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.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8e/Torontos_Old_City_Hall_2009.jpg If you are visiting from Toronto or Montreal, Sydney or Melbourne, you might be shocked as to seeing how small and backwards Vancouver is. Various imposed restrictions have cause a multigenerational watering down of what should actually be a properly functioning big city and greater metropolitan region.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/95/Front_of_Old_City_Hall_in_July_2024.jpg Being from backwater Vancouver, its always amazing to see what cities like Toronto, Montreal, Sydney,  Melbourne, Seattle, SF & LA are permitted to do. They and most other cities just don't have anything like the Vancouver Mind Virus (VMV) to thwart them.

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 

https://montecristomagazine.com/design/secret-garden-top-vancouvers-library-stayed-hidden-20-years#gsc.tab=0 

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.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7c/Simpson_Tower_2022.jpg 

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

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.

https://www.vancouverisawesome.com/local-news/photos-take-a-behind-the-scenes-look-inside-amazons-new-vancouver-office-7577284

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 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.