Larco Properties: the view from every level of a tower

The problem

Larco Properties was building a 40-storey residential tower at Drake and Richards in downtown Vancouver. The brief was one sentence: they needed photos showing the views at varying heights up the tower.

Before a tower exists, the view is the product and nobody can stand in it. Renderings estimate it. A crane basket gets you one height on one day. Neither answers the question a buyer or a designer actually asks, which is “what do I see from my floor, in every direction”.

What we captured

Eight full 360 panoramas at the elevation of levels 11, 16, 20, 24, 28, 32, 38 and 40, positioned over the site. Downtown Vancouver is controlled airspace, so the flight was authorised in advance and flown on a clear day with the North Shore mountains and the water visible.

The panoramas were stitched and published as an interactive viewer: a level switcher to step up and down the tower, a compass, the surrounding streets labelled (Richards, the lane, Drake) so orientation is instant, and a site map showing which way you are looking.

Open the viewer in a new tab.

What changed

The view from any floor, in any direction, became a link. Sales, design and planning conversations could start from the real view rather than an impression of it, years before anyone could stand at the window.