{"id":2490,"date":"2007-11-16T00:01:08","date_gmt":"2007-11-16T04:01:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacingtoronto.ca\/?p=2490"},"modified":"2007-11-16T00:38:40","modified_gmt":"2007-11-16T04:38:40","slug":"vancouvers-next-tower-and-thoughts-high-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/11\/16\/vancouvers-next-tower-and-thoughts-high-up\/","title":{"rendered":"Vancouver’s next tower and thoughts high up"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

The above graphic might look like the cover of an Isaac Asimov book, but its actually noted west coast architect Richard Henriquez’s proposal for an observation tower in Vancouver’s Queen Elizabeth Park. The park used to be the city’s premiere vantage point to look out over the growing metropolis and surrounding mountains, but those pesky things called trees have grown up and now block most of the sight lines.<\/p>\n

Gordon Price, the director of Simon Fraser University’s Cities Program, says on his blog<\/a>, “There’s just something about getting to a high place with long views that’s embedded in our genes. And they’re great places to take visitors to explain the lay of the land. They give us another perspective on our own place.”<\/p>\n

I began contemplating a similar train of thought after reading an interview in the book Concrete Toronto<\/a> with Macy DuBois, one of the architects on a team that was a runner-up in the New City Hall design competition<\/a> of 1957-58 (he was a student at the time and entered with fellow student John Andrews, who would become the architect behind U of T’s Scarborough campus<\/a> and the CN Tower<\/a>). DuBois said he felt New City Hall should be low to the ground because, “I hate high-rises. I feel they detach people from the ground and their surroundings.” That notion was certainly reflected in his submission (below).<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

I’ve had the complete opposite reaction to living on the 24th floor of a high-rise<\/a> in south Parkdale. I feel much more connected to the ground and my surroundings: because I can see so far off into the distance, I’m constantly humbled by the size and scope of the city and my view of the western edge of Lake Ontario; I watch the sunset every day, a difficult task from the ground in flat Toronto; The cycles of the moon are part of my nights, and I can confidently predict the path of the moon; I watch storms roll in across from the west over Hamilton or Oakville (handy during the fall and spring when you never know if its going to rain); I also get to watch people go about their lives (steering boats on the lake, strolling along the waterfront boardwalk, riding bikes on the Martin Goodman Trail, throwing rocks from the beach at Sunnyside, driving on and off the Gardiner Expressway). Not only do I get see those things each day, I’m usually doing something similar when at ground level.<\/p>\n

The height of my apartment often gives me pause for thought about the complexity of society and civilization. I understand the feeling of DuBois and many of the disciples of low-rise development have towards tall buildings, but we also need to appreciate the value a high-rise — or in Vancouver’s sake an observation tower — can add to the human experience.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The above graphic might look like the cover of an Isaac Asimov book, but its actually noted west coast architect Richard Henriquez’s proposal for an observation tower in Vancouver’s Queen Elizabeth Park. The park used to be the city’s premiere vantage point to look out over the growing metropolis and surrounding mountains, but those peskyContinue reading “Vancouver’s next tower and thoughts high up”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1022,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[368,686,7289,353,7286,570,7285,7288,1182,593,7284,1813,7260,1883,316,7287,89,7292,7291,19,54,562,7290],"class_list":["post-2490","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-architect","tag-cn-tower","tag-coast-architect","tag-director","tag-elizabeth-park","tag-gardiner-expressway","tag-gordon-price","tag-john-andrews","tag-lake-ontario","tag-location","tag-macy-dubois","tag-martin-goodman-trail","tag-new-city-hall","tag-oakville","tag-queen","tag-richard-henriquez","tag-scarborough","tag-simon-fraser-university","tag-ts-scarborough-campus","tag-toronto","tag-vancouver","tag-west-coast","tag-west-coast-architect"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nVancouver's next tower and thoughts high up - Spacing Toronto<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/11\/16\/vancouvers-next-tower-and-thoughts-high-up\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Vancouver's next tower and thoughts high up - Spacing Toronto\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The above graphic might look like the cover of an Isaac Asimov book, but its actually noted west coast architect Richard Henriquez’s proposal for an observation tower in Vancouver’s Queen Elizabeth Park. 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