In Vancouver over New Years, it was wet, cold, slushy, and sublimely urban. It's a world city now: discovered, coveted, bid up, and out of reach for most of us. I've never been in a place so confidently cosmopolitan - even San Francisco seems a little starchy by comparison. But Vancouver's status is a virtue of its new, mainly Asian wealth. It's a Pacific Rim city now, and the global flow of capital loves it.
Looking up the Cambie bridge:
Looking north from Broadway to downtown:
False Creek construction: Olympic Village preparations:
Robson & Thurlow, late afternoon on Dec 31. It's cold, it's dim, and the sidewalks are packed:
Quintessential Vancouver: condo towers, Starbucks, clouds:
Looking north from Robson, a neighborhood transformed:
Robson St condos atop 7-11:
At Burrard & Alberni, a Hermes and Tiffany stand guard. Vancouver's retail is hugely diverse, but lots of major players are not seen. Over time, as Vancouver becomes even more upscale, look for fewer midlevel retail outlets as the luxury retailers move in:
West Robson still shows some older buildings:
From the 19th floor of my hotel room, looking west to mid-downtown:
Yaletown Park condo towers:
North Vancouver:
Work in progress: condo towers in SE downtown:
Granville Streetscape:
Urban Outfitters getting ready to open:
New office tower topping off:
City's tallest skyscraper under construction: Shangri-La Hotel & Residences. Of the over 300 units, only five remain unsold, each for over $3 million:
Tinseltown shopping center in background, Skytrain in front, and more condo towers to fill the inbetween:
New condo towers around GM Place. Concord Pacific has expanded its color palette to include a few bold accent colors:
At street level, a Costco is already open:
Yaletown condo towers peaking above deflated BC dome:
TOD heaven: Stadium/Chinatown Skytrain stop, new condo towers, urban planners' orgasm:
Midcentury modern glory: downtown post office:
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