Part 6 from a discussion guide, Density in a City of Neighbourhoods – my perspective of a journey from the earliest years of land-abundant settlement to the towering glass city of 2012 – written for Carbon Talks at SFU.
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CONDOS AND MEGAPROJECTS
Thanks to the Strata Titles Act of 1966 (replaced by the Condominium Act in 1979), another boom was launched, marking the return of the highrise in the form of the condominium. Initially, most condos in the 1970s were long low-rise blocks not dissimilar from rental buildings. However in the late 1980s, the highrise went through a change in social status and design. Suddenly it became not only possible, but also desirable, to buy that concrete box in the sky, and thousands did.
Initially, the first highrises were mixed-use developments with offices below and condos above. The first single-purpose condo (below right) built to downtown densities was on Burrard Street, just outside the zoning boundary of the West End. Its success was the sign of things to come. 
In the post-Expo’86 boom, when Vancouver announced itself to the world, the City was challenged to find ways to accommodate major new growth while also dealing with pent-up demand, particularly for a more affluent market. This was to be accomplished while still keeping pressure off existing neighbourhoods, especially those whose heritage character was now highly valued.
Fortunately there was a solution. Much of the City’s industrial and commercial lands were no longer being used for their original purposes – particularly the rail yards – or were under-utilized, spotted with surface parking lots and low-rise warehouses. Now it was possible to master-plan complete communities, with amenities and design controls to overcome the objections that had so alienated residents from the development of the 1950s and 1960s. Almost no one needed to be evicted, and density was far enough away from existing neighbourhoods to be acceptable.
The North Shore of False Creek and downtown South, awaiting massive redevelopment
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The provision of amenities, particularly open green space, to accompany major new growth was codified in the late 1980s when the bylaw for Downtown South used Development Cost Levies (DCLs) to pay for parks, child care, and affordable housing. When other large projects required a rezoning, the City negotiated a Community Amenity Contribution for targeted benefits. Heritage buildings were thus saved by using bonuses and transfers of density.
The understanding was that growth would help pay for growth. The amenities provided would add to the quality of development while also benefitting the city as a whole, the new residents, and the developer’s bottom line. Ideally, it was a win-win-win. But the price was sudden change and rapid growth.
The overall strategy of densification in the central area was called “Living First” – more people living, playing and working on the downtown peninsula. The highrise would be the predominant form, but in a Vancouver Style: separated point towers and street-related podiums.
The results were impressive. Vancouver had the fastest growing central area in North America, whether measured in percent or actual numbers. 
But elsewhere in the city, little in the way of ground-oriented housing was added; a demolished single-family house was replaced with another, larger single-family house – an increase in built density, if not in population density.
The megaprojects of CityGate, Concord Pacific Place, International Village, Coal Harbour and Bayshore, plus the upland neighbourhoods of Downtown South and Triangle West, took the pressure off other parts of the city, where rate-of-change bylaws and prohibition on the conversion of apartments to condominiums protected the existing rental housing stock. The West End and other apartment districts were able to remain predominantly rental neighbourhoods for lower-middle-income tenants.
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Part 3: The Beginning of Densification
Part 4(a): The Modern Era – Transition
Part 4(b): The Modern Era – A Decade of Highrises
Density in a City of Neighbourhoods (full document)
1967 http://www.flickr.com/photos/45379817@N08/6077669771/