Vancouver, Seattle, Montreal, Toronto photos

[G W North]

Here are some pictures I've taken in the last year of Vancouver, Seattle, Montreal, and Toronto. The Vancouver and Seattle pictures are thumbnails. You can click on them for a much larger view. The Toronto and Montreal pictures are all full-sized already.

None of these pics are new (I've posted them all here or elsewhere before), but I decided to do a compilation thread.

Vancouver

These first two pics are of Granville Street, which is a pedestrian/transit mall for a couple blocks.

The next 3 pictures are of Robson Street, probably Vancouver's most well-known street. Note the extraordinary amount of pedestrian traffic. There was no special event/parade, etc. This is just a usual last afternoon in the summer.

Coal Harbour. 10 years ago much of this was a huge surface parking lot for the Westin Bayshore Hotel. All of the lot has now been developed into many highrise condos, etc.

Denman Street. This is a busy retail street in the West End. A little less tourist-oriented, and more local-oriented than Robson.

Granville Island in the next three pics. What was once an island of heavy industry is now filled with a major public market (mainly known for fresh produce, etc.), and loads of shops and restaurants, as well as houseboats, and an acting school/theatre, amongst other things. Across False Creek from Granville Island, land that was either empty or filled with insignificant lowrises 20 years ago is now home to thousands of residents in highrise condos.

Gastown lies just East of the CBD. Very touristy, filled with shops and restaurants in Vancouver's oldest buildings. The main street is cobblestone.

Stanley Park and the downtown skyline from partway up Hollyburn Mountain, about 5-6 miles away.

Downtown South. An extraordinary urban success story. 20 years ago this was mostly light industrial and parking lots. Now it is home to countless highrise condos, townhomes, and retail (usually on the bottom floor of the condos). Everything is built to excellent urban guidelines. ALL of the parking is ALWAYS hidden underground, the building all meet the street in an attractive, urban manner (no blank walls, the main streets are lined with retail, nice townhomes on the side streets), and any courtyards, etc. built as part of the condos are open to the public, not gated off. The developers are even required to widen and improve the sidewalks next to anything they build.

Gastown again.

The shores of False Creek. Vancouver's entire downtown waterfront, except for the small portion east of Canada Place, is lined with a "seawall" for pedestrians, cyclists, rollerbladers, Segway riders, etc.

Seattle

Fremont. A neighborhood about 3 miles north of the CBD.

Urban scene in a neighborhood just east of downtown Seattle, across the freeway. Unfortunately, like many American cities, a freeway cuts off downtown from close-in, urban areas.

The skyline from West Seattle. This very view is shown in a current car ad. I can't remember which automaker.

In Seattle you often see buildings with a concrete or steel frame for ground-floor retail, with wood-framed residences on top. I don't know if this is common anywhere else. This was a development with a supermarket and townhouses atop, just finishing up when I was there.

Brodway Street, Capital Hill.

Ballard, which is near Fremont.

The Convention Centre sits over the freeway.

The main retail district downtown. It's fairly small (4-5 blocks by 3-4 blocks), but pretty busy, at least during the day.

Looking down towards the harbour. The peninsula of land you see in the background is West Seattle.

1st Ave., around the retail district/Belltown border.

Pioneer Square, south of the CBD. The "Manchester vs. Celtic" game was an exhibition soccer match coming up in the city in a few days.

Chinatown/International District. Although it has loads of businesses (especially restaurants), the lack of pedestrian traffic was shocking. This was around 6pm on a weekday, when you'd expect a Chinatown to be packed to the gills with pedestrians. There was the odd person, but it certainly wasn't busy on the sidewalks. I don't know how the restaurants all stay in business.

Looking towards the Space Needle from the waterfront.

The city of Seattle has very few highrises outside the greater downtown area (maybe 5 or so). Here is one of them in near the University of Washington.

This is in Queen Anne. It's near downtown, but atop a steep hill from downtown, so not many people would walk here from downtown. Almost everyone drives or takes a bus instead.

Montreal

Couple pictures from my hotel room. The big green hill is "Mont Royal".

Toronto

The first two pics are Queen Street West, by far the funkiest street I've seen in North America.

Movie theatres atop a 3-story Chapters bookstore.

Canada's 2 tallest office towers as seen from King Street E., an almost perfect urban street.

On the other side of the CBD is King Street West, with it's extraordinarily dense concentration of restaurants and nightclubs.

The awe-inspiring atrium of BCE Place. BCE Place connects to the Hockey Hall of Fame, permanent home to the Stanley Cup. The small buildings you see on the left dates from the 19th century. It stood originally about 200 feet north of it's current site. When this complex was built in the early 1990s, the buildings was taken apart brick-by-brick and rebuilt where it currently stands, inside the futuristic atrium. It is quite a stunning architectural contrast. This atrium has been used to film numerous t.v. shows, movies, and t.v. commercials. Tekwar used it, for example.

[Neo]

Quite a collection! Vancouver has an amazing skyline. Canadians sure know how to make their cities dense!

Thanks for sharing!

[Delta]

Gee G.W., besides Montreal's, I haven't any of the pics b4, so really interested.

Never seen street shots of Vancouver or Seattle up until now, so ouwhhhhhhh!

Toronto always teases and taunts with its elegance.

[samsonyuen]

Nice pics, you must really like Starbucks, there's one in each of the cities (except Montr

[G W North]

I don't even drink coffee. There are just so many Starbucks nowadays, it's hard to avoid taking pictures of them, LOL. Sometimes there are even more than one at the same intersection.

I've got hundreds more Vancouver/Seattle pictures on this forum. The old Vancouver ones are in the photos forum. Just select to view all photos from "The Beginning" and you'll find them from way last year. The Seattle photos are in the Seattle section. Again, just select to view all posts from "The Beginning".

[monsoon]

[wolfdawg54]

Seattle and Vancouver are two of my favorite cities! Great pictures.

[G W North]

Ahh, I thought I recognized that last photo from Tekwar. LOL

This was a great thread. From this particular set of photos, I think I like Vancouver the best. I need to get out there some day for a visit.

Really? I never watched Tekwar, that's just what I had heard. I also remember a hot dog commercial filmed there where a kid was sitting on the stairs going to the basement (retail) level. I don't know if the ad was only shown in Canada though.