Calgary and Vancouver, Alberta and BC, etc.

Calgary is planed & engineered on a larger scale than Vancouver. Unlike Calgary, Vancouver has a smaller area than it & Winnipeg, Edmonton, Ottawa, Montreal & especially Toronto.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_the_100_largest_municipalities_in_Canada_by_population#List
However, Metro Vancouver has the potential to rival Calgary & Seattle, if ever the zoning is allowed to change. Right now, so much of whats built in Alberta & Washington State is illegal by, BC standards. That's why several BC buildings & roads aren't allowed to match whats in Alberta & Washington State.

So far, no office building in BC has been permitted to reach, let alone exceed a 40th floor.
It takes until the 7th page for the tallest office building in Vancouver to be noticed.
http://skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?searchID=57882159&page=7
BC http://skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?buildingID=63
Similar size office buildings to the RBC are compared.
AB http://skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?buildingID=370
WA http://skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?buildingID=6965
Perth, WA http://skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?buildingID=1593
At this point in time its difficult to imagine Calgary, Seattle & Perth with office towers all below 40 stories.
Fortunately, they aren't under the think small mentality of Vancouver & other parts of BC. Its one thing for Toronto to not quite have an 80 story office tower yet, but to imagine Toronto never being allowed to ever have offices reaching 40 stories would be devastating. Like Toronto in the late 1960s, business people in L.A. & Sydney started to realize that some office towers would eventually have to exceed 50 stories, due to economic demands & land values.
It took until 1927 for Chicago to have its first 40 story office tower.
http://skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?searchID=57882482&offset=25
Then in 1969, Chicago had its first 60 story office tower & 100 story mixed use tower.
http://skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?searchID=57882482&offset=150
NYC had its first 47 story office building in 1908 & its first 50 story office tower in 1909.
http://skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?searchID=57882645&offset=50
By 1913 there was a 57 story office tower. The first 71 & 77 story towers were completed in 1930 & the giant 102 story ESB opened in 1931. I wonder if Vancouver will be permitted to have at least one 51 story office tower by 2031. I'm still waiting to see if even a 40 story office building will ever be allowed in Vancouver.

http://jfmoneymatters.blogspot.ca/2013/01/oprah-in-vancouver-bc.html

The Chicago Cityscape

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago#Cityscape

Chicago sure can be nice in the spring & summer, but when winter rolls in, lookout.
http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2013/01/chicagos-freezing-fire/100445

INDEX

http://moneytowers.blogspot.ca/2009/08/index-page.html

INDEX

http://moneytowers.blogspot.ca/2009/08/index-page.html

Marine Gateway: Monsters or Stumps?

The attempt of a taller residential tower accompanied with an office stump instead of an office tower.

http://marinegateway.com/2012/10/05/marine-gateway-purchaser-update
The office building should have been at least 40 stories & the main residential tower at least 50 or even 60 stories.
http://www.vancitybuzz.com/2010/04/marine-drive-gateway-projectupdate
Due to its proximity to the airport, the office tower should have been even 50 stories.
http://marinegateway.com/2013/02/12/vancouver-sun-transit-innovation-and-leed-buildings-the-urban-office-market-heats-up,
http://www.biv.com/article/20120814/BIV0119/308149939/-1/BIV/twelve-malls-in-retail-renaissance
However, having a 1,000,000+ sq ft tower next to train stations designed to only handle 3 car units is ridicules  The Montreal Metro was designed to have stations long enough to accommodate not only 3, but 6 & even 9 car trains. There has always been an agenda to keep Vancouver at a smaller scale than what most cities embrace. The result it not only smaller buildings (stumps), roads & bridges, but even a train system with short stations. Montreal was wise enough to plan for 500 foot long stations, Toronto its 600 & San Francisco is 700 feet. That's long enough to accommodate a 10 car BART train.
Auckland, NZ & Sydney each have an 8 lane harbor bridge & SF has a 10 lane Bay Bridge.

Its always amazing to see how small things are in BC. Toronto hasn't gobble up Ontario, its still just a blip on the map. Sydney has engulfed NSW, NYC remains just a small part of the State of NY. Even the vast sprawling Chicago hasn't been able to urbanize most of Illinois.
 BC can contain about 23 Switzerlands & so far its been difficult just to match the population of one. Alberta can boast about having 2 cities over a million people, while most of Alberta remains free from urban development.

California still has more people than Canada & Texas has more people than Australia. The 3 largest urban areas in California & Texas still haven't fully urbanized each state. As cities become more densely populated & developed, much of the rural lands remain free of urban sprawl.

Vancouver & BC have a lot of potential, but so far things are continually kept at a small scale. http://moneytowers.blogspot.ca/2013/03/v-bc-city-of-limitations-and.html

Oakridge Mall and Monster Buildings?

These aren't monstrous buildings.
https://www.placespeak.com/topic/525-oakridge-centre-virtual-open-house
Well, by BC standards they are.
http://www.retail-insider.com/2012/10/vancouvers-oakridge-centre-to-get.html,

http://www.vancitybuzz.com/2012/10/oakridge-centre-redevelopment-plans-revealed
This area has the potential to become a dense residential tower cluster with some office towers as well.
http://vancouver.ca/home-property-development/oakridge-redevelopment.aspx
This mall should have already been up to a 1,000,000 sq ft decades ago & by now at least 2,000,000 sq ft. http://www.vancouversun.com/business/commercial-real-estate/Oakridge+Centre+redevelopment+plan+sent+public+comment/6990118/story.html

However, unlike Montreal with the option to have 3, 6 & even 9 car trains, the Vancouver-Richmond line has stations that can only accommodate 3 car trains max. Although its called, the Canada Line, its hardly up to the big Canadian standard of the Toronto Subway or the Montreal Metro.
http://pricetags.wordpress.com/2011/08/08/canada-line-undersized

http://cityhallwatch.wordpress.com/2012/10/31/oakridge-rezoning-45-storey-tower
Unlike most cities, its been very difficult for many people to ever fully accept Vancouver having large scale engineering  That's why the buildings, trains bridges & roads are half the size of what many cities permit.
http://pricetags.wordpress.com/2012/11/01/city-as-workout-the-oakridge-proposal

If ever the Oakridge Mall area becomes as big as Metrotown, that would certainly become a major focal point between Richmond & Downtown Vancouver.
http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?p=5908670
By now, Metrotown should have been at least half or even 75% of the size of the W. Edmonton Mall. 

Vancouver and BC Business vs Other Big Cities

V, BC List_of_tallest_buildings_in_Vancouver, BC http://skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?stateID=1
Canada http://skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?countryID=1

Toronto SB 68 stories http://skyscraperpage.com/cities/?buildingID=696
Vancouver SB only has windows up to the 34th floor. http://skyscraperpage.com/cities/?buildingID=65
The Toronto SB tower was built to be double the height & double the width of the stump in Vancouver.
http://skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?searchID=58673838&offset=200

The BMO in Vancouver is listed as having 32 floors. http://skyscraperpage.com/cities/?buildingID=68
The BMO tower in Toronto either has 71 or 72 stories. http://skyscraperpage.com/cities/?buildingID=34
The Toronto BMO HQ was clearly built to be 40 stories taller than the stump in Vancouver.

Toronto & the much closer Seattle, don't have the same ridicules height limitations as Vancouver.
In height, the Toronto CIBC from the 1930s rivals the Vancouver RBC from the 1970s.  http://skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?searchID=58673838&page=7 So far, no office building in BC has been allowed to be taller than the 1930s CIBC in Toronto.
Calgary already has an office tower that's almost as tall as the Toronto CIBC of the 1970s. This diagram show that Calgary will eventually have 2 office towers around the same size as the 1970s CIBC, while Vancouver still isn't allowed to rival the 1930s CIBC.

While a 36 story office building is still big time for Vancouver, Seattle has a 76 story office tower since the 1980s. 
Vancouver has never allowed any office tower to rival the Smith_Tower & that 1914 era building has become a stump long before 2014.

http://seattletimes.com/ABPub/2013/01/23/2020190819.gif

http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=144400&page=2
Seattle has 2 office towers over 600 feet, 1 just under & 3 over 700 feet & one over 900 feet.
Two of the tallest office buildings in BC don't even reach 500 feet & hardly make Canada'sor Australia's tallest office towers.

Vancouver has suffered immensely by not allowing office towers on the scale of whats permitted in Sydney & San Francisco. Those cities are just as scenic, & even warmer during their fall & winter seasons, with a lot less rain. Just because Vancouver has mountains to the immediate north & a lot of ocean & fresh water,  doesn't mean that it can't become a metropolis on the scale of Sydney & SF.
http://moneytowers.blogspot.ca/2013/01/vancouver-and-bc.html
Seattle & SF have water on both sides & that hasn't stopped them from becoming big & tall cities.