One of the basic elements of Vancouverism – the urban design and architecture that characterize our highrise neighbourhoods – is the separation of towers.
Those thin highrises are spaced a minimum of 25 meters (or about 80 feet) apart, allowing for view corridors that give the towers behind a slice of the water or mountain view, or just a modicum of privacy, one from the other. (They meet a practical test: Can you walk naked from the bedroom to the kitchen and back, through the living area, with the blinds up, and not embarrass yourself or your neighbours?) Twenty-five meters will do it.
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Another advantage: more light, again in slices. Though the towers will shade the spaces to the north, a slot of sunlight, constantly shifting, will bathe at least some of the ground beyond in a way that wouldn’t happen with mid-rise buildings built more tightly together. Height, in the case of highrises, provides more practical sunlight on the sidewalks and parks that need it.
At Coal Harbour, a north-facing neighbourhood heavily shaded and quite dour in winter, needs these shafts of light, especially on the Green between the convention centre and marina.
When we got that fortuitous stretch of sun over the Easter weekend, the effect was clear: there were the bands of brightness, angling across the green.
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Human beings, being the animals we are, gravitated to the light and followed the sundial-like movements through the day.
It’s still WAY nicer walking around the West End (nearby low-rise neighbourhood with remarkably high density) than walking around Cole Harbour. Cole Harbour is creepy and isolating, no matter how much sun gets through the on those rare sunny days.
I think you’ve caught the essence. I’d just add that the absence of “slabs” so often prominent in other cities leads to a more attractive skyline and a more intimate and stimulating urban experience. It often also adds to the attractiveness of the dwellings inside the towers.
I don’t know why the model isn’t as attractive to planners, architects and developers elsewhere as it seems to be to Vancouverites.
Other than eliminate all of downtown, you’ll never get as much sun on the north side of the core a you do on the Concord Lands which have a sunny southern exposure.
Even if the Coal Harbour condos were limited in height to Olympic Village midrises (where the seawall is quite sunny despite a northern exposure, but the narrow streets are not), the downtown office towers would still shade the area. Mind you, it’s residential use trying to slot into the Central BUSINESS District (for the views), so they just need to take it as it comes (with trade-offs).
So location, location, location is a determining factor – as always.