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Of these 5, San Francisco and Montreal are clearly the most urban currently (by a good margin). The most rapidly evolving urban form, though, is Seattle.
Los Angeles has added more than 200k people within its (large) city limits since the 2010 census and about half a million to the MSA. It's a lot of people and with a lot of the development happening in not new plots of land but through reconstruction. This influx of people has lead to a lot of changes through the city and skyline. It's too bad the infrastructure, even with all the construction and expansion plans, hasn't kept up as evidenced by its increasingly miserable traffic.
I think there was a lost opportunity to not try to make the Harbor subdivision a continuation of Metrolink commuter rail, but electrified along with a couple branches of the currently existing system, in order to have something beefier than light rail and capable of transporting more people.
Far from a "stagnant city", it may not be growing as fast as other cities but it's still forecast to grow at healthy levels over long term instead of high levels over a short span. The island adds roughly 30-35K a year, metro 40-42K, downtown is projected at 120K which is 20,000 more than in 2011, there's a new bridge, highway interchange under construction, tens of thousands of units under construction, a new 67 km long light rail transit being discussed, we're a top city for startups and tech, there's at least 10 "hip" neighbourhoods now, etc.. i can go on because theres so much going on in this city it's amazing actually. We're pretty much a hidden secret globally but that'll change soon.
I think somebody on here fell for the classic "Frenchies destroyed Montreal" rhetoric!
I think somebody on here fell for the classic "Frenchies destroyed Montreal" rhetoric!
Which we all know is B.S haha, and i'm not even French. Sure past events have screwed the city but we can all agree that theres new confidence and fresh attitude in the city. We may not be the biggest city in Canada but the potential MTL has is incredible and im excited to be apart of it.
Koreatown has another 34 story proposal. I believe that makes 6 over 28 stories on the drawing boards, plus countless 7 story mixed use buildings u/c and proposed.
Same thing is happening in hollywood.
Those two areas alone will be drastically different in next 6-7 years. Hollywood has 19 hotels u/c, approved or proposed right now.
More than half are highrises.
The new high rise construction is just getting started. I think people on these boards really underestimate LA's potential.
Most rapidly evolving urban form of these select areas: Seattle, San Francisco, Vancouver, Los Angeles, or Montreal?
- Increase in residential human density
- Increase in structural density in the core
- Increase in mass transit ridership
- Expansions both currently implemented or planned for rail
- A vision to improve the efficiency, fleet, or network for the bus system
- Increase in accessible amenities in the core of the city
- Increase in population
- Increase in office space
- Increase in retail
- Implementation of more public greenspaces, urban city parks, or squares
- Whatever else (feel free to add stuff)
I think this could be an interesting comparison and maybe we can all learn something new. You're free to discuss anything from the core of these cities to even their suburbs, if suburbs are building up nodes and density and things like that, then it belongs in the discussion too.
Also, before I forget, just as a reminder, this thread is not about which city is currently the most urban or whatever, but it is about which cities are experiencing the fastest change to their urban form.
Over what time span? I'll go with 20 years and staying within the city proper, not the metro area.
Just sitting here in Vancouver and thinking that the neighbourhood I live in didn't even exist 20 years ago, It's kind of hard to believe Vancouver isn't at least up there. It's brought in scores of restaurants and bars and other retail.
Other new neighbourhoods include Coal Harbour and The Olympic Village, both with new parks and squares.
I can even find or count how many new high-rises have gone up in the last 20 years, but just looking out my window I count 26 that went up in the last 15. If had a view on the other side of the building, there would easily be another 26. More if I could see Coal Harbour.
Add to that the extension of the seawall around the city. The amount of mini-parks put in the west-end to control traffic. The new parks in the new neighbourhoods. There are four parks in my hood that have been created in the last 15 years or so. Another new one is planned a couple of blocks away. No idea how many new ones in the city overall.
Add in the new Convention Centre on the waterfront, the new parks down that way as well, not to forget a whole new square overlooking the waterfront and mountains. The whole skyline has changed dramatically over 20 years as well.
Laneway housing has taken off with hundreds being built in the city.
Skytrain's Millennium Line and Canada Line have been built to equal the amount of track the Metro in Montreal has currency, with a new line, The Evergreen Line opening soon. Plans to expand down Broadway to UBC are also being discussed.
Community Buses, smaller buses, were also introduced to connect with larger lines and the Skytrain.
How this compares numbers wise with the other cities I'm not sure, but knowing all the other cites, Vancouver to me seem to have changed a lot.
Your choice, as long as it includes the present day.
As in, you can choose today plus the 20 years prior to today OR you can choose today and the 20 years that will come into the future from today. Your choice on which direction you want to steer the discussion of this thread.
I'm just here to sit back and watch, maybe learn something new.
I don't follow Montreal much, but the others are all booming.
Seattle is changing the most quickly in its urban core. Vancouver is changing the most overall, including massive growth of highrise nodes outside its core.
Don't underestimate how much Vancouver is changing in it's core too. It's doing more than just building new towers. There's a huge casino/hotel complex under construction near BC Place, and there are plans to tear down the Georgia and Dunsmuir viaducts, which will greatly increase the pedestrian friendliness of the SE part of downtown.
I wonder how Vancouver's (very) recent real estate downfall will impact future housing developments?
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