The Great Canadian Skyline Thread!

[RyLucky]

I love Montreal, but when you get far enough from the core, it's just as crappy and suburban as every other Canadian CMA.

Maybe Montrealers don't consider Laval and Kirkland and Brossard as part of the city, but really it's inseparable. Just like how TO has Richmond Hill and Brampton, or how Calgary has Mackenzie Towne or Saddleridge, or Vancouver has Surrey and Richmond.

That said, I'll grant that Montreal punches above its weight for how far you can walk without leaving a medium-dense corridor. Bonus points for best bagels.

It's the core and immediate periphery of each city that gives it its character, livelihood, and identity. That's why Montreal is great. It's easy to forget how mediocre its suburbs are.

[FrAnKs]

Originally Posted by RyLucky

It's the core and immediate periphery of each city that gives it its character, livelihood, and identity. That's why Montreal is great. It's easy to forget how mediocre its suburbs are.

And how there is ...

[Rico Rommheim]

Suburban Montreal is the ugliest peripheral (non)urban sequence out of the big 3. Surburban Vancouver has cool topography, lush vegetation, solid public transit coverage and a bold planning scheme among other things. Toronto's suburbs though not particularly pretty are very ambitious (The spaced-out architecture in Mississauga) in scope and some are very multi-ethnic. Montreal just sprawls aimlessly, its architecture is uninspired and its ambitions aren't all that impressive.

[FrAnKs]

Originally Posted by Rico Rommheim

Suburban Montreal is the ugliest peripheral (non)urban sequence out of the big 3. Surburban Vancouver has cool topography, lush vegetation, solid public transit coverage and a bold planning scheme among other things. Toronto's suburbs though not particularly pretty are very ambitious (The spaced-out architecture in Mississauga) in scope and some are very multi-ethnic. Montreal just sprawls aimlessly, its architecture is uninspired and its ambitions aren't all that impressive.

I couldn't agree more. Lived all my life before 2011 in Lower-laurentians & Laval... what a boring place it is. Really.
At least I worked for a long time in St-Joseph-du-lac. It's bucolic.

[miketoronto]

Originally Posted by FrAnKs

I couldn't agree more. Lived all my life before 2011 in Lower-laurentians & Laval... what a boring place it is. Really.
At least I worked for a long time in St-Joseph-du-lac. It's bucolic.

Are Montreal's suburbs more European in a way? Some areas of suburban Montreal could pass for apartment suburbs in Paris.

[Boris2k7]

Some Quebec City by ME


Citadel View by RemotelyBoris, on Flickr


Lower city by RemotelyBoris, on Flickr


Upper city by RemotelyBoris, on Flickr


QC Evening by RemotelyBoris, on Flickr


St. Lawrence by RemotelyBoris, on Flickr

[Rico Rommheim]

Originally Posted by miketoronto

Are Montreal's suburbs more European in a way? Some areas of suburban Montreal could pass for apartment suburbs in Paris.

No. Montreal's suburbs resemble in no way the slab suburbs of paris. They are closer to those of Phoenix, or any random modern North American suburb, lack of transit, lack of architecture, lack of interesting places to go and things to do. That's the problem.

[FrAnKs]

^^^Awwww so lovely !

I'm curious

Was it your first trip here ? And how did you found the city itself & the ambiance ?

[FrAnKs]

Originally Posted by Rico Rommheim

No. Montreal's suburbs resemble in no way the slab suburbs of paris. They are closer to those of Phoenix, or any random modern North American suburb, lack of transit, lack of architecture, lack of interesting places to go and things to do. That's the problem.

But I think we're better to control our urban sprawl.

Phoenix looks like it could sprawl forever in the desert.

Our suburbs are also more compact than our US neighbours.

Ahah you took this picture ! : https://www.flickr.com/photos/remotelyboris/15152263960/in/set-72157647558570910
I often go to that place, they have some excellent poutines

[Boris2k7]

Originally Posted by FrAnKs

^^^Awwww so lovely !

I'm curious

Was it your first trip here ? And how did you found the city itself & the ambiance ?

It's quite nice, and it was indeed my first trip there. I actually found the parts outside of the walls to be much more interesting than those inside. If I'd had another day I would've liked to explore some of the surrounding towns a little more.

[Martin Mtl]

I had never see this pic before. It's fantastic. I love the look of Old Montreal from the sky.

Originally Posted by Ashok

[FrAnKs]

Originally Posted by Boris2k7

It's quite nice, and it was indeed my first trip there. I actually found the parts outside of the walls to be much more interesting than those inside. If I'd had another day I would've liked to explore some of the surrounding towns a little more.

Definitely. Thats often what I try to show in my photo threads of the city. Cause the real life is outside of the walls. At least you visited my district ( Montcalm).
It does remind me of the Mile-end in Montréal.
I really enjoy the life here next to the Abraham plains.

Here's my last thread taken this summer : http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=212805

[RyLucky]

Originally Posted by FrAnKs

But I think we're better to control our urban sprawl.

Phoenix looks like it could sprawl together in the desert.

Our suburbs are also more compact than our US neighbours.

The one Canadian city that actually has decent control of its suburbs (though you wouldn't know it until 2005) is Calgary. City Council is in charge of >90% of the population in the region, with the notable exceptions being Airdrie (45k), Okotoks (25k), Cochrane(20k), and Chestermere (17k). For all intents and purposes, Calgary is a unicity. Burnaby's building restrictions and the GTA's greenbelt had similar intent, but require far more cooperation between competing jurisdictions.

While Calgary's new suburban developments still lack the culture, entertainment, and services relative to their urban counterparts, things are getting better. New developments increasingly host a range of densities instead of just single-family homes, bike lanes, pedestrian-oriented retail, and transit-oriented development. Rapid transit to the city limits in certain corridors helps too. The best examples of current greenfield communities are probably Seton and West District, but even smaller scale developments are getting more sustainable.

That said, I'm not going to kid myself: greenfield developments will always trail behind the inner city in a number of quality of life metrics, but at least we've begun to learn from the mistakes that Canadian cities made in the past century and be more responsible in the future. This is only possible because of Calgary's jurisdiction over its suburbs, preventing endless, directionless sprawl.

[1overcosc]

Most Anglo-Canadian cities are improving their game when it comes to suburbia. Ottawa's newest suburbs are laid out quite well, are decently dense, and provide a lot of pedestrian and cyclist mobility, but the city has done a horrible job expanding its transit system out to newer areas. There's one subdivision in Kanata that was built in 2012 that still doesn't have any transit at all, not even a peak period route.

In Kingston the newer suburbs just suck. They're just as bad as the old ones. Some would say that is offset by the fact that Kingston probably has one of the highest proportions of inner city growth in Canada (the inner city's share of the population is actually increasing right now), but it still bugs me.

Both Ottawa & Kingston are in the same boat as Calgary... all suburbs within city limits.

[Beedok]

Hamilton's not exactly increasing it's density, but I'm fairly certain that just by having houses very close together it manages pretty decent densities.

[Ashok]

Originally Posted by Rico Rommheim

No. Montreal's suburbs resemble in no way the slab suburbs of paris. They are closer to those of Phoenix, or any random modern North American suburb, lack of transit, lack of architecture, lack of interesting places to go and things to do. That's the problem.

I don't know why people think of Montreal as European - definitely not the architecture, it feels more like North Eastern USA but French - like Boston.

[SkahHigh]

Originally Posted by Rico Rommheim

No. Montreal's suburbs resemble in no way the slab suburbs of paris. They are closer to those of Phoenix, or any random modern North American suburb, lack of transit, lack of architecture, lack of interesting places to go and things to do. That's the problem.

Montreal has a few nice suburbs like St. Lambert, Rosemere and Lorraine, but most of the rest are boring... But I think this is the case in most Canadian cities (apart from Calgary which barely has any suburbs). Toronto has a similar transit coverage of it's suburbs proportionally with Montreal. Of course, GO Transit is far more advanced, but it has a 30-year advance on the AMT. The bus service itself with the CITs is okay at best.

[losername]

It would be interesting to see side by side arial photos of Montreal, Vancouver , and Calgary . To compare the densities. I think Vancouver might win this one, then Montreal, Calgary.

[TownGuy]

Oops

[ozonemania]

Originally Posted by losername

It would be interesting to see side by side arial photos of Montreal, Vancouver , and Calgary . To compare the densities. I think Vancouver might win this one, then Montreal, Calgary.