Ugly Canada 2 (Only architecture, planning and design faux pas)

[Wigs]

Originally Posted by megadude

I just visited my uncle's neice's daughter in KW. She's a student at Laurier and lives on the 11th floor of random generic student building on King St. I really do not like being in KW. But I do like being in nearby Cambridge and Guelph.

Downtown Kitchener is improving and uptown Waterloo is nice but the "student ghetto" highrises around Wilfrid Laurier and UWaterloo look so Russian and odd.

I shouldn't say ghetto because I doubt any of these places offer affordable student accommodations compared to old apartments or older run down houses rented out to students in years gone by

[megadude]

Originally Posted by Wigs

Downtown Kitchener is improving and uptown Waterloo is nice but the "student ghetto" highrises around Wilfrid Laurier and UWaterloo look so Russian and odd.

I shouldn't say ghetto because I doubt any of these places offer affordable student accommodations compared to old apartments or older run down houses rented out to students in years gone by

True. Though for Uptown Waterloo, I think the north part of it has some decent buildings, but there's too many gaps between them to create a true streetwall. The part around the square is better, but still can't match that of many other cities and towns. King St. should be much better given the population and number of corporations with offices in KW.

Kitchener is near the top in terms of population for Ontario secondary cities, but it just feels so uniteresting to me in the last three summers I've been. I find the following Downtowns and urban portions more interesting to drive and walk around, with some notable things in parentheses that KW lacks: Hamilton (geography with the escarpment and lake), Windsor (the bridge(s), river and view across the river), St. Kitts/Niagara (tourism, river/falls/lake), Guelph (architecture, rivers, feels leafier), Kingston (top tier historic architecture and you can see and feel the history, lake), Peterborough (main street is more attractive, giant lift lock), Belleville (more attractive main street and river right there), Cambridge (beautiful Galt with the stone architecture and river running through) and there are dozens of secondary or tertiary cities and towns below that I'd rather spend time in. Too many to list.

I actually find KW more interesting than Barrie though. And London I can't say since I've only driven through downtown once, a long time ago. But the adjacent residential areas and around the school felt better though. Haven't been to T-bay or the Soo.

I imagine Kitchener would be a lot nicer if the Grand ran through Downtown.

Monday was the first time I actually spent time in Uptown Waterloo. Two years ago was the first time I walked around Downtown Kitchener. This time I just took care of business and immediately hopped in my rental, which was a Dodge Durango by the way. With hemi. Interior felt so cheap and it was very unpleasant to drive. I actually was relieved when I was finally leaving Uptown and heading up to my personal stops to buy something or visit small towns I'd never been to. Elmira I bought something at CT there which was one of the few store anywhere around that carried the discontinued product. Gotta love seeing the horse and buggy stalls at CT and Foodland and seeing them in action on the road. Also went through St. Jacobs, Wellesley, Tavistock, Drumbo and New Hamburg.

[SignalHillHiker]

When only one half of the duplex gets renovated

(This is up in Georgestown, city's first suburb - just across Rawlin's Cross from downtown. It's pretty flat and curves downhill away from downtown. Priciest part of the core, lovely area.)

[O-tacular]

Sorry, but even the shackiest shacks in St. John's blend in to make a beautiful tapestry. The hills help too. It's an interesting looking kaleidoscope of colour that would look hideous in most other contexts but works really well there.

[HomeInMyShoes]

Georgestown is my favourite district in St. John's.

Good bakery too when I lived there.

[WhipperSnapper]

Too much beige, grey and, greige vinyl siding in this world. Why? Because they are colours no one loves or hates but, everyone accepts for their boring neutrality.

[Harrison]

Originally Posted by megadude

I just visited my uncle's neice's daughter in KW. She's a student at Laurier and lives on the 11th floor of random generic student building on King St. I really do not like being in KW. But I do like being in nearby Cambridge and Guelph.

Having done 5 years of co-op undergrad at UW and another year of work after that in KW, I only like Uptown, Downtown Kitchener and the old Cambridge town centres (Galt, Preston & Hespeler). Everything else, including UW campus and Laurier, isn't great, though I do enjoy walking around UW and along University Ave for nostalgia sake.

Glad I don't live there anymore - it's gotten infinitely busier since I started my undergrad in 2011 and, it could be argued, uglier.

[FactaNV]

Originally Posted by WhipperSnapper

Too much beige, grey and, greige vinyl siding in this world. Why? Because they are colours no one loves or hates but, everyone accepts for their boring neutrality.

Lots of grey because it's the cheapest haha

[MolsonExport]

Georgetown beckons and looks a hell of a lot more interesting than any of the awful-looking, Siberian-city-style places dominated cookie-cutter multistory grey/beige/greige condo/apartment buildings, banal big box barf, snout-houses, and stroads (i.e., 70% of most new subdivisions in Canada). Especially in the 6 months of the year that Southern Ontario is blanketed by overcast weather, offering up a monochrome, soul-sucking suburban landscape.

Soundtrack for scrolling through pictures of today's subdivisions:

• Video Link

The eighties analogue for today's banality is found at 0:50 (snout-house land).

[O-tacular]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

Georgetown beckons and looks a hell of a lot more interesting than any of the awful-looking, Siberian-city-style places dominated cookie-cutter multistory grey/beige/greige condo/apartment buildings, banal big box barf, snout-houses, and stroads (i.e., 70% of most new subdivisions in Canada). Especially in the 6 months of the year that Southern Ontario is blanketed by overcast weather, offering up a monochrome, soul-sucking suburban landscape.

Soundtrack for scrolling through pictures of today's subdivisions:


The eighties analogue for today's banality is found at 0:50 (snout-house land).

Check out the dystopian ‘burbs in this video:

• Video Link

Also this song with no video is an anthem against modern soulless suburbia:

• Video Link

I was lucky to see Arcade Fire on The Suburbs tour.

[Proof Sheet]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

Georgetown beckons and looks a hell of a lot more interesting than any of the awful-looking, Siberian-city-style places dominated cookie-cutter multistory grey/beige/greige condo/apartment buildings, banal big box barf, snout-houses, and stroads (i.e., 70% of most new subdivisions in Canada). Especially in the 6 months of the year that Southern Ontario is blanketed by overcast weather, offering up a monochrome, soul-sucking suburban landscape.

Soundtrack for scrolling through pictures of today's subdivisions:

• Video Link

The eighties analogue for today's banality is found at 0:50 (snout-house land).

Reddit has all of the answers and Molson can now pick your next diversion off the 401 in Toronto. See what you would miss if it was just a tunnel under Toronto.

https://www.reddit.com/r/rush/commen..._subdivisions/

[MolsonExport]

Originally Posted by Proof Sheet

Reddit has all of the answers and Molson can now pick your next diversion off the 401 in Toronto. See what you would miss if it was just a tunnel under Toronto.

https://www.reddit.com/r/rush/commen..._subdivisions/

heheh! Yeah, I have to admit that a few years ago, I searched out the locations of the suburban snouthouses in that Rush Video. It looked very familiar to me (my grandparents moved to Scarborough in the early 80s, not far from McCowan and Finch...maybe 2kms distant, but with the same housing stock. nearby the world-famous Woodside Square shopping mall).

here it is from the air: https://www.google.com/maps/place/Sa...oASAFQAw%3D%3D

[WhipperSnapper]

You can probably Google it


Yeah, the high rises look like Bridletowne Circle

[Gresto]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

Soundtrack for scrolling through pictures of today's subdivisions.

I'm not a Rush enthusiast, but that main keyboard theme is majestic and strangely poignant. Musically, the rest of the song is forgettable.

[MolsonExport]

Originally Posted by Gresto

I'm not a Rush enthusiast, but that main keyboard theme is majestic and strangely poignant. Musically, the rest of the song is forgettable.

same here. I appreciate Rush without loving them. But yeah, that synth-keyboard theme is great.

The video brings back the dreaded days of high school in the 1980s, growing up in a suburban landscape of few distractions ("Waste Island" of Montreal). We had a shitty local mall. A McDonald's. A Harvey's, a KFC. Couple of supermarkets and gas stations.

My high school looked similar to that depicted in the video. Lockers and brutalist concrete edifices. Cheerleaders and jocks with cars at the top of the social pyramid. The misfits ('nerds') and weirdos at the bottom. The metalheads/head-bangers, punks, and classic-rock afficionados somewhere in between.

[Proof Sheet]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

same here. I appreciate Rush without loving them. But yeah, that synth-keyboard theme is great.

The video brings back the dreaded days of high school in the 1980s, growing up in a suburban landscape of few distractions ("Waste Island" of Montreal). We had a shitty local mall. A McDonald's. A Harvey's, a KFC. Couple of supermarkets and gas stations.

My high school looked similar to that depicted in the video. Lockers and brutalist concrete edifices. Cheerleaders and jocks with cars at the top of the social pyramid. The misfits ('nerds') and weirdos at the bottom. The metalheads/head-bangers, punks, and classic-rock afficionados somewhere in between.

Hey I think we went to the same high school

Actually I went to a high school about 3 or 4 km away from the one used in the Rush video and my SIL went to the high school (it looked like mine. Brutalist architecture for the win). The imagery in the video is so relatable to me.

Unpopular opinions on Rush. 2112 is a hard album to get through and Roll the Bones as a song in terms of lyrics is in the same category as songs by the Black Eyed Peas.

The street in question in the video that they show from the air looks a bit better in Street View imagery from 2020 as the trees have matured and some of the homes have had external modifications to make them a bit different from one another.

[Gresto]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

The video brings back the dreaded days of high school in the 1980s, growing up in a suburban landscape of few distractions ("Waste Island" of Montreal). We had a shitty local mall. A McDonald's. A Harvey's, a KFC. Couple of supermarkets and gas stations.

My high school looked similar to that depicted in the video. Lockers and brutalist concrete edifices. Cheerleaders and jocks with cars at the top of the social pyramid. The misfits ('nerds') and weirdos at the bottom. The metalheads/head-bangers, punks, and classic-rock afficionados somewhere in between.

Yeah, but weren't the '80s a great time to be a kid? One can look back on it as an adult with a jaundiced eye, but the '80s (for my part, age 5-15) were my halcyon days. Skipping out the door to play with friends, not a care in the world. Rushing out of the school during recess for fifteen minutes of soccer or "can't touch the ground" tag on the playground. Nowadays it has to be a "playdate", and everything is on a screen. Childhood is certainly not the same.
The '80s was a time of hyper-materialism and dreadful political realities (Reagan, Thatcher, Mulroney, et al), but we kids knew nothing of that at the time. It may be rose-coloured glasses on my part, but I wish I could go back and experience that happiness again.

[WhipperSnapper]

M'thinks, greater time to be a parent. Tracking and chaperoning is time my parents had free. All they had to do was buy child ttc tickets.

[MolsonExport]

Originally Posted by Gresto

Yeah, but weren't the '80s a great time to be a kid? One can look back on it as an adult with a jaundiced eye, but the '80s (for my part, age 5-15) were my halcyon days. Skipping out the door to play with friends, not a care in the world. Rushing out of the school during recess for fifteen minutes of soccer or "can't touch the ground" tag on the playground. Nowadays it has to be a "playdate", and everything is on a screen. Childhood is certainly not the same.
The '80s was a time of hyper-materialism and dreadful political realities (Reagan, Thatcher, Mulroney, et al), but we kids knew nothing of that at the time. It may be rose-coloured glasses on my part, but I wish I could go back and experience that happiness again.

yep, there is a lot of truth there. I admit that I did not care much at all for High School (probably due to shitty problems at home, parents breaking up, the usual insecurities of adolescence), but the tail end of the 80s (1987 onward) were fucking awesome for me (working at McShitties kept me flush, and I had a ton of friends, a few girlfriends; got into college, then university; lots of partying...good times!).

The eighties were also great for music (especially the new wave stuff, punk rock, etc.), but my all time favorite musical decade is the 1970s. It is hard to imagine a more prolific period of great music than the 1965-85 period. I'd say 98% of what I listen to dates from that period.

[Gresto]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

yep, there is a lot of truth there. I admit that I did not care much at all for High School (probably due to shitty problems at home, parents breaking up, the usual insecurities of adolescence), but the tail end of the 80s (1987 onward) were fucking awesome for me (working at McShitties kept me flush, and I had a ton of friends, a few girlfriends; got into college, then university; lots of partying...good times!).

I'm sorry you had to deal with your parents' breakup. That's an eventuality children should not have to face, and they sadly often blame themselves. I'm fortunate to have had virtually unimpeachably wonderful parents, who put up with my difficult prepubescent behaviour. For me, adolescence was a really weird, unsettling time, as I'm sure it is for most, and it marked the end of my golden years. I was a wunderkind. "I coulda been a contender." The decades since have effectively been a long stretch of depression and underachievement.

The eighties were also great for music (especially the new wave stuff, punk rock, etc.), but my all time favorite musical decade is the 1970s. It is hard to imagine a more prolific period of great music than the 1965-85 period. I'd say 98% of what I listen to dates from that period.

I concur with you on the '80s and '60s, but strongly disagree on the 1970s. Other than Springsteen, some singer-songwriters like Cat Stevens, Dylan, Nick Drake, some power-pop groups such as the fabulous, underappreciated Shoes, and a few other exceptions (e.g. Michael Stanley, Fleetwood Mac), I regard the '70s as a dreary, slogging low-point in pop/rock music, along with the post-1991 grunge period. But I might be seen as having a "different" taste in music.