Canadian cities that should have been bigger than they actually are?

[Mr Tall Forehead]

Originally Posted by AuxTown

I love buildings with a story:

https://www.queensjournal.ca/how-a-1960s-queens-student-utopia-fell-from-grace/

This is the most flattering angle IMO:



Living above a Dairy Queen....yes please!

I don’t think I’ve ever been graced with a picture of this building before. Wow. I really love how sometime after it was built, someone thought it was missing 43 antennas on top to really complete its look. Yikes!

[905er]

There is literally no tower in the country uglier that this one... not even clockzilla. Kingston is such a nice city.. despite this hideousness.

[zoomer]

Over the course of a few pages, I've come to love this building, lol.

If it was taller, didn't have those funky balconies, didn't have a vibrant street level and didn't have antennas then I'd detest it. I mean that triangular setback is sweet and great ground level - there are hundreds of depressing looking buildings across the country which are bare concrete straight up with no flourishes or mistakes and zero street level presence, so this is already way ahead of those.

And Kingston looks great, like others I see the Maritime/Halifax comparison.

[someone123]

I remember how that building stuck out so much when I was in Kingston. It's ugly but also has a sort of wacky appeal in its strangeness, and isn't the kind of thing that would be built today.

The way the medium-density mixed-use stuff stretches along Princess St in Kingston made it feel larger to me than I expected it would. I also noticed some brand name chain clothing stores downtown (years ago), which is something I associate with a more-developed-than-a-small-town downtown area.

[casper]

Originally Posted by 905er

There is literally no tower in the country uglier that this one... not even clockzilla. Kingston is such a nice city.. despite this hideousness.

The only question is what state of mind does one have to be in to produce such a design. This is from the 1970s....

One option is it is work of someone on LSD or Ketamine. Both drugs that were popular at that point in time.

An alternative theory, is it was the result of a committee where everyone avoided conflict and could not agree on a design so they incorporated everyone idea into one building.

[Loco101]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

It strikes me as strange that there is practically no development along the 401 between the two exits for Guelph (greenbelt maybe?). Right between booming KWC and the expanding sprawl of the Western GTA (Milton, Halton Hills, and Mississauga). The section between KWC and Woodstock is similarly rather bereft of development. There is a long stretch where there is but a single exit (Drumbo/Innerkip and the dreaded Master Steaks truck stop).

I'm not totally sure why it is that way between the two exits for Guelph. But looking at it, the West part is within the City of Cambridge where development only seems to be happening next to areas that are already developed. The East part has a large quarry on the South side of the 401. To the North is actually part of Guelph I think and there has been some development but not very visible at all from the highway.

[irisheyes]

Figured I'd share these. Two elevation drawings for a New Brunswick legislature in Saint John. I believe was intended for Queen Square in the South End.

[EnvisionSaintJohn]

Originally Posted by irisheyes

Figured I'd share these. Two elevation drawings for a New Brunswick legislature in Saint John. I believe was intended for Queen Square in the South End.

I thought it was the Customs House on first glance.









It's a shame more efforts were not made to rebuild the building after the fire, it's perhaps the greatest architectural loss in the history of the city, even more so than the old Saint John General Hospital.



All that remains of the Customs House today (Saint John High School in the background)

[hipster duck]

Originally Posted by EnvisionSaintJohn

I thought it was the Customs House on first glance.

This might be the greatest architectural loss in Canadian history.

Not only was the Customs House an exemplary form of that kind of Second Empire architecture, but Saint John tore down what could have been its most recognizable landmark. Saint John still has great bones, but it doesn't have a landmark. Actually, New Brunswick as a whole doesn't have one, and that could have been it.

[J.OT13]

Originally Posted by hipster duck

This might be the greatest architectural loss in Canadian history.

I nominate old Winnipeg City Hall.


https://heritagewinnipeg.com/blogs/a-keystone-of-culture-the-manitoba-museum/

[EnvisionSaintJohn]

Originally Posted by J.OT13

I nominate old Winnipeg City Hall.


https://heritagewinnipeg.com/blogs/a-keystone-of-culture-the-manitoba-museum/

nice. Here's another one of it, beside Canada's first skyscraper.

[J.OT13]

At least that first skyscraper is still around, but the relationship between the skyscraper and City Hall, not quite the same...


https://www.reddit.com/r/Winnipeg/commen...y_hall_and_union_bank_building/#lightbox

[drew]

^ Winnipeg has countless examples of buildings demolished and either never replaced or replaced with far inferior structures.

The old downtown post office on Portage Avenue is another example.

[Ozabald]

Originally Posted by drew

^ Winnipeg has countless examples of buildings demolished and either never replaced or replaced with far inferior structures.

The old downtown post office on Portage Avenue is another example.

Unfortunately, it's not just Winnipeg. There are many examples of lost buildings from other Canadian cities.

Here's a bad example from St. John's.

"Old" post office on Water Street (survived the great fire of 1892):
https://x.com/old_stjohns/status/699599706343792640/photo/1

Demolished in the 1950's for this "masterpiece". One of the "gifts" from joining Canada in 1949:
https://www.google.com/maps/place/St.+Jo..._ep=EgoyMDI1MTAyMi4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D

[FactaNV]

At least Winnipeg has done a far better job protecting its heritage districts than most Canadian cities. Part of that can be attributed to economic stagnation, but also due to civil society. The exchange district truly is a wonderful place to live, work and visit. So many gorgeous Chicago, Romanesque and Beaux-Arts buildings. Most cities would love having 15 heritage buildings surviving in a cohesive block, nevermind 150.

As for the old city hall, it really sucks but the old building wasnt actually that well built and by the end it was structurally unsound.

[Drybrain]

Winnipeg's old city hall is a big loss. I would also put Toronto's old board of trade building high up there. (Toronto lost a lot of great buildings in the mis-century development boom.)

[FactaNV]

Another devastating loss to Canadian architectural history is lesser known - the Notre Dame of St. Boniface (now Winnipeg's French quarter) in the heart of both the birthplace of the Métis nation and the Western Canadian Francophonie. Due to the poor economics of the time the RC church decided not to rebuild to its previous grandeur which is both understandable and noble but man, it would probably still be the most beautiful church in Western Canada to this day. The link below has pictures pre and post fire. The ruins are occupied by a much smaller cathedral designed by Étienne Gaboury.

https://winnipegarchitecture.ca/st-boniface-cathedral/

[irisheyes]

The degradation of design is a terrible trend that swept through the western world. Even to try to fight it is a losing battle. We are losing our soul.

[Rico Rommheim]

The more I learn about Saint John on SSP, the more my heart breaks.

[Calgarian]

Originally Posted by 905er

There is literally no tower in the country uglier that this one... not even clockzilla. Kingston is such a nice city.. despite this hideousness.

This building in Calgary would like to have a word...
https://maps.app.goo.gl/zBWBVbC4NAKKu7r39