SkyscraperPage Forum - Who is building the most in North America?

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Quote:

Originally Posted by Crawford (Post 9597017)

One thing that's odd about the GTA is that the fancy areas often have the least construction, and the less desirable areas often have the most "luxury condos". Probably trans-national differences in zoning and regulatory framework.

For example, Yonge north of the 401 is kinda dumpy. But there's an orgy of gigantic towers everywhere, topped only by downtown Toronto. And most look pretty expensive and upscale. Yonge south of the 401 is very affluent, but looks basically the same as 25 years ago, when I was visiting nearby relatives as a kid. There are numerous SFH teardowns, but the essential character is the same. North York looks like some alien spacecraft touched down.

****

Others have noted the zoning permissions, which I will come back to........but the first thing is to correct the overly-broad statements about dumpiness.

Yonge St. north of the 401 was them main drag of the former municipality of North York; and before that, the village of Lansing.
The bulk of it went up post WWII; 3-5 decades after most of Lawrence Park, the residential area you noted south of 401.

There were some older heritage homes which looked quite nice, but many were demo'ed to make way for the towers you see today....

This is an example of a remnant older home from downtown North York.

https://www.google.ca/maps/@43.77140...7i16384!8i8192

Not so dumpy, LOL.

Quote:

If Toronto were in the U.S., Yonge north of the 401 would still be dumpy strip malls and worn bungalows, and any construction would be concentrated to the south. Toronto's growth is much more efficient, but it's hard to understand.

When it comes to zoning, here's what you need to know, before amalgamation, North York York was led by a rather boisterous former furniture salesman as Mayor named Mel Lastman. He had dreams of North York having a downtown and skyline all its own.

The Yonge subway had extended up to this area of Yonge in the 1970s, when it was still mostly low density, mainly to provide vast parking lots at its northern terminus (Finch) which could serve the then outer burbs and ex-urbs.

Mayor Mel, however, had more grandiose thoughts, and lobbied aggressively for an an east-west subway to serve his would-be downtown.

(Line 4 / Sheppard); a truncated version of which was built.

At the time, Downtown Toronto, while healthy was actually losing some office development to the suburbs, something supported by the then Metro government and even the 'old' City of Toronto which didn't need the extra assessment dollars and didn't particularly desire to be crowded (Toronto briefly imposed an 8-storey height limit on much of the core in the 70s)

Its in that context the towers began to rise in North York, first as offices and a hotel and later a smattering of the first wave of condos.

But the density permissions that had been put in place would come in handy when the amalgamated City began its super-boom some years later.

***

By contrast, there was never any desire to see skyscrapers in Lawrence Park.

When one speaks of suburban density in Toronto, I can't help but think of any area whose skyline I photographed just last weekend.

I was out walking in west end and a great view corridor along Riverside Drive affords some great shots of the Humber Bay Shores area.

https://urbantoronto.ca/forum/attach...71-jpg.391819/

This area was a strip of seedy motels right into the mid 1990s.

They dated from the era when that was the outskirts of the City of Toronto (Etobicoke/Mimico really)

In the 90s, the province bought out most of the motels ostensibly for waterfront parkland (Which was put in); but decided to offset the cost by permitting development to overlook said new parks.

When the idea was first mooted, I don't think any one conceived of the height/density that would subsequently arrive.

a good comparison for Humber Bay:

2009:

https://i.imgur.com/3F02SVl.png

2021:

[IMG]https://i.imgur.com/WzTrfHW.png[/IMG]

2031? (This development has been approved and is now moving forward with it's first phase)

https://cdn.skyrisecities.com/sites/...382-125247.jpg

of course NYC has some similar parallels - LIC comes to mind.

2009:

https://i.imgur.com/ru9HR3P.png

2021:

https://i.imgur.com/yNiOCPn.png

I think the main takeaway here is also how much higher quality the Google Street View images are now.

Quote:

Originally Posted by homebucket (Post 9597985)

I think the main takeaway here is also how much higher quality the Google Street View images are now.

What's crazy is the increase in quality between the first iteration of Streetview around 2007, and the next round in 2009. I don't know what changed in those first two years, but it's been mostly diminishing returns since.

2007:

https://i.imgur.com/kNQOLgI.png

2009:

https://i.imgur.com/jAXRKdN.png

These before and afters kind of freak me out a little bit. It makes you think that an unbalanced amount of newly created capital all went into real estate speculation. Did all of these cities really add that many newly created wealthy individuals that are able to afford a residence in luxury high rise? Or has an illusion been created that will be realized one day?

Quote:

Originally Posted by SAN Man (Post 9599203)

What?

In 2009, there was 340 million people in the United States and Canada. In 2021, there is now 369 million between the two countries. Additionally, both have seen a resurgence of their cities as Millennials shun the boring suburbs of their parents and start their careers in big and exciting cities. I'm shocked that cities haven't grown more, but I guess NIMBYism and exclusionary zoning policies have put a cap on things.

Even though Toronto is growing like crazy now is only just a fraction of the growth of pre-war NYC. Much more room to grow.

@ SAN Man

Could also be sharing of units as well. Like when you have units going for 4k a month or more, sometimes folks share units. There's a lot of unit sharing going on in your expensive cities.

Kind of like what they do in Central NJ with the mansions that they build in the mountains. You'll have like a 5 million dollar mansion being built, but its shared with like 20 people. I've noticed this tends to be a thing with your Indian Americans, but its smart man. If you get folks you trust, even uber-luxury units are a reality.

A life of luxury can be had for ease if your in the position of having a very strong nuclear family that shares all their income towards the mansion or lifestyle. That's why I need SSP folks to give me a ton of cash for my new Ferrari.

Isn't Jersey City or Newark or something like that building the most units anywhere in the US?

Quote:

Originally Posted by MAC123 (Post 9600068)

Isn't Jersey City or Newark or something like that building the most units anywhere in the US?

On a per capita basis, Jersey City takes the cake.

That JC list is nuts. Can't wait to see what the skyline looks like just after all the approved are built let alone the proposed.

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