Skyline Growth in Your City since the 1960s

[AviationGuy]

Originally Posted by CaliNative

London is now the European skyscraper capital. Who would have predicted that 30 years ago?

I was last in London in 1978 when my Dad was living there. You can imagine how different it was back then. I know a lot of it looks the same, but omg the building clusters blow my mind.

[MAC123]

Originally Posted by CaliNative

London is now the European skyscraper capital. Who would have predicted that 30 years ago?

Does London have more than Moscow?

[MAC123]

Originally Posted by iheartthed

According to SSP's database, this is the count of +400' towers completed in NYC per decade since 1960:

1960: 52
1970: 60
1980: 82
1990: 38
2000: 61
2010: 90
2020-2022: 28

And Jersey City:

1960: 0
1970: 0
1980: 1
1990: 5
2000: 8
2010: 14
2020-2022: 5

Really? That seems kinda low for NYC

[Metro-One]

This pic shown for Brentwood in Burnaby was actually my own from this summer.

I moved to Japan 9 years ago, so for context here are all the towers that didn't exist in this view when I last lived in the Vancouver / Burnaby area.

newtowers by Ian, on Flickr

[JManc]

Originally Posted by MAC123

Does London have more than Moscow?

I think Moscow has a lot more supertalls but looking at London's skyline, it looks like it has more high rises in general. London has three large clusters; Canary Wharf, the CIty and the area around the Shard in Southwark, Moscow has one, Moscow City.

[iheartthed]

Originally Posted by DCReid

Does Toronto beat Dubai? I'm too lazy to count but assume Dubai is #1.

Dubai is ahead by a very comfortable margin.

1970: 1
1980: 0
1990: 7
2000: 203
2010: 160
2020-2022: 58

Cumulative:

1970: 1
1980: 1
1990: 8
2000: 211
2010: 371
2020-2022: 429

[iheartthed]

Originally Posted by Innsertnamehere

stricter regs aren't universal across Canada though. Calgary is known in Canada for being extremely sprawling, yet it maintains a significant downtown residential and commercial population.

Same thing with cities like Ottawa and Edmonton.

Apartments are more common in Canada basically regardless of city size, location, income, and regulatory context. Even small, 20-30,000 person cities with very low land use regulations see regular apartment building construction.

Land Use regs definitely influence it in places like Toronto and Vancouver, but it's ultimately based on, in my opinion:

1. slightly lower average incomes
2. greater acceptance of public transit
3. lower parking rate requirements on average, dropping construction costs
4. greater acceptance of apartment living
5. different finance structures which more easily enable financing of large-scale apartment projects

Within the U.S. it is the richer cities that are building the most towers. The income theory doesn't explain that. Your other theories do address it.

[Wigs]

Originally Posted by JManc

Canada is damn cold that developers build tall buildings so people can live closer to the sun. I thought this was common knowledge

You'd think Winnipeg and Edmonton would be a sea of 60,70,80 storey buildings by now

[JManc]

Originally Posted by iheartthed

Dubai is ahead by a very comfortable margin.

1970: 1
1980: 0
1990: 7
2000: 203
2010: 160
2020-2022: 58

Cumulative:

1970: 1
1980: 1
1990: 8
2000: 211
2010: 371
2020-2022: 429

A 50-story in Toronto probably cost 2x as some 100-story supertall in Dubai.

[kingkirbythe....]

Originally Posted by JManc

A 50-story in Toronto probably cost 2x as some 100-story supertall in Dubai.

That'll happen with slave labor involved.

[muppet]

Shanghai back in 2013 counted 1,463 buildings over 30 storeys so that blows Dubai out the water.



2000 212

2010 980

2012 1,207

2013 1,463 (256 built in one year)

Wonder what the count is now? Another contender would be Shenzhen.

[CaliNative]

Originally Posted by JManc

I think Moscow has a lot more supertalls but looking at London's skyline, it looks like it has more high rises in general. London has three large clusters; Canary Wharf, the CIty and the area around the Shard in Southwark, Moscow has one, Moscow City.

I think London has more tall buildings then than Moscow, or soon will. The Shard and the new one in the City across the river are almost supertalls. Moscow also has the interesting Stalinist classical towers, like the Moscow Univ. I bet the building activity has ground to a halt in Moscow since the war and sanctions. Evil war.

[CaliNative]

Originally Posted by mousquet

It's quite simple over here in Paris. You just take a look at the list of tallest buildings:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...and_structures

Except for the Eiffel Tower that's not a building, but an experimental structure to show off French engineering in 1889, nothing to exceed 100m (300+ ft) dates prior to the late 1960s.

Of course there was no 'pre-war' skyscraper here. Even though France invented Art Deco, local buildings of that style are in the 5-10 stories range.

In a nutshell, Paris had no so called skyline before the 1960s. It was pretty much all mid-rise buildings.

Back in the 1970s they built that pretty ugly 50+ floor tower in Montparnass on the left bank, but nothing more. Was that due to protests? Is Le Defense still the main skyscraper cluster in Paris? Is there much new construction? Have skyscraper apartment buildings been built anywhere in or near Paris? I like London, with mix of old and new. Paris should build more.

[muppet]

Originally Posted by CaliNative

I think London has more tall buildings then than Moscow, or soon will. The Shard and the new one in the City across the river are almost supertalls. Moscow also has the interesting Stalinist classical towers, like the Moscow Univ. I bet the building activity has ground to a halt in Moscow since the war and sanctions. Evil war.

London currently has 38 skyscrapers (over 150m) but Moscow 57. Moscow has a whopping 7 supertalls and 1 taller than the rest u/c, compared to London's 1.

London's granted planning permission to nearly 500 buildings over 20 storeys, and another 100 put forward. Moscow I imagine similar - but as mentioned it still remains to be seen how many will materialise in the near future due to the war/ economic downturn that's affecting both sides. Moscow's the bigger city, but both metros are about the same size and ballooning in population:

London -City proper 9 million, Green Belt 'contiguous' 14 million, metro 22 million (grows by 100,000 p/a city proper and another 120,000 metro)

Moscow -City proper 13 million, contiguous 17 million, metro 20 million+ (grows by 150,000 p/a city proper)


I'd hazard as Russia suffers Moscow will become a magnet for economic migrants across the country, and highrise building will continue. Office building however will stall significantly.


Someone please get rid of Putin.

[MolsonExport]

I've been to many of the biggest cities in the world. Nothing comes close to Shanghai for the sheer volume of highrises. It is absolutely staggering.

[MolsonExport]

Originally Posted by Nite

Winnipeg


1960 - 0
1970 - 1
1980 - 1
1990 - 2
2000 - 2
2010 - 2
2020 - 2
2022 - 3 (includes 1 U/C)

The peg actually looks pretty beefy in that shot.

[mousquet]

Originally Posted by CaliNative

Back in the 1970s they built that pretty ugly 50+ floor tower in Montparnass on the left bank, but nothing more. Was that due to protests? Is Le Defense still the main skyscraper cluster in Paris? Is there much new construction? Have skyscraper apartment buildings been built anywhere in or near Paris? I like London, with mix of old and new. Paris should build more.

I don't think the black tower in Montparnasse has ever been ugly. It only looks out of place precisely because they wouldn't build any more skyscraper around, while we could afford it in the 14th arrondissement without demolishing anything significant.
If the very same tower was in Manhattan or at La Défense, everybody would find it as cool or random (depending on their knowledge about modern architecture) as any skyscraper from the early 70s.

La Défense is obviously the main high-rise cluster over here. Almost all the tallest buildings of the metro area are located in that district, that's quite a bunch of office towers nowadays and it keeps on gradually getting bigger.

There are 2 high-rise residential neighborhoods from the 1970s in the inner city.
The Front de Seine (also known as Beaugrenelle) in the 15th arrondissement and a cluster of Brutalist residential towers in the 13th, mostly over the neighborhood known as Olympiades, that's at the heart of the largest Asian district of Paris.
Zoning was strict, so no tower would exceed 110m and president Giscard d'Estaing thought skyscrapers were ugly, so he had most plans of the era canceled once he was elected as the head of state. He just didn't like tall buildings.

There are tons of things under construction all over the metro area. It's just a lot of mid-rise urban fabric (say 8 to 18 stories).
It doesn't necessarily mean impoverishment. In case you wouldn't have noticed, skyscrapers no longer really embody any kind of wealth or power.
For instance, both Switzerland and Ireland have virtually no skyscrapers. Yet, their GDPs per capita beat those of both our countries, while they have no fossil fuels, unlike the US that's still in a 'drill, baby, drill to make money' mindset.

I think more skyscrapers would be useful here, as they would help us avoid any further urban sprawl and maybe to develop more gardens in town, simply because piling up more floors in a same building might save some room on the ground.

Other than that, Paris certainly doesn't need the tallest penis in the world to shine.
It is well known as a pretty and carefully planned city, overall.

[lio45]

Originally Posted by muppet

Moscow has a whopping 7 supertalls and 1 taller than the rest u/c

So, ample supply of high windows Putin could eventually accidentally fall from

[Wigs]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

The peg actually looks pretty beefy in that shot.

And very green! One of Winnipeg's strong suits (imho) is the beautiful tree canopy on older residential streets

[Labtec]

Atlanta 1987 vs January 2022:



Lots of new construction going up in midtown. While west midtown and the old fourth ward are becoming the new hotspots for office buildings. Old Fourth Ward then vs now: https://atlanta.urbanize.city/post/p...unrecognizable

South downtown Atlanta is also set to be undergo a boom with Centennial Yards, Summerhill, and more: https://atlanta.urbanize.city/post/s...veiled-project
https://centennialyards.com/