Monday, April 6, 2026
Saturday, March 21, 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.
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.
Wednesday, January 21, 2026
Vancouver mayoral candidate pitches plan to build 4,000 City-owned and affordable homes
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/vancouver-mayoral-candidate-william-azaroff-pitches-affordable-homes Providing more affordable housing in Vancouver would certainly be of great benifit.
In some cases, if a developer was allowed to build Toronto, Sydney and Melbourne sise towers, provided they agreed to build some affordable housing, it could be of mutual benefit.
Friday, November 28, 2025
San Francisco Megaprojects
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UiOC13McqdY
The Rise and Fall of The San Francisco Centre Mall https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5rosHIbZhA
Why San Francisco's Newest Towers are So Empty https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yc0TTfC6wMQ
San Francisco’s Leaning Skyscraper Nightmare Isn’t Over https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_p7hksWtUQ
Wednesday, November 26, 2025
The Vancouver Harbour Air Control Tower
https://www.reddit.com/r/vancouver/comments/1p7kqyv/did_you_know_the_vancouver_harbour_air_control
https://panethos.wordpress.com/2025/01/02/worlds-sky-high-civilian-air-traffic-control-towers
https://www.airport-technology.com/features/the-top-10-tallest-atc-towers-in-the-world/
https://simpleflying.com/tallest-air-traffic-control-towers , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Sab2yAg5e8
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tallest_air_traffic_control_towers_in_the_United_States
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.
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.
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.
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 12, 2025
Cities, the BIG and the small of it
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CN_Tower
.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.
Wednesday, October 22, 2025
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.
Friday, October 17, 2025
The Telus building in Burnaby
https://www.facebook.com/groups/5469899289701886/posts/32594624393469342
This could have been the first 40 story office tower in Burnaby, as well as for backwater BC. It's not even 30. Vancouver and BC in general, still have no 40 story office towers. However, Burnaby or Surrey will likely have the first office tower over 40 stories, eventually.
Since Calgary and Seattle aren't affected by the BC mind virus & don't have anything like Vancouver's strict height restrictions, they can build taller structures.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bow_(skyscraper) 58 stories, but 60 floors in total above ground.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bow_(skyscraper)#Building_details
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbia_Center 76 stories, but 79 floors in total. Standing on the roof would be 80 floors up.
L.A.'s Forgotten pedestrian Bridge Network Abandoned - Oceanwide Plaza (Los Angeles’ Graffiti Towers)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2eam0Zhdac
The Abandoned - Oceanwide Plaza (Los Angeles’ Graffiti Towers) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=840EVoHAyvE
Friday, October 10, 2025
Tron: Ares in little backwards Vancouver
https://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/tron-ares-review-9.6933888
Unfortunatly, using special effects is the only way to make Vancouver, BC look like its a proper big city.
No bridge within the small city limits of Vancouver has been allowed to be as big or wide as the biggest in Perth, Seattle, Portland, Edmonton & Glasgow...
The Skytrain stations are shorter than train stations in Perth, Seattle, Calgary and Edmonton...
No office tower in Vancouver has been permitted to have a 40th floor. Of course, Perth, Seattle, Portland and Calgary have office towers over 40 stories.
https://hollywoodnorthbuzz.com/2025/10/tron-ares-vancouver-as-real-life-grid.html
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/vancouver-landmarks-tron-ares-trailer
https://www.vancouverisawesome.com/events-and-entertainment/new-tron-ares-movie-trailer-features-vancouver-sci-fi-setting-10488343 Vancouver is so smallscale, but awesome? Perhaps when compared to Victoria, Kelowna, Prince George, Prince Rupert and Nanaimo, it is.
Tuesday, September 30, 2025
Tall and Wide Buildings
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.
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, September 16, 2025
Thursday, September 11, 2025
How the Twin Towers Were Built in NYC
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Trade_Center_(1973-2001)
How the Twin Towers Were Built in NYC https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ab-z6_vvcmE Some people have pointed out inaccuracies in this post.