In the words of one of our “Friends”, a view can come in all shapes and sizes. I’m constantly reminded of this when my wife (not a real estate person) and I discuss locations of projects I’m working on or homes that we personally have been looking at. We often struggle over the “view.”
I talk about view corridors, aesthetically pleasing buildings and features in the distance while she talks of open, unobstructed vistas of mountains or the city lights in the far off distance. It’s all leading me to think about the idea of “views.” What are they? What’s really the most important aspect of “view” and since I don’t have millions of dollars for that unobstructed view in the contemporary home of my dreams, what can my wife and I agree on?
In Vancouver we are blessed with a geography that offers stunning city, mountain or ocean views in almost all directions. If, by chance, our homes don’t look to one of these we have an amazing valley to the east or up and down rivers such as the Fraser. However, we are also cursed by the limited land mass of our fair city forcing us to compromise on the view of our dreams.
The limited land mass of Vancouver and the city planners have forced developers in Vancouver to go up creating a fantastic downtown experience. But what about our views? The City has championed views for many years (thank you Larry Beasley) by way of protecting view corridors, not blocking street ends or creating the tall, slim buildings with setbacks from street edge and podiums and so on. Walk down Vancouver’s streets and you don’t really think about it because you can still see the mountains or ocean at street level. But go to a city that hasn’t protected natural views and you have a completely different experience. Take Calgary for example. This is a city that has neglected natural views for massive floor plates and a downtown that more resembles a wall of concrete and glass. Look South from Prince’s Island Park and all you see are buildings. There are no slices of light between buildings. No slender buildings set back from the street. Just massive floor plate structures perched on top of you as you stroll around downtown. Is this a bad view though? My wife would say it’s not a view at all. Sure it’s something you have to look at but it’s not something to be “sold.” I don’t agree with her though. Yes I’d like to see some light beyond the buildings or have a long view, even just a bit, where light can pierce through, but it is still a view. In fact, it’s an ever changing view spectacularly lit at night.
Where does “Ugly naked guy” fit in? Well for some that is their view (I am not condoning a voyeuristic lifestyle by the way). I believe that what’s out your window or off your deck is spectacular regardless of it being a mountain vista, inlet or urban scene. I believe that an urban scene is often more interesting and inviting than a sweeping unobstructed view. A downtown view dotted with buildings, parks spaces and view corridors is far more active to me. I find it engages me to watch in a way that a static mountain or ocean view can’t.
While I appreciate the open views, and I’m in awe of them when I first see them, I’m always taken by the activity of a more urban outlook. I’m a suburbanite in my current residence but I love the urban view experience. Whether I am on the podium of a building with all the activity of the streets below, the middle or the penthouse level, what’s outside my window is my view. The fact that one or more nearby buildings are in it doesn’t mean I have lost a view. It means my view is dynamic. Thanks to the Vancouver City Planners I’ll always have a view of nature regardless of the structures that frame it through corridors to the ocean or mountains beyond.
What’s in your view? Why did you choose it?
Dan Thomson
