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The artists’ drawings show a steel and glass construction towering above the surrounding suburbia of Sainte-Foy, with swooping shapes at its summit intended to conjure the sailing ships that once plied the St. Lawrence. An accompanying promotional video, set to stirring choral music, says the city — “carried on a wave of pride” — will be given a new iconic symbol.

Mr. Dallaire told reporters he sees his Le Phare complex, to be built on the site of a demolished hotel near the bridges that link Quebec City to the south shore, as nothing less than Quebec’s own Rockefeller Center. There will be an observation deck up top and a skating rink in the plaza, but with malls and bungalows in its shadow, nobody is going to mistake the scene for Manhattan.

The prospect of leaping ahead of Montreal in the tallest-building contest appeals to some in the capital, but others are warning that the maritime-themed project will be more like a ship out of water.

In an open letter published Wednesday in Le Soleil, 325 young architects — the majority from the Quebec City region — accused the city of pursuing an outmoded form of development more suited to Dubai than Quebec.

“The Le Phare project, as it now stands, shows incredible contempt for its urban context,” the architects wrote. “This giant appears to have been designed to be seen from the greatest distance, as the bird flies; it should have been conceived to be lived on a human scale, to be sensitive, to be innovative.” In approving the project, the city “is closing its eyes on a comprehensive vision of development,” the authors wrote.