Urban Tech & Towers (UTT)

Friday, March 22, 2013

V, BC: City of Limitations and Possibilities

Although Vancouver & other parts of BC have high-rise clusters, they are mostly at on small scale when compared to whats in Toronto, Calgary & Montreal or whats in many of the Australian cities.
http://cityhallwatch.wordpress.com/tag/tall-buildings

http://www.emporis.com/images/list/city/sydney-australia

http://www.emporis.com/images/list/city/sanfrancisco-ca-usa/2

Syd TVT http://www.emporis.com/images/details/176873

http://cityhallwatch.wordpress.com/2013/02/28/photos-feb21-big52-storey-proposal

http://cityhallwatch.wordpress.com/2011/10/02/view-from-spanish-banks-end-of-dome-shaped-skyline-policy

Calgary vs the Pacific Northwest

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/blogs/pulseofcanada/calgary-best-place-live-canada-141350596.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_Northwest#Population
BC isn't allowed to have office buildings taller than the tallest buildings in Alberta, Washington State & Oregon.

BC http://skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?stateID=1
AB http://skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?stateID=2
WA http://skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?stateID=24
OR http://skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?stateID=26

MNP is another BC office tower that hasn't been permitted to have a 40th floor. Not even offices on a 39th floor, like tower 2 of Bow_Valley_Square,_Calgary. (2BVS) Portland has two office towers taller than 2BVS.
http://www.vancitybuzz.com/2012/02/development-buzz-mnp-office-tower-renderings
Any 36 story office building in Calgary & Seattle is almost like a stump now, but in BC its still a giant office tower. While a 36 story office building is big time for Vancouver, Seattle has a 76 story office tower.
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, 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's or Australia's tallest office towers.
http://skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?searchID=58623205&page=7

Its impressive to see that Calgary is rivaling some of the tallest buildings in Denver.
Calgary http://skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?cityID=3
Denver http://skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?cityID=129

Friday, March 1, 2013

INDEX

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

Saturday, January 26, 2013

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