https://www.got99problems.org/blog/aurora-bridge
Most of SR99 through Seattle isn't a freeway, but by Vancouver, BC standards, it might as well be.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aurora_Bridge
https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/seattletraffic-768x572.jpg
https://www.weberthompson.com/project/aurora-bridge-swales-project/
https://www.built.fnf.com/built-podcast/seattle-aurora-bridge
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_State_Route_99
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/vancouver-school-board-kingsgate-mall-1.7429088#
Not 60, no 40, not even a 20 story stump has been built there.
https://vancouversun.com/news/local-news/developer-beedie-wins-lease-dispute-kingsgate-mall
A mixed use commercial tower with reasonable rental units could be built there.
If the upper half was condos and the lower half rental units, plus a few lower commercial levels, the place would be a success, even for the owners. Unfortunatly, things move very slowly in Vancouver & BC in general.
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/false-creek-ferries-aquabus-vancouver
The concept of having False_Creek_Ferries was a good idea right from the start.
https://granvilleisland.com/directory/false-creek-ferries
https://granvilleislandferries.bc.ca/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_Creek_Ferries#History
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Aquabus
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_Bay_Launch
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Granville_Island#Transportation
Greater Vancouver needs a lot of redundancy or overlapping transportation options.
The SeaBus should be at least every 10 minutes. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SeaBus#Terminals
There should also be a ferry from Deep+Cove to Downtown_Vancouver and even from the Park+Royal area to downtown. The bridges easily get so jammed up & just 1 SeaBus route isn't enough.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Calgary/comments/bkevpf/memorial_drive_year_1900 Wow, one waggon road each way back then. If it were possible in the 2020s, Vancouver would like to go back to one waggon road each way.
https://cc-production-uploads-bucket.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2025/01/Calgary-courtesy-of-City-of-CalgaryMainWEB.png This is what Cambie Street in Vancouver could have become. Especially, since the Canada embarrassment Line was only designed to have 2.5 car trains. At least there should be an express bus line along Cambie. Eventually, there still might have to be an LRT line just south of the Cambie+Street+Bridge to Richmond. It would have been better to just build the Canada embarrassment Line to eventually handle a 5, 7 & 9 car train, not a 2.5 car joke of a train.
Sarcastically...
At least no one from Vancouver has been able to convince Winnipeg to reduce Portage_and_Main to 4 lanes or even just 2 waggon roads in width.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arc_de_Triomphe
So far, Vancouver hasn't sent a delegation to Paris advising that The Avenue des Champs-Élysées should be turned into a width of only 2 or 4 waggon roads.
Hardly would be the tallest in Melbourne, Toronto or Seattle, but for backwater BC. This is big time stuff for BC.
https://skyscraperpage.com/cities/?buildingID=132164 225m / 738 ft. https://skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?cityID=2&status=15
https://storeys.com/surrey-centre-block-office-tower/
https://hariripontarini.com/projects/surrey-city-centre-block/
https://www.urbanstrategies.com/project/surrey-centre-block-master-plan/
https://www.colorado.com/articles/getting-colorado-getting-around
3 Major Pieces of Infrastructure that will Transform Denver & Colorado https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DlyO-RdWChQ
https://bc.ctvnews.ca/fewer-paramedics-on-shift-as-bc-ambulance-millions-over-budget-1.7169504
Somehow Montreal and especially Toronto have been able to grow into proper big cities. That means the appropriate amount of infrastructure including, emergency services & hospitals, etc...
It's not just this situation, BC hasn't been properly keeping up with a necessary amount of infrastructure over the past several decades.
BC usually seems to have a tougher time getting things done or coordinated well.
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/marriott-hotels-pinnacle-capstan-station-richmond
Unlike Honolulu, Greater Vancouver has been slow to get many more hotels built. Unfortunatly, Vancouver is only warm for half of the year, bust still usually not as cold as the rest of Canada during the other half of the year.
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/2268-2294-west-3rd-avenue-1902-1912-vine-street-vancouver-tower
22 not 44 or 66 floors. They are allowed to build so much taller in Melbourne, Sydney & Brisbane, because they don't have such restrictive Vancouver zoning restrictions to deal with. Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane & Perth are not only warmer than Vancouver, but just as scenic in their own ways.
Unlike Singapore, Honolulu still prevents 50-60 story buildings. Today there are still no buildings with a 50th floor on Oahu.
https://www.de-simone.com/projects/project/ko_olani-tower 47 stories.
https://www.richmond-news.com/local-news/car-on-fire-on-arthur-laing-bridge-early-wednesday-10046790
Nothing like a narrow bridge with narrow emegency lanes. https://x.com/LucasGates92/status/1877021160992321586
So many Greater Vancouver bridges need to be twinned or duplicated in order to provide bus & emergency lanes or even truck lanes. This cramming everything into only 2 lanes each way is nuts!
https://www.theage.com.au/national/no-freeways-puts-vancouver-on-top-20060911-ge33wv.html
While not running a freeway through a dense urban area such as Vancouver has its benefits, the bridge crossings still need to be widened. Otherwise, why even bother to pretend to have a proper express or rapid bus network?
https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=Arthur+Laing+Bridge
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/skytrain-future-station-locations
Ideally, every intended station on a rail rapid transit line should be built at the same time. However, by allowing some spots for future stations, is also a good idea. Such future stations could already be roughed-out, so when getting completed there is much less disruption.
Whether it's the first 2 Skytrain lines with only 80m stations, or the absurd Canada Line with only a provision for 50m stations, there needs to be better long-range planning to allow for future capacity needs.
By now, there should have been a train connecting the Tsawwassen_ferry_terminal and the Horseshoe_Bay_ferry_terminal to YVR, but that would go against the congestive planning mentality.
All the Skytrain stations should have been designed to eventually be 160m or about 525 feet long. Just because the road system is only half-size, the trains & stations should be full size. However, short trains and narrow bridges are all part of the congestive planning agenda.
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.
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
Vancouver has always been a small city with a backwater mentality, when compared to many other cities. Vancouver is smaller in area & population than 7 other cities in Canada.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_the_largest_municipalities_in_Canada_by_population
However, the Greater Vancouver Region is still the 3 largest metropolitan_area_in_Canada. Yet, it remains a mystery as to where all the big city scale infrastructure went, because what's mostly built in Greater Vancouver is half-sized or half-assed stuff. Indeed, a watered-down approach to things has been the name of the game for generations. Thus, after several decades of not properly building for the future, SW BC is still very congested and backwards.
There is nothing wrong with being small or thinking small. However, Vancouver and Victoria have perpetuated a small-scale mentality for several decades. Of course Vancouver would opt to have shorter underground train stations than Montreal, Toronto, Edmonton & Seattle. A short BC train just can't transport as many people as an 8-10 car train can. Just because the Skytrain is an automated system, the 50m to 80m trains just can't match a 152.5m Montreal Metro trains capacity.
The bridges are narrow, but not just to prevent induced demand. It's almost impossible for backwards Greater Vancouver to have an efficient rapid-bus or proper truck-lanes, when many of the bridges are only 2 lanes each way. Whether its a multigenerational, backwards power-structure, or its just part of the backwater BC mentality, there should be a point of realization.
Why pretend to have an efficient rapid-bus network, when there is a refusal to build a series of proper regional bus & truck bridges? In order for busses to be fast & efficient, there has to be dedicated bus-lanes on new bridges. An efficient regional port using a lot of trucks to the airport & seaports, also requires dedicated truck-lanes in order to efficiently move things around.
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/global-bc-anchor-behind-the-scenes
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerald_Desmond_Bridge
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerald_Desmond_Bridge#Cable-stayed_replacement
https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/ipd/project_profiles/ca_port_long_beach_gerald_desmond_bridge_project.aspx
The Gerald Desmond Bridge Replacement https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kLMUUVa5eMg
"The lines will begin a five-day service on Jan. 6 (Monday through Friday) and will continue for a minimum of two weeks. Buses through routes B2 (formerly called Line 2 buses), 99 and 97 will run parallel seven days a week in case of any issues." https://ottawa.citynews.ca/2025/01/03/heres-what-to-know-before-o-train-line-2-and-4-launch
This makes a lot of sense & not just because Ottawa is far away from Vancouver & the backwards BC mentality. Trains & people can break down causing a disruption on the tracks. Plus, there is no urban rail or commuter rail line in Canada that's running 24hrs a day. This means that its a good idea to have an express bus route that closely follows each train line 24hrs a day.
Greater Vancouver seems to always be a sleep at the wheel, or just inept with proper urban planning. Once the public was informed that the Skytrain won't be a 24hr system. Therefore, it would be a good idea to have express busses running parallel to each line 24hrs a day.
Unfortunatly, the backward BC planning mentality never allowed for the SkyBridge_linking_NW_and_Surrey_with_SkyTrain to have enough space for 2 bus-lanes, 2 bike-lanes & 2 footpaths. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skybridge_(TransLink) The bridge has none of that, as if to conform to a BC bottleneck agenda.
The 4 lane Pattullo_Bridge and the 4 lane Queensborough_Bridge were never designed with wide sidewalks & 2 wide emergency lanes. For if they were, then a few decades ago both bridges could have provided 3 lanes each way & have adequate space for bike lanes. A 3rd lane each way would have been great for buses, but that might improve the congestion.
While the new Pattullo_Bridge will actually have wide sidewalks on each side, no serious consideration was given to having 2 bus-lanes, despite the Skytrain not being a 24hr system. So buses, trucks, ambulances & cars will all have to be funneled into only 2 lanes each way. Having 2 bus lanes & 2 wide emergency lanes would actually go against the BC bottleneck mentality.
Even considering budget limitations, the new Pattullo-Bridge should have been designed with a provision for a future lower deck & open with 3 lanes each way & have 2 wide emergency lanes. Apparently, having the Pattullo-Bridge-Replacement with only 2 lanes each way & no emergency lanes somehow will make it easier for emergency vehicles to cross. Of course its the opposite effect, but this is backwards BC.
Surrey, Delta & all of Langley, already have as many people, if not even more people than Ottawa, but the infrastructure is so lacking in BC. Thus, a new 4 lane bridge will be an instant chokepoint between NW & Surrey, Delta & Langley. A 10 lane bridge & a 10 car Skytrain is what a proper urban area of over 3 million people would plan for.
While Vancouver has less people than Ottawa, the BC Lower_Mainland has more people than Calgary, Edmonton & Winnipeg, combined. Thus, its very strange that Vancouver & BC insist on a congestive planning approach.
The 4 lane Queensborough_Bridge in NW has enough space to accommodate a parallel 4 lane bridge. While some backwater BC types might freakout with an 8 lane crossing there, they don't realise that a 4 lane bridge is very limited. Thus, by having two 4 lane bridges, there could be a bus & a truck lane each way as well as 2 general lanes each way. Not having dedicated bus & truck lanes for what is supposed to be a major port is absurd, but its OK for backward BC.
In backwards BC its desired to not have a rail transit component on any of the current road bridges. Indeed, most of the bridges are so narrow that there isn't enough room for either bus lanes or HOV lanes.
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/metrotown-overpass-man-struck-bus
The irony is that it has been standing unused for several years. Yet, all it needed was a new connecting stairway.
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/ceo-vancouver-telus-highest-paid-canada
https://www.vanmag.com/city/business/telus-garden-is-green This is one of the ariticles that still say that the complex in Vancouver is over 50 floors. The tower wasn't allowed to rise above the 40s and the office stump doesn't even 25 floors.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telus_Garden The residential tower isn't 55 or even 50 stories. It was tough enough just to get the city to even allow it to have 46 floors.
https://www.rew.ca/buildings/8822/telus-garden-vancouver-bc It should have been 65-70 stories, but 46 floors is all you get there.
https://www.skyscrapercenter.com/building/telus-garden-residential-tower/14081 46F 135.6 m / 445 ft
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/12/Telus_Garden_201807.jpg Its no taller in overal height than the Telus_Tower_in_Montreal.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f5/Telus_Garden_view_201807.jpg The stump part of the site isn't even 25 floors, when it should have been at least 50-55.
https://telusgarden.com/the-building Their website states that the office part of the development is only 24 stories. https://www.skyscrapercenter.com/complex/598
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telus_Harbour The Toronto version ended up being like another half-size building from Vancouver.
https://urbantoronto.ca/database/projects/telus-house-25-york-street.2272 This would have been a nice tower if it was 60 floors.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ATB_Place Edmonton
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telus_Sky , a 60-storey, 222.3 m (729 ft) tower in Calgary.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telus_Sky#/media/File:Telus_Sky_September_2017.jpg
https://vancouversun.com/news/2024-was-vancouvers-wettest-year-so-far-this-century
Too much rain when so many other cities on the planet hardly have any.
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/new-skytrain-mark-v-cars-entering-service-2025
While a 5 car Mark-V-Skytrain is an improvement, the first 2 lines should have had stations that could eventually accomodate 10 car trains.
https://www.ticorp.ca/projects/surrey-langley-skytrain-project
https://vancouver.citynews.ca/2024/08/15/surrey-langley-skytrain-cost-increase/
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/surrey-langley-skytrain-costs-1.7295904
https://globalnews.ca/news/10702469/surrey-langley-skytrain-delay-cost-reaction So many cities are able to have LRT as well as subway & elevated trains. Greater Vancouver should have never gotten rid of its streetcars & tram-trains.
The 3rd line should have been designed to eventually accommodate 8-10 car trains. Its not even designed to have 5 car trains, it was only designed to ultimately have 2.5 car trains.
https://globalnews.ca/news/10940725/development-differences-surrey-langley-road-dead-end/
Surrey & Langley should have a better regional planning perspective.
What good is a carbon tax when roads are so narrow that its almost impossible to have bus lanes?
https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/71-607-x/71-607-x2018005-eng.htm
Despite being the 2nd largest nation in overall area, Canada is far off from housing just 1% of the world's population.
There aren't enough big cities in the vastness of Canada.
It's strange that Halifax hasn't become a big city like Boston or Montreal. Since the 2020s, a lot more people work from home and there isn't always an industrial base in major urban areas. More people are retiring and like people working from home, might like living in a town of 1000-10,000 people just as easily as a city with over a 1,000,000 people. The point being, that the top 30 towns in Canada could be built up to at least a million people each. Winnipeg has yet to have a million people. Then the top 10 cities could be built up to 5-10 population regions. Greater Montreal has yet to reach the 5 million point and the Greater Toronto Area has yet to reach 10 million people like Greater Chicago or, CHICAGOLAND. The San_Francisco_Bay_Area is getting close to having 10 million people.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_the_largest_municipalities_in_Canada_by_population Vancouver is only the 8th most populated city.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_census_metropolitan_areas_and_agglomerations_in_Canada#List However, the Greater Vancouver Region is still the 3rd largest urban area in Canada. Yet, it's so far behind with the necessary infrastructure. Indeed, When Greater Toronto & Greater Montreal each exceeded the 3 million point, they had longer trains & wider roads. It seems that Vancouver & BC in general, have perpetually opted for a congestive planning approach.
Will Canada's Next Prime Minister be Pierre Poilievre? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dck8eZCpglc
Why is anti-immigration sentiment on the rise in Canada? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txyjmNXcWiU
https://www.norden.org/en/information/population-nordic-region
https://www.nordicstatistics.org/news/population-growth-in-the-nordics Whether its Canada or the Nordic_Countries, places with cold winters can accommodate a lot of people. However, without setting up the proper amount of infrastructure first, its utterly foolish.
Canada hasn't kept up with building enough school & hospital facilities, as well as the overall necessary infrastructure.
https://www.definitivehc.com/resources/healthcare-insights/top-largest-canadian-hospitals
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamilton_General_Hospital
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foothills_Medical_Centre
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vancouver_Hospital_and_Health_Sciences_Centre#Facilities
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Paul's_Hospital_(Vancouver) , https://helpstpauls.com/why-give/new-st-pauls-hospital
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fraser_Health#Regional_hospitals
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surrey_Memorial_Hospital
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Columbian_Hospital
https://soe.dcceew.gov.au/urban/pressures/population
https://www.app.com.au/insights/bridging-gap-australias-next-infrastructure-boom
https://www.infrastructureaustralia.gov.au/sites/default/files/2019-06/future-cities-paper-web.pdf
If you are from Perth you might expect that the transportation infrastructure might be of a similar caliber in the BC part of Canada.
Fortunately, the Vancouver mentality didn't make it over to Perth, causing a lane to be removed from the 6 lane Windan_Bridge. Unfortunatly, that was the case with the Cambie_Bridge in Vancouver. Had the bridge been designed to have wide sidewalks on both sides, or a lower level bike path, a traffic lane wouldn't have been removed.
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Windan+Bridge
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Mooro-Beeloo+Bridge Lower shared-use path.
https://www.mainroads.wa.gov.au/projects-initiatives/projects-initiatives-news/tonk-221223-tonkin-gap-bridging-the-gap While the City of Vancouver & the region became obsesd with preventing bridge duplication or twinning, a key aspect was ignored. Since so many bridges in backwards BC are already narrow, they are unable to properly accommodate bus & bike lanes, or even truck lanes. A port region like Greater Vancouver really needs truck lanes, as well as bus & bike bridges. Fortunately, the narrowmindedness of BC hasn't been adopted in WA. Otherwise, this would be a 4 lane chokepoint.
https://www.mainroads.wa.gov.au/travel-information/paths-and-cycling
Perth,WA like Seattle, WA aren't so quick to take away lanes, because foot & bike paths are better integrated into the city. That's also the case with Portland, Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg & Montreal...
Perth has an excellent bike path system. https://uncoolcyclingclub.com/perth-swan-river-cycling-loop The Greater Vancouver region has refused to build a proper network of buss & bike bridges, even though that would help to relieve congestion.
Perth+and+Seattle have been able to do so much more than backwards Vancouver, because they aren't hindered by anything like the BC Mind Virus.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Needle 1962
| Antenna spire | 605.00 ft (184.404 m) |
|---|---|
| Top floor | 518 ft (158 m) |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Needle#Architecture
https://www.spaceneedle.com , https://www.spaceneedle.com/webcam
https://www.seattlepi.com/seattlenews/slideshow/Towers-that-resemble-the-Space-Needle-115913.php
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calgary_Tower 1968
| Antenna spire | 190.8 m (626 ft) |
|---|---|
| Roof | 171 m (561 ft) |
| Top floor | 157.6 m (517 ft) |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calgary_Tower#Later_history
https://everydaytourist.ca/globe-trekking-international-travel/2015/9/4/seattle-vs-calgary
Both 600+ft. towers were possible in the 1960s, because they didn't have anything like the extremely restrictive Vancouver height limits. In the 1960's, no building was even allowed to reach 400 ft.
Seattle https://skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?searchID=107972617&offset=50 , https://skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?cityID=27&status=15 , https://skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?cityID=27
Calgary https://skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?searchID=107972625&offset=25 , https://skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?cityID=3&status=15 , https://skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?cityID=3
Vancouver https://skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?searchID=107972642&offset=50 , https://skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?cityID=1
So much for proper regional planning.
Vancouver & Burnaby were able to have a better connective road agreement, the same between NW & Burnaby.
https://vancouver.citynews.ca/2024/12/31/vancouver-2025-new-years-eve-no-events/
Fortunately, most real cities around the world don't take such a watered down approach.
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/vancouver-new-years-eve-fireworks-cancelled-2025
Somehow, many other cities around the world have a better formula for NY Eve celebrations.
Thus, many other cities are actually able to have awesome NY's events.
"It's no secret that, compared to other world-class cities, Vancouver is rather boring, and it's on New Year's Eve that this reality comes crashing down on those who turned a blind eye to the lack of fun for the past 364 days.
As residents of Sydney, Taipei, Cape+Town, London, Rio+de+Janeiro, New York, and even Seattle ring in the new year with elaborate, family-friendly parties, Vancouverites are left yet again wondering what to do.
While there may not be any public events downtown, those hoping to end 2024 on a high note can cross the Burrard Inlet to the north shore, where festivities — and fireworks — are planned atop two of the three ski hills." https://www.westernstandard.news/news/looking-for-something-fun-to-do-in-vancouver-on-new-years-eve-head-for-the-hills/60816?utm_source=website&utm_medium=related-stories
https://versus.com/en/seattle-vs-vancouver Seattle never imposed the harsh level of restrictions that Vancouver has.
https://www.fox13seattle.com/news/new-years-eve-fireworks
https://www.thenewstribune.com/news/local/article297812518.html
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/josh-white-vancouver-chief-planner-interview
Unfortunately, even when people are brought in from real cities, they are thwarted by the Vancoverization agenda.
https://versus.com/en/calgary-vs-vancouver Unlike Vancouver, Calgary is allowed to function like a proper big city. https://www.westernstandard.news/news/whats-happening-in-calgary-for-nye/60811
https://www.justinhavre.com/blog/calgary-ab-vs-vancouver-bc.html
https://calgaryhomes.ca/blog/calgary-vs-vancouver.html
https://newhomesalberta.ca/calgary-vs-vancouver-cost-of-living/
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/columbia-square-new-westminster-edgar-development-plan-approved
Of course the Skytrain stations weren't designed to eventually accommodate 10-12 car trains. NW like backwards Vancouver, refuses to build proper bus and truck bridges. Apparently, it's better to funnel the trucks and busses into a 2 lane each way bottleneck.
https://storeys.com/armco-g2s2-first-canadian-centre-calgary BMO
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Canadian_Centre
“In addition, we’re excited to share the potential for a residential tower on-site, leveraging the existing foundation originally designed for a 64-storey structure in 1981. If developed, this project could further enhance the property’s position as a dynamic, mixed-use destination, integrating living, working and retail spaces in Calgary's downtown.” https://renx.ca/calgarys-first-canadian-centre-office-tower-sold-to-armco-capital
https://www.skyscrapercenter.com/building/first-canadian-centre/2963
The BMO tower in Toronto is 72 stories & the stump version is in Vancouver, which only has 32 floors.
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
There are even bigger plans for CC.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commerce_Court_North It took several decades until Vancouver would allow some buildings to be taller than CCN.
https://urbantoronto.ca/news/2017/05/16-giant-heads-touring-historic-commerce-court-north.26843
https://tayloronhistory.com/2013/02/18/torontos-architectural-gemsthe-bank-of-commerce-cibc-on-king-street Of course CCN has become like a stump in Toronto, but in Vancouver, it would still be a prominent building.
https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/toronto-feature-canadian-imperial-bank-of-commerce
https://www.torontojourney416.com/canadian-bank-of-commerce-building
https://torontopics.me/2016/05/29/commerce-court-north Like the LA City Hall, CCN would be the equivalent of the tallest buildings in Vancouver for several decades. Yet, for the past few decades, the LA+City+Hall & CCN have become stumps in their cities.
