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I love skylines, and have been privileged to see those of quite a few of the great US cities (like many on here, no doubt). I really looked forward to visiting Vancouver, because I had heard great things about it. Because of the Vancouverites who will no doubt read this and who are justly proud of this city, I will be terse and just say that I was extremely disappointed in the skyline, and could not believe that they had built so many near-identical buildings covered with green glass. Architecture matters, not just numbers, and Vancouver's was very disappointing.
Fortunately, there's more to a city than its skyline -- Vancouver is a really cool city that I now love to visit when I can, and I would tell anybody to go see it if they could -- so PLEASE don't take this as overall negative judgment of the city, which is great. But when it comes to skyline, this is a no-brainer, since Seattle is one of my four favorites.
It was a hard choice, but I think it looks and feels more modern than Seattle's (which is saying a lo!)
I have a hard time giving Canada that nod over America most of the time, but this time I couldn't. I'd love to visit both cities someday, but haven't made it out that way yet! Both are still among the best in the world IMO.
Aerial shots of each city. I think both look quite nice, but Vancouver certainly has much more density and larger collection of buildings, esp for a city with a mediocre population:
Location: northern Vermont - previously NM, WA, & MA
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Quote:
Originally Posted by bostonkid123
Aerial shots of each city. I think both look quite nice, but Vancouver certainly has much more density and larger collection of buildings, esp for a city with a mediocre population:
From an aerial point of view Vancouver does look more impressive. Closer in Seattle has a lot more distinction and character in its buildings. At street level and from other angles Vancouver has a lot of glass box monotony with repetition block after block with buildings of the same height, design, and color. You can see that pattern in the aerial photo along the water between the bridge and the stadium in the forefront, boring midrise residential glass boxes.
From an aerial point of view Vancouver does look more impressive. Closer in Seattle has a lot more distinction and character in its buildings. At street level and from other angles Vancouver has a lot of glass box monotony with repetition block after block with buildings of the same height, design, and color. You can see that pattern in the aerial photo along the water between the bridge and the stadium in the forefront, boring midrise residential glass boxes.
Actually at street level, I find downtown Vancouver to be very vibrant. Very well-planned streets, efficient Skytrain mass transit system, and lots of activity on several commercial streets like Granville and Robson. Also, coming from the NE, I honestly wouldn't mind living in one of those "boring glass boxes" because they look quite nice and always with great urban amenities whenever I visit my friends there. Heck, I'd be lucky to just have my own parking spot when I was living in Boston, not to mention indoor swimming pool and free gym that many condos in Vancouver already have.
In recent years I've noticed the city government doing this to some of their major streets in Vancouver:
Granville Avenue (pedestrian only street):
Last edited by bostonkid123; 10-31-2014 at 10:14 AM..
People always criticize the glass highrise residential being built in Vancouver as being boring--but personally I think it at least looks better than the pretty generic mid-rise buildings being built around parts of Seattle. Places like South Lake Union or Belltown just sort of look pretty bland these days. I've never been that impressed with much of the newer architecture being built in Seattle with the exception of places like the library(which is pretty interesting). The highrise condo towers of Vancouver at least give the city a more dramatic appearance both from afar and walking around the city.
People always criticize the glass highrise residential being built in Vancouver as being boring--but personally I think it at least looks better than the pretty generic mid-rise buildings being built around parts of Seattle. Places like South Lake Union or Belltown just sort of look pretty bland these days. I've never been that impressed with much of the newer architecture being built in Seattle with the exception of places like the library(which is pretty interesting). The highrise condo towers of Vancouver at least give the city a more dramatic appearance both from afar and walking around the city.
Actually I'd say the newer buildings in Seattle look almost the same as the Vancouver ones. Its not that surprising since a lot of the same developers are now operating in both places.
Vancouver is a strange case for me. While I admire it's density, I can't get over the monotony. Vancouver with it's real estate based economy, has an almost completely condo centric downtown with hardly any office buildings in its core..not to mention very few historic/heritage buildings. And while it is definitely clean, and very modern, it also seems to have urban planned its way into a city where nothing seems too unexpected around the next corner. As someone else said, not a lot of layering in eras or styles. When you're walking around it's sort of strange seeing peoples condo window curtains in various stages of open/close when you look up at the towers..it looks a little messy and resort-like in a Miami or Honolulu way. I'll say this, from afar with the mountains and all, Vancouver looks great!
Seattle IMO is the best of both worlds. It has a much larger stock of historic mid-rise buildings in its core, not to mention pre-war skyscrapers. There's also the presence of tall office buildings...that for me at least, are important to enhance a skyline with their clean curtain walls of glass cladding and varied architectural elements. It gives heft and obvious height to a skyline and Seattle has a nice variation in both of those. Seattle's current crop of many Vancouver-esque residential towers going up will add some blue glassy modern elements to round out the portrait…and if your a fan of mid-century modernism as i am, there's an iconic observation tower to behold.
I think starting with an office/work centric downtown and great historic bones has really been an advantage for Seattle. Building residential density and the services people who live downtown need, like schools and stores is a much easier task than the alternative that Vancouver faces of trying to diversify its economy, attract head offices downtown and then build from there. Not saying it can't happen just seems unlikely with the lack of build able lots in its core and its relatively little history as a business city.
Location: northern Vermont - previously NM, WA, & MA
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Quote:
Originally Posted by UrbanObservor
Seattle's skyline is growing quickly though:
Good god, you're telling me! I lived there from 2000-2005 and the last time I visited was 2007. Looking at that photo about 80% of those towers In Belltown and the Denny Triangle weren't there at that time. I just did a google street tour down Denny Way, Westlake, and 3rd Ave. Blows my mind how much rapid infill and density is going on there. Seattle s going gangbusters!
Traffic must be really nasty at this point though. Denny Way and Mercer Street were both a big traffic cluster**** when I was there. Can only imagine how bad it is now during rush hours. Seattle's mass-transit infrastructure really needs to catch up. They've had this problem since the 90's and they are really lagging behind on it.
Last edited by Champ le monstre du lac; 10-31-2014 at 06:34 PM..
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