump counterpart in Vancouver.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/25/EmbarcaderoCenterHighlight.jpg
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toronto-Dominion_Centre#Technical_details
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embarcadero_Center SF
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allen_Center Houston https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allen_Center#Three_Allen_Center
Hotel Georgia and Tower
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hotel_Georgia_(Vancouver) The stump hotel building doesn't even have 15 floors, when it should have been 30, even back in 1927.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hotel_Georgia_(Vancouver)#The_Private_Residences_at_Hotel_Georgia
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