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Old Posted Feb 10, 2012, 7:42 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mhays View Post
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.
For me, Vancouver and Seattle have always felt nearly identical in "big city" feel. One major component that makes Metro Vancouver feel larger to me, is our transit system. Vancouver has just started to construct our 4th fully grade separated metro line, while Seattle only has one semi-grad separated line. On the other hand, Seattle's freeway system makes it feel larger (although Vancouver is now doing major highway projects in the burbs) Metro-Vancouver has a series of massive port facilities larger than Seattle's, but then Seattle has a larger office market. I could go on...

Great pics by the way, but you missed a lot of downtown! I hope you did make it to the Burrard Stations area, Coal Harbour and of course English Bay!.
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