Hipster Duck
Senior Member
^Apart from the Hague, which is provincial, all the examples you cited are straw men. Asian cities couldn't give a damn about preserving their heritage and that brutalist building behind the Massachussets State Capitol dates to a time when Boston didn't give a damn about its heritage, either.
There are certainly a number of places from which to view the main downtown skyline in its entirely, but they are dwindling. Being viewable from a condo tower's balcony or an office tower outside of the core doesn't count because that's private space and the view is only enjoyed by the owner. The numerous lawns of U of T are a great place to view the city, but U of T is a preservationist anomaly in a city where nothing old is sacred and contextual scale means nothing.
Why should our appreciation of Toronto's skyline be limited to the handful of skyscrapers at the MINT, and why should said appreciation be limited to/dictated by the street level view in the 1.5 km radius around that intersection? Rather than "obscuring" the skyline, the new highrises have merely expanded it. And Toronto has plenty of lowrise areas minutes from the Financial District where the skyline can be fully appreciated. Stand at the Porter ferry terminal; walk along the Bathurst St bridge; take a streetcar ride on Broadview Ave; walk around the open areas at UofT; or just go up a few floors on many of the apartments and condos outside the core. There is no shortage of vantage points in the foreseeable future.
There are certainly a number of places from which to view the main downtown skyline in its entirely, but they are dwindling. Being viewable from a condo tower's balcony or an office tower outside of the core doesn't count because that's private space and the view is only enjoyed by the owner. The numerous lawns of U of T are a great place to view the city, but U of T is a preservationist anomaly in a city where nothing old is sacred and contextual scale means nothing.