By the 1960s Vancouver was the centre of commerce and culture in B.C., with around 400,000 people living in the city.
At the time it was modernizing and beginning to densify. Condos and apartment buildings were going up in the West End, and new major structures were being built and designed. The Qube was finished in 1968, as was the Vancouver Planetarium and the Pacific Coliseum; all are recognizable features of today's Vancouver.
A few things are noticeably different in these photos from what we see in Vancouver today.
One major difference is how dominant cars and space for cars was, in particular at the PNE grounds, where parking lots fill up nearly half the area. Between parkades, active transportation and transit, the space made for cars seems to have diminished, at least as a percentage of what can be seen from above.
In general, there seems to be more space; that's also partly due to the size of buildings built since the 1960s. A lot of smaller buildings can be seen, with small parking lots adjacent.
There's also the industrial nature of the city. In one photo False Creek is filled with log booms. In another, active docks poke out into Coal Harbour. The city was smaller and more reliant on those aspects of the economy, as the tech and tourism industries weren't as built up in the city, at the time.
