UP|Canada

Montreal Stay

cheshireguy — Fri, 09 May 2008 14:42:30 -0500

Hello North-of-the-Borderers,

My wife and I are celebrating our one year anniversary with a week in Montreal at the Hotel Gault in the Old Port section of the city from May 24th to the 31st. We want to have a nice dinner pretty much every night, and we are both really into old-timey brewpubs and micro beers. Any suggestions on places to eat or drink? Any information would be much appreciated.

winnipeg

doogur — Thu, 01 May 2008 15:41:32 -0500

I was in Winnipeg during June '06, and I don't remember seeing a lot of construction. Actually...I don't remember seeing any construction, and I had a lot of free time in many parts of the city shown in these pictures.

winnipeg

SimpleSimon — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 23:35:00 -0500

^Most of those projects listed are under construction or complete. 100 Main is cancelled. The avenue building ins on hold. With less than 20 million dollars to go, full commitment (and millions in funding) from the feds and making news nationally, the CMHR is ready to go. It is going to be a national museum. The new airport terminal by Cesar Pelli is under construction right now.

courtesey of 1ajs on skyscraperpage.com

Vancouver

MJLO — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 13:19:44 -0500

haha if he was banned, it was not for that.

Vancouver

broran28 — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 03:26:08 -0500

That dude should have never been banned... Whats wrong with smokin a doobie every now and then?? Come on dudes... For real? Keep ir chill ya know... Payce...

winnipeg

leclercnlakenona — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 21:59:30 -0500

QUOTE (broran28 @ Mar 14 2008, 05:44 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

We need more updates! I really like Winnipeg. (I know Im weird for liking cold weather)...

Seems like a lot of proposals but nothing being built. This reminds me of the Winnipeg I left in the 90's. I think after a decade the only thing different is the MTS Center, the new Hydo tower and strip malls.

Quebec City

tombarnes — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 23:35:02 -0500

Quebec City Armoury Destroyed in Catastrophic Fire

The historic Quebec City Armoury was destroyed by fire this morning. The origins of the fire are unknown. As far as anyone knows, the building was unoccupied at the time. Various leaders including Mayor Regis Labeaume have already pledged that this signature landmark building will be rebuilt, but the losses are notable. The interior had a remarkable trussed roof and contained irreplaceable memorabilia from various wars and military campaigns. The building faces the Plains of Abraham and is at the edge of the old city.

CBC News

Saguenay

broran28 — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 00:21:04 -0500

Quebec is such a neat place...

Saguenay

MrFSS — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 14:40:12 -0500

We visited this nice little city via a cruise late last year. Quite honestly I had never heard of the place before, but my wife and I found it to be a very clean and friendly place that is just learning what tourists are all about. Several cruise ships are now traversing the Saguenay Fjord for a day long visit, especially in the fall when the leaves are turning.

More information is HERE.

And, here are some photos of the area. We walked around the town some and learned no one who lives there speaks English!

Views of the Saguenay area from the bow of the cruise ship. Early in the morning.

Our ship tender will dock where the tents are. There is talk of a pier being built for cruise ships. Probably will be a while.

The local airline plane is ready to depart.

The Welcome Mat was out.

The local Catholic Church

We walked up the hill above the downtown area.

Lovely homes - everyone had flowers.

Everywhere in Canada signs are in English and French. Not here!

Its Everywhere!

Lots of nice beach areas.

Almost time to return to the ship for another meal!

winnipeg

broran28 — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 16:44:56 -0500

We need more updates! I really like Winnipeg. (I know Im weird for liking cold weather)...

Suburban Toronto

BrandonTO416 — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 19:12:45 -0500

The CN Tower has the uncanny ability to make the 700-1000ft downtown office buildings small and the 400-500 ft buildings look tiny.

Suburban Toronto

BrandonTO416 — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 19:07:27 -0500

Pano

Zoom

Ultrazoom

Toronto-Scarborough across the lake

BrandonTO416 — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 18:55:37 -0500

As the title states, downtown and buildings in Scarborough on the right.

Has to be one of the best pictures of all time, because there's almost few chances in any given time throughout the year you can see clear across Lake Ontario with this much detail, this camera must have been over 10 megapixels with a snazzy optical zoom....

View of Toronto from Halton, Mt. Nemo

BrandonTO416 — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 08:02:24 -0600

Here's a view of the greater Toronto region from a hill west of town in Halton region. The buildings look small because of the distance and zoom, but you can make out downtown and the numerous other GTA buildings.

Live Local 3D Maps

heckles — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 01:28:02 -0600

Windows Live Local has central Toronto mapped out pretty well, although they totally lack many GTA centres such as Mississauga, Scarborough, and even lack most of the buildings in North York (although they have the New York towers and a few by the 401).

With that said, for those of you with the ability you should fly over to the 3D maps and take a spin, you can get detailed 3D virtual worlds of central Toronto:

http://local.live.com/

Just switch it to 3D, let it install if it needs, switch to hybrid, and zoom in on your city of choice (Toronto of course!)

With that said, here are a few 3D views of Toronto.

Downtown looking southeast from the northwest:

Downtown looking west-southwest from the east:

Looking north-northwest away from downtown toward midtown:

Several kilometers north looking back south toward downtown from Yonge-Eglinton (7km, 4.5 miles):

Way northwest of downtown-midtown-yonge & eglinton looking back southwest (about 13 miles out of the city):

You can also see detailed models of local blocks.

Dundas Square:

Nathan Phillips Square/City Hall:

So load it up, and have some fun!

http://local.live.com/

Toronto Panoramas

heckles — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 00:59:35 -0600

This is one of the more amazing panoramic views from the CN Tower, although you have to scroll much to the right to see many of the buildings. I find it bizzaire how tiny the buildings in Mississauga and North York all the way over towards Scarborough seem to be due to the distance.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/comm...to_panorama.jpg

Although I love photos from the lakefront, they really don't measure the size of the city and most buildings are north-south not east-west.

Here is a WWI air show photo, although the buildings are easy to see behind the downtown northward away from the lakefront:

And from the CN Tower, as the above photos show, when you're looking westward you really can't see Mississauga well. Mississauga is in the distance across the Humber Bay:

And of course here is Mississauga from a distance, but zoomed in with more clarity:

Driving toward North York on the 401, which you can see in the distance north of downtown in the panoramas above:

Toronto via YouTube

heckles — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 22:20:59 -0600

Here's a new one:

Ontario and Toronto Tourism Commercials

heckles — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 22:13:09 -0600

Here are a few Toronto and Ontario tourism commercials of recent times, hopefully they can air some of these ads in the US.

Toronto - You Belong Here ad from a few years back

I particularly like how they mix both nature and urban environments, going from the guitar at City Hall and Nathan Phillips Square's water fountain to the bluffs 10km east of downtown in Scarborough upon Lake Ontario

Ontario/Toronto - diversity theme

Ottawa, Ontario - diversity theme; Niagara, Ontario - diversity theme

Scarborough Centre - GTA

heckles — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 20:55:15 -0600

On a smaller scale, Scarborough City Centre is another Toronto area that is growing, albeit it looks smaller than the others.

The rail yard in the distance from Scarborough Centre makes the photo look relatively unattractive, and its true that Scarborough is one of the lest sought after parts of the GTA, BUT its still got an interesting set of buildings in its centre.

The highlight of Scarborough Centre is the Ellipse condo development that opened 2 years ago:

The Ellipse had some very affordable condos to be in a major market. They originally were selling 1 bedroom condos for $170,000 CDN although right now the market in Toronto has escalated so fast that you can't find one for less than $250,000.

North York City Centre - GTA

heckles — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 20:54:27 -0600

Toronto's downtown all the way up to Yonge and Eglinton is clearly the major center and heart of the region, but Mississauga is the 2nd largest city centre in the GTA.

Third largest is North York, which is now part of the city of Toronto.

North York City Centre, 14km (8.5 miles) north of downtown Toronto:

Walking in North York is an urban experience, and its along the TTC's main subway line:

Canadian suburbs have a nice feel to them.

Mississauga Skyline

heckles — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 20:27:59 -0600

LOL, I'm just now realizing in the first part of the thread I said the west suburb east of the city. Correction: Its the western GTA suburb west of downtown.

For those of you comparing Mississuaga to New York or Chicago, be very careful. If you look at the layout and the aerials you can clearly see these are suburban highrises. At the bottom of the towers its very green, set back from the road, and suburban in nature. But yes, its still an amazing area.

Mississauga is undergoing a major growth spurt still today, and they have a master plan to create a cohesive downtown area.

BUT, one thing I've always said is that Canadian suburbia is so interesting compared to American suburbs. There's really nothing like it in the US even in Chicago, New York, or San Francisco. I was in San Francisco last summer hoping that Berkeley, Oakland, San Jose would inspire me. Really compared to Canadian suburbs they still suck.

But, alas, its Canada. Just different all around.

I do give props to San Francisco, it has a cleaner Canadian feel to it than Chicago or New York. So San Jose, Redwood City, Berkeley are far superior to Schaumburg, IL or Asscrack, NJ.

But Mississauga is clearly not an average suburb. Its centre city area is larger than Atlanta, Dallas, Houston, Miami, Denver, Minneapolis, and several other cities' downtowns.

Toronto's downtown all the way up to Yonge and Eglinton is clearly the major center and heart of the region, but Mississauga is the 2nd largest city centre in the GTA.

Third largest is North York, which is now part of the city of Toronto.

North York City Centre, 14km (8.5 miles) north of downtown Toronto:

Walking in North York is an urban experience, and its along the TTC's main subway line:

Canadian suburbs have a nice feel to them.

On a smaller scale, Scarborough City Centre is another Toronto area that is growing, albeit it looks smaller than the others.

The highlight of Scarborough Centre is the Ellipse condo development that opened 2 years ago:

The Ellipse had some very affordable condos to be in a major market. They originally were selling 1 bedroom condos for $170,000 CDN although right now the market in Toronto has escalated so fast that you can't find one for less than $250,000.

Toronto has only one competitor to highrises: New York. Chicago has far fewer overall (although its downtown is much larger and taller than Toronto) and the California two just don't compare.

Luckily, New York and Toronto are vastly different. There's almost no comparison, Manhattan is huge, massive, and dense. Its the king of the America's.

But, I while I love to visit New York I would never live there. Toronto is a pretty nice place to live.

Toronto via YouTube

heckles — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 03:46:30 -0600

Driving on the 401, Toronto suburban style.

Highway 404, Northeast Suburbs/Markham, ON

Highway 401, Scarborough Town Centre/Northeast Suburbs

Heading north on Hwy 427 in Mississauga upon a bus:

Riding through Mississauga via bus:

Toronto via YouTube

heckles — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 03:04:33 -0600

YouTube has been used in many ways, but how about a new way to virtually see cities you may not have visited.

So here's Toronto!

A montage from the CN Tower, and standing in the CN Tower @ 1800ft makes even 40-50 storey condos look tiny.

In a car driving toward downtown:

Landing at the Toronto Downtown Airport:

View from the Islands:

Walking along Yonge St:

Downtown, starting with the new Canadian Opera Company building. I was happy to get an opening tour in summer 2006.

Driving down University, right by the above video taken in the median greenway.

CN Tower

heckles — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 15:50:33 -0600

The CN Tower is in a bizzaire classification of structures.

Its not simply a "tower" that broadcasts data; however, it isn't a full fledged "building" that has many numerous floors.

The fact that it has an entirely occupyable series of floors in the two pods at the top half of the tower does mean its human occupyable, so its in that more than a tower but not a building zone. The CN Tower is more than the Seattle Space Needle. The CN Tower is an entirely enclosed building with several stories in the main pod, the Seattle Space Needle doesn't have the same facilities.

Its just the CN Tower. The only place in North America where you can actually stand over 1830 ft above the surface of the earth in a building.

CN Tower

akulaleopard — Sun, 23 Dec 2007 11:34:19 -0600

Yes, it is one of the tallest buildings. The tallest free standing building is the CN Tower, the tallest building is in Poland, over 1000 meters high. It's a radio antenna near Poznan.

Mississauga Skyline

Eridony — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 14:52:43 -0600

That skyline is amazing. It's so strange how these cities look so big and yet are hardly ever heard of. I remember going through Ontario a couple of years ago and seeing the skylines of Mississauga and I think Hamilton and just being amazed. I don't know if the populations are actually that high, but they seemed to be built very dense, unlike most US cities.

Top 10 Canadian skylines

DigitalSky — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 21:46:10 -0500

2 wonderful cities. I agree, they are both overshadowed by the larger city nearby (Detroit and Toronto)

Top 10 Canadian skylines

nibletodell — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 21:42:26 -0500

windsor, ontario and mississauga, ontario get no love

Mississauga Skyline

Lowerdeck — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 20:57:10 -0500

QUOTE(tommy @ Jul 24 2007, 07:10 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Wow! That first pic looks like Manhattan or Chicago.

It definitely reminds me of New York as seen from the NJ Turnpike, except there's no one tower in the middle standing out over the others (which for New York is the Empire State).

Mississauga Skyline

erm1981 — Mon, 20 Aug 2007 17:12:15 -0500

I just went on a vacation last week to Niagara falls. We decided to do a day trip to Toronto by way of the QEW. I had no idea there were so many big cities off the QEW like Hamilton and Mississauga. Very impressive. I got some good photos of Toronto from the CN tower I would like to share in the Canada forum. Mississauga is very impressive. Leaving Toronto you can see it off in the distance and it looks very huge.

Mississauga Skyline

maddawg5 — Sun, 19 Aug 2007 12:09:09 -0500

The skyline is AMAZING. I've never looked at Mississauga at the photo's perspective. Missisauga's skyline looks more or less like

Chicago's, New York's, and Toronto's skyline. Most of these buldings are 30-50 stories high.

Toronto - fastest growing city in North America

maddawg5 — Sun, 19 Aug 2007 11:55:07 -0500

QUOTE(mgman @ Jul 6 2007, 02:14 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

a growth of over a million people in five years, that is extremely impressive. Where are all these people coming from. Are they immigrants or are they Canadians from other areas.

Answers:

You should know the majority of the immigrants that go to live in Toronto is mostly immigrants from northern China. You should visit Agincourt in Scarborough in Toronto. Probably more than half the writing you see is in Chinese as well as English. And the new Shopper's Drug Mart near Agincourt Mall even has Chinese and English above the isles. Agincourt is actually nicknamed "Asian-court".

Visa to Canada

heckles — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 10:05:37 -0500

My application for work permit didn't process as intended so I am still here in the US. I may try to do a permanent residency application as a last resort, and just see where this goes.

In the mean time I've moved west to Portland, Oregon to check out a different vibe here in the US. Maybe I'll find what I'm looking for here, so I won't be moving to Canada afterall? Who knows. This region is certainly a breath of fresh air compared with what I'm used to.

Mississauga Skyline

tommy — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 18:10:52 -0500

QUOTE(heckles @ Jul 13 2007, 11:47 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Mississauga is the western suburb of Toronto just east of the city, for those unfamiliar with the Toronto area.

The city has a lot of buildings going up, and a lot already completed. Here are a few photos of interest.

I did not take these photos, but they appear to be photos taken earlier this year in February.

Looking toward downtown approx 30 miles across the end of Lake Ontario from St Catherines:

Central Mississauga:

On the 403 heading toward the city centre:

Wow! That first pic looks like Manhattan or Chicago.

winnipeg

heckles — Sun, 15 Jul 2007 21:36:00 -0500

Wow, I didn't realize Winnipeg had so much going on. Thanks for the updates.

winnipeg

1ajs — Sat, 14 Jul 2007 17:23:57 -0500

hmm

nygard vilig got canceled the owner was being a sleize and the city would not let him have his way so he killed it....

100 main is not a new tallest

center venture aparently sold the avenue building to a developer thats going to turn it into offices

and hydro is now 14 flors with the forms going in for the 15th floor

Mississauga Skyline

heckles — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 22:47:49 -0500

Toronto - fastest growing city in North America

johnathan — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 19:03:57 -0500

QUOTE(heckles @ Jun 13 2007, 09:20 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I don't know if any of you have noticed, but the Toronto CMA is the undisputed population growth capital of North America.

The Canadian Census is held every 5 years, and here are the latest results.

Toronto CMA 2001 = 4,682,897
Toronto CMA 2006 = 5,813,149

Source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ontario#Large...9_by_population

Those aren't estimates, and those numbers aren't including new land area included between 2001 and 2005. What is even more interesting is that adjoining urban CMA's of Oshawa and Hamilton are not included, and if they were the Toronto metropolitan area would currently stand as 6.9 million people.

The Toronto area is undergoing a huge growth spurt like none other, and its amazing to watch it grow. Over 1.1 million people have moved in between 2001 and 2006, and that's just the immediate CMA.

We have to be careful of these figures. The last Canadian census published a Toronto CMA figure of 5,113,149 and a GTA population (extrapolated from their figures using the most generally accepted inclusions of the City of Toronto and surrounding Regional Municipalities of York, Durham, Peel, and Halton) of 5,555,912. Only if you include the CMA of Barrie and the City of Orangeville which are sometimes included in the GTA definition that you arrive at a population of 5,759,898 (close the the 5.8 Million figure). There are other areas in between Barrie and Orangeville that would bring it right to the 5.8 Million but these aren't generally accepted as the GTA yet. Despite, this, the City of Toronto softly disputes the Census which is for the first time performed by a private company than the government and states that their population is closer to 2.8 Milllion (go to the City of Toronto website for details, there is a published report), almost 300,000 more people than the Census reported...which would put the CMA figure as defined by the Census at 5.4 Million, the GTA at 5.8 Million, and the extended GTA at 6.1 Million.

Sorry for all that, but its important to note that the CMA figure as reported in this linked wikipedia article is not 5.8 Million, regardless of how you look at it, though the 5.8 Million figure is the ACCEPTED population by most people, media, and institutions in Ontario.

------

Regardless, growth in Toronto is still huge; Without providing you detailed and linked references, If it is not the leader in large Metropolitan growth in U.S./Canada then it is certainly in the Top 5. Actual construction of large buildings is likely #1 by # of buildings over 12 storeys in Toronto proper (not including CMA or GTA).

QUOTE(mgman @ Jul 6 2007, 02:14 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

a growth of over a million people in five years, that is extremely impressive. Where are all these people coming from. Are they immigrants or are they Canadians from other areas.

Regardless of the actual figure (not really 1 million), the growth is served mostly by immigration, and a little bit by natural growth. On average, and without providing sources, Canada accepts somewhere in the neighbourhood of 250,000 people a year, of which 60-80% goes to the Greater Toronto Area.

Toronto - fastest growing city in North America

mgman — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 14:14:44 -0500

QUOTE(punchbuggy @ Jun 15 2007, 03:24 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

If you will count the other CMAs, don't forget Kitchener and Barrie too because tons of those guys Work and play in Toronto as well, making it almost like 7.5milion

a growth of over a million people in five years, that is extremely impressive. Where are all these people coming from. Are they immigrants or are they Canadians from other areas.

Top 10 Canadian skylines

rbdetsport — Sun, 24 Jun 2007 16:00:51 -0500

I think Vancouver should be #2.

Toronto-Pearson Airport Peoplemover

heckles — Mon, 18 Jun 2007 00:10:30 -0500

Here's a somewhat decent view of the buildings as you take off looking back toward Mississauga and downtown, although the buildings are barely visible.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxWSSqRJC00

Toronto-Pearson Airport Peoplemover

heckles — Mon, 18 Jun 2007 00:05:10 -0500

More landing

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JN5P3Is926I

Toronto-Pearson Airport Peoplemover

heckles — Mon, 18 Jun 2007 00:01:41 -0500

Night time landing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d75aOBdu9pk

Toronto-Pearson Airport Peoplemover

heckles — Sun, 17 Jun 2007 23:58:31 -0500

More, shows some close up shots of some buildings near the airport.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwxctYJ6n0k

Toronto-Pearson Airport Peoplemover

heckles — Sun, 17 Jun 2007 23:49:38 -0500

Here's a cool video of mostly flying after a takeoff that shows it turning over Lake Ontario from Toronto to Montreal.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4TVaMXUkUHE

Downtown Toronto Driving Video

heckles — Sun, 17 Jun 2007 23:03:13 -0500

http://one.revver.com/watch/226712

Take a look, its a great amateur video of driving on the Gardiner to downtown.

Toronto-Pearson Airport Peoplemover

heckles — Sun, 17 Jun 2007 22:58:16 -0500

Here's another Feb 2007 take off:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=paGhJ_YVDXk

Toronto-Pearson Airport Peoplemover

heckles — Sun, 17 Jun 2007 22:37:46 -0500

Here's a neat video WyliePoon from UrbanToronto took of the Toronto airport's people mover system.. Its nifty!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2yfKbCulqDw

Also found some videos of takeoffs. Pretty cool...

Feb 2007:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=05HhyPePslA

Aug 2006:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m4f_bYe2k8I

Toronto - fastest growing city in North America

punchbuggy — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 15:24:40 -0500

QUOTE(heckles @ Jun 13 2007, 08:20 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

If you will count the other CMAs, don't forget Kitchener and Barrie too because tons of those guys Work and play in Toronto as well, making it almost like 7.5milion

Toronto - fastest growing city in North America

heckles — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 21:20:44 -0500