Toronto Royal York Hotel vs. The Hotel Vancouver

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairmont_Royal_York 

When you live in stumpy Vancouver for several decades, its always amazing to see how much wider the buildings are allowed to be in other cities.

https://torontopics.me/2016/08/29/fairmont-royal-york-hotel

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/31/Toronto_-_ON_-_Royal_York_Hotel.jpg

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairmont_Royal_York#Location "Opened on 11 June 1929, the Châteauesque-styled building is 124 metres (407 ft) tall, and contains 28 floors."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairmont_Royal_York#Design 1363 rooms

 https://www.thefairmontroyalyork.com , https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairmont_Hotels_%26_Resorts#Properties

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hotel_Vancouver 

"Opened in May 1939, the Châteauesque-styled building is considered one of Canada's grand railway hotels. The hotel stands 112.47-metre-tall (369.0 ft), and contains 17 floors."

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/78/The_Fairmont_Hotel_Vancouver_%2842914562450%29.jpg Had the entier block been reseverd for future hotel space, a 65 story tower could have eventually been built, beside the first phase. 

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a9/Hotel_vanc_2007.jpg/960px-Hotel_vanc_2007.jpg However, some people might not have liked an extension of the HV to become the tallest building in the city again.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hotel_Vancouver#Design

https://www.straight.com/living/experience-magic-of-autumn-at-fairmont-hotel-vancouver 

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/84/CN_Tower_observation_level_2023d.jpg  Toronto like most real cities, is able to set aside enough space to go wider. Narrow-minded Vancouver just keeps going the other way by continually watering the scale of things down. 

The Hotel Vancouver could have been designed with future expansion in mind to its south. The Royal York had enough space to eventually add a wing to the east side of the building.

https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=BC+Hotels 

https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=The+Hotel+Vancouver

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://vancouver.ca/files/cov/council-approves-new-policy-address-vancouvers-hotel-room-shortage.pdf 

https://corporatemeetingsnetwork.ca/2025/05/01/tackling-vancouvers-hotel-shortage-crisis/

https://vancouversun.com/news/local-news/no-rooms-at-the-inns-knock-on-effects-of-vancouvers-hotel-shortage 

https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/canada/vancouver-s-last-undeveloped-waterfront-site-could-house-convention-centre-hotel-according-to-city-memo/ar-AA1vO3Bz 

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6d/Westin_Seattle_from_Olive_8.jpg
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://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/0a/Empire_Hotel_Landmark.jpg/330px-Empire_Hotel_Landmark.jpg 

Other cities seemed to be more interested in cultivating their hotel and tourism industry. Even encouraging more hotel towers. However, Vancouver with its very strict (multigenerational) imposed height restrictions, kept falling behind.

https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2017/sep/27/wipe-out-era-1970s-vanish-vancouver 

After several decades of keeping Vancouver hotels short and small, now the city realized that there aren't enough hotel rooms for the tourism industry. 

https://globalnews.ca/video/11127278/biv-vancouver-needs-thousands-more-hotel-rooms

https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/vancouver-tourism-risk-hotel-development-construction-policies 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyatt_Regency_Seattle Vancouver has yet to permit a big, bulky hotel like this.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainier_Square_Tower While this isn't a hotel, its 60m taller than the tallest building in Vancouver.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telus_Sky No hotel, just an office and residential tower. However, its about 22m taller than the tallest in Vancouver. 

The (unofficial) rule is that almost everything in Vancouver has to be scaled back or watered down in size.  

https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=hotels  

https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=Hotel+Vancouver