Hi-Res 360° Aerial Panorama

[jje1000]

Found by the excellent Taller, Better over at Skyscrapercity.com.

http://www.airpano.com/360Degree-VirtualTour.php?3D=Toronto-Canada

This gives a very clear context to the projects going up around the downtown core.

 

[Lenser]

Nice link! Wish it were more up to date... certain projects, like the L Tower, are shown just beginning to rise, and the city looks great with all that succulent greenery (it's been a mild winter but it's also been terribly grey). Wonderfully crisp detail, too. Would love to see the same series of shots taken five years hence.... we'd see a more dramatic skyline.

 

[Tarantulal Downpours]

I posted a link to this in the City Photos forum.

 

[toto]

These pano's confirm my opinion, that our city isn't really that attractive. Parts are, but for the most part, it's pretty much like most comparably North America city, auto centric and uninteresting!

 

[steveve]

Thanks for posting that link! that was breathtaking and cool. still in awe on how they did it.

These pano's confirm my opinion, that our city isn't really that attractive. Parts are, but for the most part, it's pretty much like most comparably North America city, auto centric and uninteresting!

i completely agree.. our city is filled with low-lying, open, and ugly spaces. and there's no constant density level whatsoever and we get clusters of skyscrapers, then areas of nothing.

but from afar of course, these things aren't visible on the skyline.

 

[someMidTowner]

i dont know wtf i clicked in the panorama but i #$%in love it

 

[ladyscraper]

i completely agree.. our city is filled with low-lying, open, and ugly spaces. and there's no constant density level whatsoever and we get clusters of skyscrapers, then areas of nothing.

A lot of those "low lying areas of nothing" are Toronto's most vibrant and interesting neighborhoods. They contain the best shops, restaurants and other things that make the central business district seem boring in comparison (at street level). I dont really agree that it seems ugly to not have constant high-rise density either.

 

[Lenser]

Agreed, big time. Nothing wrong with low-density neighbourhoods that actually work.

 

[steveve]

my problem with these areas is that they kill the density and skyline at parts. they should have designated areas, instead of being right in the middle and spread all over the place.

think midtown manhattan vs soho/tribeca area. and how they have their own areas, thus adding more distinct character

 

[junctionist]

There are low-rise areas with high density in Toronto, too. Look at this population density map from 2006. In the west end outside of downtown, areas along Queen, King, and Dundas are consistently shaded orange and red for the highest density levels, in spite of having few high-rise buildings. Of course, skyline density is a different matter--one that's aesthetic. I feel that actual density and skyline density sometimes get conflated when they're not necessarily the same thing.

 

[Lenser]

But Manhattan is a fairly compact island with millions living on it, steveve... it's just a whole other thing, really... an older city that came into its own well before Toronto. I just don't see the comparison as being all that fair or realistic.

Nor should Toronto be developed primarily in accordance with how the skyline looks or how spotty or variable the density supposedly is. I mean, formally designated areas for low-rise, mid-rise and then high-rise? To an extent this already happens, via a patchwork quilt of bylaws. But that impulse can be taken too far... creating additional fatty layers of government to oversee this kind of stuff smacks of needless, crippling bureaucracy.

 

[yin_yang]

whyyyy kenny g????????????

grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

 

[jje1000]

These pano's confirm my opinion, that our city isn't really that attractive. Parts are, but for the most part, it's pretty much like most comparably North America city, auto centric and uninteresting!

Toronto's street grid sucks. That is, for the most part why the city looks so messy and unspectacular from the air.

 

[dt_toronto_geek]

This is really cool but as ladyscraper very accurately points out, it's what we see, smell, hear and feel from the street that really matters as that is what forms the true city, not from 2000' above.

 

[TonyV]

This is really cool but as ladyscraper very accurately points out, it's what we see, smell, hear and feel from the street that really matters as that is what forms the true city, not from 2000' above.

+1