Tuesday, May 10, 2022

Montreal politicians debate whether to allow skyscrapers higher than Mount Royal

 https://montreal.ctvnews.ca/montreal-politicians-debate-whether-to-allow-skyscrapers-higher-than-mount-royal-1.5401429

Several cities have their agendas to hold back the urban environment. Montreal has been very reluctant to allow Toronto size buildings.

https://cultmtl.com/2021/05/in-defence-of-building-height-restrictions-in-montreal-mount-royal-urban-plan-denis-coderre/

Not only is Montreal forbidden to have anything tall enough to be impressive to NYC, but even by Paris & Melbourne standards. As land costs continue to rise, Montreal will have to seriously consider having a designated area for much taller buildings. London & Paris had to wrestle with this issue decades ago & are still thriving as financial as well as government capitals.

http://ville.montreal.qc.ca/portal/page?_dad=portal&_pageid=2762,3101387&_schema=PORTAL

Portland, Oregon also has its downtown next to a small mountain & like Montreal has used that as an excuse to forbid Seattle size towers.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/find-out-how-this-rule-of-thumb-helped-shape-montreal-s-skyline-1.4950667

"In Montreal, municipal regulations forbid any building from exceeding the height of Mount Royal, or 233 m (764 ft) above mean sea level.[1] Above-ground height is further limited in most areas and a minority of the downtown land plots are allowed to contain buildings exceeding 120 metres in height.[2] The maximum limit is currently attained by 1000 de La Gauchetière and 1250 René-Lévesque, the latter of which is shorter, but built on higher ground. To build higher than 1000 de La Gauchetière while respecting this limit would be to build on the lowest part of downtown; the maximum height there would be approximately 210 metres.[2]

By contrast, Gatineau and Quebec City do not have building height restrictions." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tallest_buildings_in_Quebec , https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tallest_buildings_in_Quebec#Tallest_under_construction_or_proposed

 While extremely restrictive Vancouver still won't permit any office building to even have a 40th floor, Montreal at least has one that has 51 floors.

https://wikipedia.org-1000-de-la-gauchetiere.jpg  205 m (673 ft) 

1000_de_La_Gauchetetiere is actually the tallest building in Montreal because it has a higher roof than 1250_Rene-Levesque. 

Architectural226.5 metres (743 ft)
Roof199 metres (653 ft)
https://wikimedia.org  A flagpole or antenna still doesn't make the roof as high as the tallest building in Montreal. 199 metres (653 ft)

Place_Ville_Marie is the widest of the tallest buildings in montreal. 188 m (617 ft)

In some ways Portland,_Oregon is more strict on the heights of office towers than Montreal is.
https://Portland_from_Pittock_Mansion_October_2019 , 

No 50 or 45 story office tower exists in Portland, just a 42 & another at 40 stories.

The Royal_Centre_in_Vancouver and the MNP_Tower have no 40th floor, because no office tower in BC has ever been allowed to have a 40th floor.

By now Vancouver should have been allowed to have at least one office tower over 50 stories like Montreal.
However, Vancouver still isn't allowed to even have a 40 story office tower.
So while this will be the tallest office building in Vancouver, it isn't by Portland & Montreal standards & those cities are notorious for being very limited on their building heights..
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