Building up: A rundown of Metro Vancouver's major skyscraper projects

Construction progress on The Butterfly, October 2023. (Westbank)

Save for the solitary spire protruding from the top of the Harbour Centre Tower, in the year 2000 there wasn’t a single true skyscraper — defined as a tower reaching 150 metres in height — to be found in Metro Vancouver.

At the same time, Toronto, Montreal, and Calgary were home to several skyscrapers each, as was neighbouring Seattle.

Flash forward 24 years into the future, with rapid population growth, an increased focus on transit-oriented developments, and a limited land supply, there are currently 76 confirmed skyscraper projects completed, under construction, or proposed across Metro Vancouver.

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The first skyscraper with a roof height over 150 metres to be completed in Vancouver was the Living Shangri-La in 2008 at 198.6 metres tall. One Wall Centre, completed in 2001, has a spire height of 157.7 metres but a roof height of 149.8 metres — one good snowfall shy of the skyscraper threshold.

Metro Vancouver skyscrapers as of January 2024. (Ian Ius/Daily Hive)

One Wall Centre. (Ian Ius/Daily Hive)

Today, there are six completed skyscrapers in downtown Vancouver. A seventh, The Butterfly, topped out last year and is now in the final stages of construction ahead of its full completion later in 2024. The Butterfly is currently the third tallest building in Vancouver.

There are currently 18 skyscrapers completed, under construction, or proposed within Vancouver proper. Of these buildings, 14 are located on the downtown Vancouver peninsula, three within the Squamish Nation’s Senakw project on their reserve on the north end of the Burrard Street Bridge, and one within the massive Oakridge Park (Oakridge Centre) redevelopment.

Surprisingly, the Living Shangri-La will still stand as the tallest of these by a considerable margin, with the 188-metre-tall Paradox Hotel (former Trump Hotel), completed in 2016, also retaining its second tallest ranking. At this point, it’s unclear when, if ever, Vancouver proper will construct a new tallest tower to overshadow the Living Shangri-La.

However, if placed in Toronto, the Living Shangri-La would rank as just the 30th tallest completed skyscraper. Astoundingly, it plummets to the depths of 113th place if all Toronto skyscrapers currently under construction and proposed are also included.

One does not need to go all the way to Toronto to see the Living Shangri-La’s losing stance in prominence, though.

Within Metro Vancouver’s own suburban municipalities — in particular Burnaby, Surrey, and Coquitlam — there has been an eruption of skyscraper activity.

Oakridge Park construction progress, 2023. (Ian Ius/Daily Hive)

Downtown Vancouver’s two tallest towers: Right to left, The Living Shangri-La & Paradox Hotel. (Ian Ius/Daily Hive)

The growing Metrotown skyline in Burnaby, 2023. (Ian Ius/Daily Hive)

The first skyscraper to rise outside of Vancouver proper was the Sovereign in Burnaby.

Standing at 155.8 metres tall and completed in 2014, the Sovereign’s status as the pinnacle of the suburbs was brief.

Currently, there are 57 confirmed skyscrapers completed, under construction, or proposed in the suburbs of Metro Vancouver. Spread among its multiple nodes, Burnaby possesses the lion’s share with 37 projects spread throughout Metrotown, Brentwood, and Lougheed Town Centre.

It should be noted that the actual number is likely higher, as many projects in Burnaby never publicly reveal their official tower heights, just the floor counts.

Surrey is next with 11 skyscrapers, Coquitlam follows with eight, and New Westminster is now home to a single skyscraper — the 180-metre-tall Pier West Tower. Its shorter sibling is just shy of the skyscraper mark at 149 metres in height.

So where does the Living Shangri-La rank today?

As of 2023, the Living Shangri-La was no longer the tallest tower in Metro Vancouver, having been surpassed by the 215.8-metre-tall Two Gilmore Place in Burnaby’s Brentwood during the final stages of its construction ascent.

An even taller tower in Metrotown, the 230.2-metre-tall Grand Tower at Sky Park, is currently under construction and will soon push the Living Shangri-La to third place.

The Pier West towers rising in New Westminster, 2023. (Ian Ius/Daily Hive)

Artistic rendering of the first phase of Concord Metrotown, including Metro Vancouver’s new tallest building, the Grand Tower at Sky Park. (Concord Pacific)

If all currently proposed skyscrapers (with confirmed heights) are to be completed within Metro Vancouver, the Living Shangri-La in downtown Vancouver would fall all the way down to 13th place in height.

This is a rather lacklustre ranking for the urban heart of the region. There are currently 11 projects over 200 metres in height proposed or under construction in Metro Vancouver, but seven of these projects, including the only two under construction, are located in Burnaby.

Three are in the Brentwood area, two are in Metrotown, and the remaining two are located at SkyTrain Lougheed Town Centre Station.

These last two towers, part of the three-tower Pinnacle Lougheed project, are currently the tallest proposals of all, with planned heights of 238.5 and 255.3 metres. If built, the taller of these two towers could potentially become the tallest skyscraper in Canada outside of Greater Toronto.

Current skyscrapers over 200 metres in Metro Vancouver, January 2024. (Ian Ius/Daily Hive)

9850 Austin Road 9858-9898 Gatineau Place Burnaby Pinnacle Lougheed 2022

2022 concept artistic rendering of Pinnacle Lougheed at 9850 Austin Road and 9858-9898 Gatineau Place, Burnaby, with the first phase highlighted. (JYOM Architecture/Pinnacle International Development)

The remaining four 200+-metre towers currently proposed are all in Surrey City Centre.

The tallest of these is the 225-metre-tall office tower Centre Block located at SkyTrain Surrey Central Station.

While this landmark Centre Block tower would greatly help anchor Surrey City Centre as the region’s secondary core, contemporary office market conditions in the aftermath of the pandemic have presumably decreased its chances of being built in its currently proposed form.

The second tallest proposal in Surrey is the recently revealed Oviedo Tower C — a mixed-use tower reaching 214.6 metres in height.

Of the nine skyscrapers currently proposed over 200 metres in height, the most likely to move forward this year is Anthem’s Citizen tower at the former Cactus Club restaurant site on the north side of Kingsway in Metrotown. At 66 floors and stretching 210.8 metres high, the development site for this tower has already been cleared.

Citizen will further complement the rapidly growing Metrotown skyline and will help solidify the towering urban canyon evolving along Kingsway.

10344-10392 King George Boulevard 13634-13654 104th Avenue Surrey Oviedo

Artistic rendering of the Oviedo Towers, Surrey. (Chris Dikeakos Architects/Oviedo Developments)

Artistic renderings of Citizen in Metrotown, Burnaby. (Anthem Properties)

As the population continues to expand and land availability inevitably shrinks, we will likely see even further skyscraper proposals come forward at an increasing rate.

With all this upward momentum building in the suburban communities of Vancouver, it does beg the question: when will the downtown Vancouver peninsula witness a new pinnacle gracing the region’s flagship skyline?

Unfortunately, protected mountain view cones that were decided decades ago from highly arbitrary points still dampen Vancouver’s full potential.

A few landmark skyscrapers rising above 200 metres would solidify the downtown Vancouver peninsula’s skyline, as well as help maximize density in and around Vancouver’s primary public transit hubs.

The future is building up, not out.

The downtown Vancouver skyline, 2023. (Ian Ius/Daily Hive)

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