Quote:
Originally Posted by Kilgore Trout
I was just on St-Jacques today. It has always been an impressive street thanks to the old architecture but the new towers the create a terminal view takes it to the next level.
If only it was livelier at street level. There's plenty of people around, but it's not a destination, despite the architecture. In that particular area, McGill Street is way busier.
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Very true. It is second only to Bay Street in built form, but there's that issue.
Something that has changed over my years on the forum is an increasing sense that while buildings are important, they remain secondary signifiers. The primary quality is the human activity they imply. A hypothetical "canyon" of important headquarters, hotels with many international visitors and high-end commercial outlets is thus more impressive than even a much larger canyon of high-rise student residences, holiday apartments and hospital buildings.
In some senses, I think a city like e.g. Toronto is almost topped out in terms of what buildings themselves can provide. To level up, it is now down to what sort of things are going on in the buildings, and how central they are to world affairs.
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