The Vancouver of the 2020s is a vibrant city with a downtown covered in shiny towers made of glass and concrete.
Those towers are a relatively new development, powered by the city's popularity as a tourism destination, business hub, and livable city, helped along by events like Expo 86 and the 2010 Winter Olympics.
These aerial photos from the 1970s show Vancouver as it was around 50 years ago when there was a lot more industrial activity around the city's core with an active port. False Creek in particular has seen a lot of change, from the addition of BC Place to the removal of a train trestle. In the 1970s, it still had log booms floating around in it.
Instead of the towers we know today, there were plenty of smaller commercial buildings (some of which still exist) and lots of single-family homes a half-century ago in Vancouver. Many of the houses have disappeared from the area.
Also more common in the background of the photos are surface parking lots.
And one thing you see fewer of in these photos are green spaces in the downtown core, like Andy Livingston or David Lam parks.
