Quote:
Originally Posted by lio45
What's visible there isn't as dense as other Montreal neighborhoods, though it would arguably be on average more architecturally interesting than those ones (you decide how much weight you want to assign to that one factor).
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It's a nice mix of density and character with some greenery and a lot of curvy, hilly streets. The real estate prices look higher than average for the inner city around there; they're at East Van crackhouse levels. I was curious if I could trade my boring condo for a Westmount townhouse but not quite.
In most Canadian cities the wealthier people around 1900 lived on large lots but in Montreal there was more of this style of dense townhouse or nicer rowhouses, presumably because the city was bigger and land values were higher. Plus the construction is older on average than around here and the norms earlier on in the prewar period were for more compact construction.
One frustrating thing about the similar parts of Halifax is that those old large lots ended up being subdivided after the areas became less exclusive so the analogous areas are often a mix of 1900 mansions and modest 1950's bungalows. Although the land values are back to being very high and there are more monster homes being built now (ugly up until the early 2000's but increasingly attractive now). Montreal doesn't have this issue so much because there were no gaps to fill. Vancouver is hit and miss like this too around the West Side. One block will be splendid Crafstman style houses then the next is a boring 60's bungalow or walkup.