Vancouver and BC

http://img523.imageshack.us/img523/6749/futureskyline4ft2.jpg
The 2nd tallest tower in the picture is the pending Trump Tower Vancouver.
http://www.vancouverobserver.com/blogs/realestate/trump-tower-vancouver-update-site-not-cursed-and-donald-does-not-take-unsolicited

So far Metro Vancouver hasn't been permitted to have office buildings rivaling Calgary & Seattle.
Office windows up to 35 & 36 floors is the max for Vancouver, when Seattle has a 76 story office tower.
http://www.vancitybuzz.com/2012/02/1021-west-hastings-becomes-mnp-tower
Although there are a lot of buildings in Vancouver, they are among the smallest big buildings in Canada.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tallest_buildings_in_Vancouver

A lot of people are surprised when visiting or moving from Toronto to Vancouver. In pictures & movies many have the impression that Vancouver is a city on the scale of Toronto, Sydney or San Francisco. Unfortunately, the very strict building codes have prevented Vancouver from reaching the urban big time.
Sydney & San Francisco are fine examples of how Australia & the USA each have warm bustling cities with taller & wider buildings taller than whats allowed in Vancouver.

The 72 story First_Canadian_Place (1976) is the tallest office tower in Canada with its roof at 978 feet. Its as if the 2nd tower in the complex was built to the Vancouver office building maximum. The 36 story Exchange_Tower (1983) reaches only 479 feet. It would be a giant office building in Vancouver, but in Toronto its almost a stump. Here are comparative diagrams to show the height ranking in Canada & Ontario. Although it seems so small by Ontario standards, even amongst the tall buildings throughout Canada, its one of the smaller big buildings. Whats amazing is how giant it is when compared to the office buildings in BC.

The windows of the 452 foot high Scotia_Tower in Vancouver, go up to the 34th floor & has remain a prominent building on the skyline since 1977. The 68 story Scotia_Plaza opened in 1988 & became the 2nd tallest office building in Toronto & Canada. At 902 feet, it was as if Scotiabank wanted their HQ to be double the height & double the width of small time Vancouver allows.

Smaller older buildings in Toronto that would still be tall & big in Vancouver.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b6/RoyalYOrk1930s.jpg,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairmont_Royal_York

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Airship_Toronto.jpg,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commerce_Court#1931_North_Tower

The smallest stump in this picture is around the same size of the one in Vancouver.
The smaller TD towers in Toronto are taller than the attempt of the TD_Tower_(Vancouver).
Originally, the TD tower in Vancouver was planed to be 20 to 25 stories taller. However, a 30 story stump was determined to be less imposing on the Vancouver skyline.
http://www.emporis.com/images/details/201017

Not counting any antenna, the Vancouver TD is about 417 feet in height
Roof 127m http://www.emporis.com/building/toronto-dominion-tower-vancouver-canada 1972
The Vancouver TD stump would be equivalent to the 5th tallest in the TD Centre.
Roof 128m http://www.emporis.com/building/canadianpacifictower-toronto-canada 1974

This building in Calgary would be the 3rd tallest tower in the TD Centre.
http://www.emporis.com/building/tdcanadatrusttower-calgary-canada

Its like the TD Centre was built to be impressive to people in Chicago & NYC.
http://www.emporis.com/complex/toronto-dominion-centre-toronto-canada
And the PC Centre was built to be smaller than whats allowed in Seattle & Calgary.
http://www.emporis.com/complex/pacific-centre-vancouver-canada

Since 1973, this is the only Vancouver office building to be permitted to have a 37th floor.
http://www.emporis.com/complex/royal-centre-vancouver-canada
So far, no office building has ever been allowed to rival the tallest office complex in,
http://www.emporis.com/complex/embarcadero-center-san-francisco-ca-usa,
http://www.emporis.com/complex/union-square-seattle-wa-usa or
http://www.emporis.com/complex/bow-valley-square-calgary-canada &
http://www.emporis.com/complex/le-complexe-desjardins-montreal-canada.

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.