Brandon Donnelly — Daily insights for city builders. Published since 2013 by Toronto-based real estate developer Brandon Donnelly. — Page 1153

Earlier this week the Seattle Times published the following graphic showing the US cities with the most (construction) cranes up in the air at the end of 2016:

At the top of the list is Seattle with 62. And in second place is Chicago with 56. 

You really need to see these numbers over time to get a better sense of activity. But supposedly, Seattle has been holding pretty steady. Also, these numbers only include cranes within each city proper. The suburbs don’t seem to be counted.

To put these numbers into perspective, here’s a snippet from the article :

“Seattle remains behind Toronto, which has 81 cranes, for the North American lead. In Australia, the Middle East, and elsewhere, there are cities where more than 100 cranes are at work.”

I wonder which city has the global lead. Any guesses?

If you happen to find yourself in Vancouver between January 27th and February 28th, you may want to check out an exhibition being held at the Fairmont Pacific Rim called Japan Unlayered . 

It is a celebration of Japanese architecture, design, and culture, curated by the Japanese architect Kengo Kuma and developers Westbank and Peterson .

The exhibition is in support of a new project in Vancouver by Kengo Kuma called 1550 Alberni . Pictured above. It will be his first in North America. 

The architecture is a 43-storey (residential) tower formed by two “scoops” that carve out the building in response to its urban context. Some of those relationships start to become apparent when you see the building rendered into the skyline (below toward right).

I’ll be in Vancouver next month and so I’m hoping to stop by.

“Toronto is probably the world’s most diverse city.”

That is how a new interactive documentary called The World in Ten Blocks starts. Produced by Lost Time Media  and hosted at theglobeandmail.com, the documentary examines a ten block stretch of Toronto’s Bloorcourt neighborhood and tells the story of a diverse set of small-business owners who have moved to this city from all around the world. People from Guyana, Mexico, Nicaragua, Saudi Arabia, as well as many other places.

It’s amazing to be reminded just how diverse ten small blocks of this city can be; especially at a time when immigration has become such a polarizing topic around the world. I sometimes take it for granted just how diverse this city is. I forget and assume that this is just how cities are. But of course that is not always the case. Toronto is an exceptional city.

Click here for The World in Ten Blocks.