Rodge9

Fair enough regarding your preference for Vancouver from an aesthetic point of view, I disagree but different strokes etc. In what sense is it studied around the world though? This is a genuine question rather than an attempt at being flippant, I've heard about that but I'd thought that was more from a functionality point of view rather than aesthetics.

Obviously Toronto will have more to do because of being bigger, but even proportionally Vancouver feels lacking - i.e. it has half the population, but feels like there less than half as many things to do, cultural events etc - that was my just my perception mind, I don't have any figures to back it up.

Fair enough, didn't float my boat all that much although I like your justification. There were some buildings I liked - I did rather like the Richmond Olympic Oval when I visited it during the games, as well as being nice to look at it won awards for sustainable design I believe.

Interesting, wouldn't these be other folks from elsewhere in Canada/the world for the most part though? Or does she mean Francophones born and raised in Vancouver (didn't meet any of those myself I don't think but sure they exist)?

ExKiwilass

The flipside of that is it's also more competitive, more people looking for the jobs, and more all about the business.

ExKiwilass

They exist because there are francophone schools here, but the link to the wider francophone world can be tenuous, because, hey, there isn't a big francophone community here, probably their parents speak english and do they growing up, etc etc. By which I mean, they're still 'Couves

I get the impression the francophone community is growing with imports from Quebec though.
And please god let it be true cos we could do with some more light-heartedness in this city.

JonboyE

I guess that visitors to Vancouver are so busy looking outwards to beaches, sea and mountains that they fail to see the city for what it is. Unless, that is, they are making a judgment that old must be good and new cannot.

The city planners in Vancouver have held a consistent vision for the city over many decades. Mostly this has been good IMO. Examples are the exclusion of freeways and purchasing waterfront land to create a lineal city park from Canada Place to Wreck Beach. I also think the densification of downtown to create a city area where you can live, work, and play without the need of a car is largely working.

If I have one gripe it is the insistance that new downtown high rises conform to the city's view of buildings that reflect their setting in an approved manner. I think Yaletown green glass is being done to death. I remember that at the Wall Centre they had to acceded to the City's demands, but then installed dark coloured blinds behind the glass to create a completely different visual appeal from the outside.

There are Edwardian piles in Vancouver. The old courthouse (now the Art Gallery) is the most prominent example, but there are many others including the neoclassical facade of the Birks building.

However, it was the Art-Deco era that produced some of the best buildings. The magnificent Marine Building is the most obvious example (and not forgetting City Hall) but you only have to raise your eyes above street level in the downtown core to see many more fine examples.

The utilitarian modernism of the West End has a certain attraction.

More recently Arthur Erikson created wonderful buildings (SFU and the Museum of Anthropology) but the Law Courts in Downtown - the skyscraper on its side - is a sublime example of a building that effortlessly achieves its function, and creates a sense of awe, yet still retains the feel of its West Coast setting.

The aforementioned city planning policy does stifle some of the creativity of the more design led architectural firms (though who it to say that in future years critics will not celebrate the consistency and unity of style) but firms like Bing Thom are creating some unusual and provocative designs outside the downtown core - The Chan Centre at UBC, Surrey City Centre, and the Aberdeen mall in Richmond.

Overall I think that people who claim that Vancouver has little architectural merit or beauty are making very superficial judgments.

JonboyE

You are not the first person to say this, but I don't get it. Vancouver is full of new immigrants trying to establish new lives and looking for new friends, acquaintances, and social circles. It is the easiest of things to do.

Steve_

Five stages of Canadian life:

1) Grow up in some small town in the middle of nowhere;
2) Develop the desire to move to a bigger city so you can have a life;
3) Move to Toronto and get a job;
4) Get tired of living in Toronto because of taxes, traffic, etc. and develop a desire to move to Vancouver;
5) Move to Vancouver and discover all the homeless people beat you to it.

I've spent a fair amount of time in both cities and to my mind without question Vancouver is the better place to live. I could sit here and list the reasons but really you should visit and develop your own opinion.

But in the meantime sit on Hwy 7 in Markham or the 401 at rush hour and think about it.

Rodge9

And that's exactly what happened the first time I was there in '07 - had a great time and made quite a few friends. By the time I went back in January this year most of them had left though, either because they were on temporary visas and gone back home, or they'd moved elsewhere in Canada. So I was starting from scratch pretty much, and although I did meet plenty of travellers/recent immigrants this time I didn't really find any good friends among them this time - maybe just bad luck, timing, fact that I was so busy during the Olympics and Paras, I'd grown up since last time, etc. I've seen it said on here a number of times though that to settle into a place one must make the effort to integrate with the local (let's say 'established') community, and this is evidently necessary to find a job as most people will know. It may have been possible eventually to work my way in with said community, but it felt like more effort than it was worth, especially being on a fixed-length visa (even though I'm in the fortunate position of having one for next year too), so I decided to cut my losses and move on - I wasn't tied to anything in Vancouver.

I've little doubt as well that having such a good time the first time I lived there evelated my expectations somewhat and put Vancouver on something of a pedestal, so I was always going to be disappointed to an extent. But I had to go back and see if I wanted to live there longer term, the answer was no, so I've tried to learn what I can from it and move on.

volkswagen

hope you will like what we are doing:
http://www.okok.ca

dbd33

From around the world. If there are francophones born in Vancouver they'd be the children of recent immigrants.

dboy

[QUOTE=Rodge9;8911238]Fair enough regarding your preference for Vancouver from an aesthetic point of view, I disagree but different strokes etc. In what sense is it studied around the world though? This is a genuine question rather than an attempt at being flippant, I've heard about that but I'd thought that was more from a functionality point of view rather than aesthetics.


Vancouerism is a new urbanism building and development standard that was pioneered here and is being used around the world as a blueprint for designing cities and is considered a leadeing urban design model for cities of the futrure as we become greener and move away from teh auto.

Vancouver recocongnised early on, more as funtion of neccessity, that for teh city to grow, it would have to grow up. It also realized that north american sprawl was a failure and the blue print for true livable cities was to build them with teh view of living and working in one place and not be realiant on teh auto.

Vacouverism sought to develop a form of compact high rise living that does not destroy street scapes, does not bunch buildings together by perserving green space betweeb buildings and having narrower buildings built on podiums such as townhouses or commercial so that the street is not domintinated by highrises and the sun blocked out.

view cones and height limits strive to minimize the loss of views of the north shore

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vancouverism

dboy

besides you never meet many people that are vancouver born and raised..... I personally have never had too much trouble meeting here but i imagine that the muted social scene does not help. I can remember when there was very few places to go here and the laws around booze were a joke. It seemed that the norm was to buy a bottle and have parties at each others homes. I thinks this is why some view the place as cliquey which is not true at all, but inviting someone you hardly know to your home is less likely to happen on a social level

dboy

anywhere sucks without friends, companions and jobs. vancouver can be a hard place to break into at times, especaily on the work front. As you note, hardly seem the effort. Personally if i were younger and single I'd think TO would be better fit. Vancouver is more of long term, once you are settled sort of a place

dboy

I agree and while Vancouver can not compare to London or Paris or numerous other places, i thought it always held its own against UK industrial cities like Leeds or Manchester

The older parts of vancouver has some great architectural gems. off the top of my head:

the Flack Building, teh Europa Hotel, CPR building, the RBC Buidling, Rodgers Building, the Old Stock Exchange, the Vancouver Club, Sinclair Centre, Wosk Centre, Sun Building, Dominion Tower, Carnigie Centre, Wang Sing Building and numerous examples of Edwardian and some Victorian buidlings, many of which are finally getting the attention they deserve (much of the west end however is a whole other story).

The4BellsLondon

Well I found it hard to find friends when I got here and I dont think it can be said that I am a quiet unassuming person! Hubby was at work - both kids at school and old enought to get there and back athemselves - me not sowrking- oh I tried to get people to meet for cofee etc by going to the school functions, helping at school, walking my dogs . . .. . .but was a v long and hard process - indeed like Kiwi has said before- one of their friends practically has to die before you get on the list!

It took a good year . . .and 2 really crappy jobs for me to settle - but I got there- thanks Kiwi

MarylandNed

I was merely making the point that Vancouver is not a beautiful city in my opinion - rather it is a city in a beautiful setting (with ocean and mountains etc). Paris is a beautiful city in terms of its actual infrastructure and architecture - if you could lift it up and relocate it, it would still be a beautiful city. The same can't be said for Vancouver. There are many cities in the world that look like Vancouver in terms of infrastructure - they just happen to not be situated in such a naturally beautiful setting as Vancouver.

I'll admit it's been a while since I was last in Vancouver. I remember wandering the city looking for restaurants/bars/clubs and they were surprisingly hard to find in a city of that size. I remember seeing lots of gay couples (nothing against them-just an observation), lots of coffee shops (where are the bars?), lots of homeless people, and some dodgy areas in and around the downtown core. I understand that Vancouver's temperate climate attracts homeless people from colder parts of Canada. If I remember correctly, Vancouver also has one of the highest crime rates and one of the biggest drug problems amongst Canada's largest cities.

So, yes, beautiful setting but certainly not a city without some serious flaws. Of course, my interests are probably different since I was last there. There's a good chance that the fresh air, the park, the ocean, the mountain and the beach could provide all the entertainment I now seek- as long as I don't mind rain I guess. However, my lasting memory at this point is still one of how utterly ugly, boring and devoid of life the city itself was.