I thought this shot gave an interesting summary of Canadian urbanism. Some obvious aspects and some less obvious:
- There's a suburban style Shoppers that will be next to a 32 storey complex separated in time by 10-15 years. There was a shift in planning rules and standards around here, with the standards up until recently being low and relatively suburban. There is early 2000's urban infill but it's mostly pretty ugly; it is the immediate ancestor of the current round of construction.
- The green area of trees in behind is a "stable" residential area where it's hard to build much of anything.
- Foreground right was a Victorian era garment factory that decayed for many years and eventually was unceremoniously demolished and replaced with nothing.
- On the left there are some historic school structures that have been abandoned for around a decade. Even though there is lots of private development, the municipality really bungled the sale of this site. There was a lot of talk about affordable housing developments here but nothing happened and in the end it was sold to a developer.
- You can't see it in this but the stretch of shops along Robie, a quasi light industrial area, has become quite eclectic and interesting. There is a mosque next to a craft brewery in an old industrial building, next to a Japanese place, etc. Canadian cities tend to do well in this area.
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Originally Posted by bluenoser
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