[mhays]

In fairness, the office counts are apples and oranges. Seattle's economy has a large office sector, and that's centralized in/around Downtown and a couple reasonably close Eastside core districts (Downtown Bellevue and the Redmond-Microsoft area), and there's no doubt it has more office than Vancouver. But the ratio between cities is probably closer to the metro population ratio.

Vancouver sustains highrise over a much larger area, and mixes housing and commercial to achieve great 18-hour+ activity. Seattle has a denser peak, and also manages decent though non-flashy density in many areas with six-story buildings, though that trend is still in its adolescence. On the edges, Vancouver has grown in a denser format for decades. Either can be called "bigger feeling" than the other depending on opinion.