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I recently visited Vancouver, BC (Canada) and I was blown away by their urban development planning. They have tons of density, but the city doesn't look dystopi
by freeqaz 4y ago
I recently visited Vancouver, BC (Canada) and I was blown away by their urban development planning. They have tons of density, but the city doesn't look dystopian because they've mixed different styles of building well.
What this manifests in reality is a less car-dependent city that's extremely walkable (they also have amazing walking paths all over).
Overall, I just found the experience to be amazing in comparison to visiting every other city in North America. It actually felt like a "city" and not just a collection of office buildings surrounded by 2-3 story houses (looking at you SF!).
Are there any other exemplary examples of good urban development in other cities?
- cperciva 4y agoI'm guessing you were downtown? From roughly 15th south -- the majority of the city -- pretty much all you get is suburban wasteland of detached homes.
- robotresearcher 4y agoThere are lumps of density around many of the SkyTrain stops. Some of the stops used to be in the middle of nowhere, then gradually developers made them into little dense mini-metros.
- freeqaz 4y agoI found the "clumps of density" fascinating because it seems like the NIMBY culture in SF/Seattle prevents that from happening. You simply cannot build more than 3-4 stories anywhere except downtown. There are some small exceptions to this, but I can't think of any buildings more than ~7 stories that are North of downtown Seattle that have been built in the last 50 years. It's just not a part of the culture here and it blew my mind to see this succeeding in Vancouver. Different priorities, I guess!
- cperciva 4y agoOutside of the City of Vancouver, yes. Metrotown, Brentwood, Lougheed, Surrey City Center -- but Vancouver itself has been very resistant to development outside of the core. The story of Metro Vancouver development can be summarized as "a city which wants to be a suburb surrounded by suburbs which want to be cities".
- freeqaz 4y agoYeah, it was downtown. But compared to SF or Seattles "downtown", it was absolutely bustling even at 2am in December. That's what blew my mind. (It's a ghost town in most cities because it's all commercial -- no mixed use tall buildings)
- ghaff 4y agoThere are probably cultural aspects to that as well. Can't really speak to Seattle, but SF is just not really a late night city in general. Boston, which is pretty European and mixed use in general, would also be pretty much shutdown at 2am as well even outside the Financial District.
- refurb 4y agoYup. Look at google maps of the lower Mainland. Tiny downtown core of Vancouver and nothing but suburbs that stretch out as far as the eye can see.