Climate change warning: Greenland once melted and raised the ocean 5 feet.

If, in late 2024, you walked the shoreline in Vancouver beach to beach, through the laid-back and well-off Kitsilano neighbourhood and past the museums in Vanier Park, you’d arrive at a construction site where eleven residential towers rose from new foundations. This cluster of high-­rises and skyscrapers—squeezed between the bridge and the water, neighbouring parks, and single-family homes—looks like a second downtown packed into just four blocks. It feels distinct from the rest of the city. That’s because this site is not part of Vancouver. The development, Sen̓áḵw, which roughly...