Renowned Danish architecture firm Bjarke Ingels Group<\/a> (BIG) made a — ahem — big splash in Western Canada in 2013. In June, the City of Calgary announced it had approved BIG<\/a>‘s\u00a058-storey Telus Sky project<\/a>, while Vancouver gave the go-ahead to Bjarke Ingels\u2019 52-storey top-heavy tower<\/a> in October.<\/p>\n Western Canada\u2019s tallest building<\/strong><\/p>\n Standing 774 feet tall, Calgary\u2019s The Bow became the tallest building west of Toronto<\/a>\u00a0when it celebrated its official opening on June 4th.<\/p>\n Vancouver welcomes The Donald<\/strong><\/p>\n Edmonton\u2019s new arena deal<\/strong><\/p>\n Calgary\u2019s strong market<\/strong><\/p>\n While many markets in Canada experienced up and down years, Calgary home prices and sales only seemed to climb higher and higher every month. In December,\u00a0the Bank of Montreal deemed Calgary\u00a0the strongest major housing market in Canada<\/a>.<\/p>\n Calgary and Vancouver break luxury sales records<\/strong><\/p>\n As of November 28th, there were 689 MLS homes sales of $1 million or more in Calgary<\/a>, easily breaking the\u00a0all-time annual luxury sales record of 544 set in 2012. West of the Rockies, Vancouver saw its most expensive condo sale ever when the penthouse at Fairmont Pacific Rim sold for $25 million<\/a> in June. Months later it was reported that the same buyer also bought three sub-penthouses in the Coal Harbour building for a total sale of $55 million — what some say is\u00a0the largest residential real estate deal in Canadian history<\/a>.<\/p>\n Vancouver\u2019s changing skyline<\/strong><\/p>\n A year of BIG buildings, changing skylines and record-breaking sales.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":69597,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_is_hidden":false,"apple_news_is_paid":false,"apple_news_is_preview":false,"apple_news_is_sponsored":false,"apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11269],"tags":[],"coauthors":[10332],"apple_news_notices":[],"yoast_head":"\n![\"BIG](\"https:\/\/www.livabl.com\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/BIG-Vancouver-Calgary-towers1.jpg\")
<\/a>Photos:\u00a0BIG<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.livabl.com\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/The-Bow-Calgary.jpg\")
<\/a>Photo:\u00a0hobo4hire<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n![\"Trump-Tower-Vancouver-1\"](\"https:\/\/www.livabl.com\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/Trump-Tower-Vancouver-1.jpg\")
<\/a>While it had been rumoured for months, it was formally announced on June 19th that Donald Trump would be lending his name to\u00a0the\u00a0Arthur Erickson-designed twisting tower<\/a>\u00a0project on the 1100 block of West Georgia Street in Vancouver.\u00a0When completed, the 63-storey building will be the second tallest tower in the city next to the Shangri-La.<\/p>\n![\"edmonton](\"https:\/\/www.livabl.com\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/edmonton-arena-1024x520.png\")
<\/a>The financial wrangling over the new Edmonton arena project got so tense that the very future of the Oilers hockey club was in doubt<\/a>. Luckily on January 23rd, a new agreement was struck between Edmonton city council and the Oilers ownership to finally push the deal forward. On December 3rd, it was announced that the facility\u00a0would be called Rogers Place<\/a>\u00a0after the telecommunications company agreed to commit $700 million to expand their network coverage in area while building upon its sports presence. Ground is set to be broken on the new arena in spring 2014.<\/p>\n![\"Calgary-housing-market-CREB-1\"](\"https:\/\/www.livabl.com\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/Calgary-housing-market-CREB-1.jpg\")
<\/a>Photo:\u00a0ecstaticist\/Flickr<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n![\"Canadas-most-expensive-real-estate-deal-fairmont-pacific-rim\"](\"https:\/\/www.livabl.com\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/Canadas-most-expensive-real-estate-deal-fairmont-pacific-rim.jpg\")
<\/a>Photo: MLS<\/em><\/p>\n![\"burrard-gateway-1\"](\"https:\/\/www.livabl.com\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/burrard-gateway-11.jpg\")
<\/a>Vancouver’s always evolving skyline<\/a> will continue to see many dramatic changes in the years to come — 2013 saw to that. Besides the aforementioned Trump Tower<\/a> and BIG<\/a>-designed Vancouver House\u00a0announcements, the\u00a0Burrard Gateway<\/a>\u00a0project, which will include\u00a0the city’s third tallest tower<\/a>,\u00a0also received final approval this year. Then there was the confirmation of the controversial West End community plan — a sweeping 30-year vision that will bring\u00a0more tall building development<\/a>\u00a0along the edges of the historic neighbourhood.<\/p>\n