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Friendly Reminder: Density Works

2013 December 18
by dan bertolet

Why is the trend of decreasing auto use shown below happening in downtown Vancouver, BC, even as population and jobs have risen?

Vancouver_downtown_population_jobs_trips

Because of this:

Vancouver_Yaletown_towers_park

That is, lots of tall residential buildings. That is, density.

Vancouver BC is not afraid of height. They’ve been successfully weaving towers into their neighborhoods for decades, as on this quiet West End residential street:

Vancouver_Yaletown_towers_west_end

Towers everywhere you turn:

Vancouver_Main_St_towers

Sleek towers:

Vancouver_Concord_Pacific_towers

Weird towers:

Vancouver_stucco_tower

Shortish towers:

Vancouver_medium_tower

And they just keep building more:

Vancouver_new_tower

And even with all that height, downtown Vancouver is an amazingly comfortable place to be a pedestrian, mainly because most of the towers are relatively slender, and there’s lot’s of space between them. All the urbanist Vancouver hype is well-deserved—the City’s urban form is truly unmatched.

Meanwhile, in the big city a couple hours south of the border, height is still a dirty word. And the result is not only squandered opportunities for density and all its sustainability benefits, but also a more oppressive urban form of chunky, squat buildings crammed in together.

Why is Seattle so afraid of height?

>>>

Source of Vancouver chart:  Vancouver Transportation 2040. All photos by the author, taken in downtown Vancouver 12/11/13 — 12/13/13.