Great Canadian Skyline Thread II - Page 364

GreaterMontréal · #**7261** Posted **May 4, 2018, 1:40 AM**

Quote:

skyline will look wide from this angle

the best view will be from the Champlain bridge.

logan5 · #**7262** Posted **May 4, 2018, 2:17 AM**

Great Montreal shot. That mixture of historic vs modern is unmatched in Canada,

Montreal wouldn't want to go too crazy with condo towers or she will end up looking bland, as has happened to Toronto. Toronto's skyline is actually regressing.

Black Star · #**7263** Posted **May 4, 2018, 3:14 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by logan5

Great Montreal shot. That mixture of historic vs modern is unmatched in Canada,

Montreal wouldn't want to go too crazy with condo towers or she will end up looking bland, as has happened to Toronto. Toronto's skyline is actually regressing.

Agree....

Toronto as much as it is pushing the envelope of Architecture as is Vancouver are awash in bland condo development. A sea oh meh.

Montreal as well as Edmonton are IMO unique in that they have a great up and coming mix of office and condo height and design being built or designed....

mistercorporate · #**7264** Posted **May 4, 2018, 1:19 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by logan5

Great Montreal shot. That mixture of historic vs modern is unmatched in Canada,

Montreal wouldn't want to go too crazy with condo towers or she will end up looking bland, as has happened to Toronto. Toronto's skyline is actually regressing.

Are we living in the same city? What we call bland, the world calls futuristic. Toronto has never looked better, it's turning into a real beauty!

WhipperSnapper · #**7265** Posted **May 4, 2018, 2:10 PM**

Toronto's skyline is larger but, blander than it was before. It's not a big deal to me. I'm always going to side with architectural quality over colour, height and, y'know, just being different. Toronto's architectural quality is losing traction as well but, it's a symptom affecting all cities. Some much worse than others.

WhipperSnapper · #**7266** Posted **May 4, 2018, 2:19 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Black Star

Agree....

Toronto as much as it is pushing the envelope of Architecture as is Vancouver are awash in bland condo development. A sea oh meh.

Montreal as well as Edmonton are IMO unique in that they have a great up and coming mix of office and condo height and design being built or designed....

You really find new development in Montreal that diverse? The "District De Glace" is all blue glass and Griffintown is all similarly massed with like materials.

I won't even comment on Edmonton.

240glt · #**7267** Posted **May 4, 2018, 2:39 PM**

Let the kids have their fun

Me, I'll take that "bland" development in Vancouver, with it's active and lively streets, beautiful natural scenery over the barren and ugly downtown Edmonton any day

le calmar · #**7268** Posted **May 4, 2018, 3:24 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by 240glt

Let the kids have their fun

Me, I'll take that "bland" development in Vancouver, with it's active and lively streets, beautiful natural scenery over the barren and ugly downtown Edmonton any day

There was never a reference to scenery and how vibrant the streets are. In terms of character of skyline you could say that Montreal, Calgary and Edmonton have achieved a good balance between condo towers vs office buildings. Toronto also have a good balance, but the skyline is now so big that you sort of lose that distinctiveness. It reached the point it becomes a wall of buildings and from some vantage points, consisting of 80% of similarly-looking condos buildings.

The presence of blue glass condos buildings is not overwhelming in those cities like they are in Toronto and Vancouver. It gives the skyline a different "unique" character similar to when I look at the skyline of Cleveland, Boston, Dallas, etc. it certainly add to the character despite what you think.

PS: I agree that the Edmonton skyline could improve and could be consider bland at the moment, but the new developments and Stantec are a good step forward.

Urban recluse · #**7269** Posted **May 4, 2018, 3:26 PM**

The City of Edmonton, at this point, should be insisting on better designs. I do think the downtown needs more Vancouver-style glass condos strategically located to break up the beige.

In locations such as the Ice District, and the BMO site, there is enough blue glass around, and something different must be directed by the city when approving projects.

Toronto I think is in the same boat as Edmonton IMO. There are many spots where those glass towers would be welcomed, while other locations are screaming for something different.

MolsonExport · #**7270** Posted **May 4, 2018, 5:07 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by rousseau

Wow wow wow.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: that second view is Canada's greatest urban vista. Hands down. Discussion closed.

layers (style, period, shape) and density. Montreal has both in spades. Some cities are strong on one, and weak on the other. In hindsight, Montreal's case might have been sheer luck. The city's economy tanked (due to a deadly combination of deindustrialization and political uncertainty) during the period when "urban renewal" was all the rage. Although Montreal didn't escape unscathed (Drapeau loved le Corbusier-style starting with a blank canvas), it fared better than most larger Northeaster cities (Boston is another city that was partially spared...the north end and much of Back Bay were supposed to be razed). When Montreal started to revitalize, public opinion had shifted and by then the failures of Hartford/Albany/St. Louis-style "urban renewal" where all too apparent.

WhipperSnapper · #**7271** Posted **May 4, 2018, 6:57 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Urban recluse

The City of Edmonton, at this point, should be insisting on better designs. I do think the downtown needs more Vancouver-style glass condos strategically located to break up the beige.

In locations such as the Ice District, and the BMO site, there is enough blue glass around, and something different must be directed by the city when approving projects.

Toronto I think is in the same boat as Edmonton IMO. There are many spots where those glass towers would be welcomed, while other locations are screaming for something different.

The problem is good design gets all but lost in this desire for something different. There's some truly heinous developments that are getting the stamp of approval for being different. A splash of colour is all that is needed to transform garbage to exceptional. We are building as diverse as ever. . For some reason, the details when it comes to blue green glass towers get completely ignored while red masonry, prewar district are revered.

WhipperSnapper · #**7272** Posted **May 4, 2018, 7:14 PM**

Montreal still probably tore down more for the sake of urban renewal and post war planning than every other Canadian city combined. The key differences with say, Toronto, is that it had much more to begin with and it didn't build it's modern era office core on top of the old one. What's done is done. I'm not going to cry over it. Still, imagine how different Toronto would be if the modern core centred at King and Bay as well as the and Eaton Centre was developed instead in present day Cityplace and Southcore. There would be millions more square feet of brick and beam spaces that creatives love and our own St Jacques.

Urban recluse · #**7273** Posted **May 4, 2018, 8:23 PM**

Downtown Winnipeg would be quite different if it had not been expanded so far out (although at that time, the population was growing quite fast, and forecasts had the population growing to be a couple of million by now). As well, many beautiful historic buildings were demolished creating horrible gaps in the urban fabric, while others were replaced by shit. Also, Had the U of M stayed and grown downtown, I believe the downtown would be quite different.

LeftCoaster · #**7274** Posted **May 4, 2018, 8:24 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Black Star

Montreal as well as Edmonton are IMO unique in that they have a great up and coming mix of office and condo height and design being built or designed....

Edmonton has a great mix of design?

Did I just wake up from a coma and miss a round or two of development?

Edmonton gets one 250m slab and their heads explode...

O-tacular · #**7275** Posted **May 4, 2018, 9:36 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by LeftCoaster

Edmonton has a great mix of design?

Did I just wake up from a coma and miss a round or two of development?

Edmonton gets one 250m slab and their heads explode...

Lol! Just like the Oilers...

Martin Mtl · #**7276** Posted **May 4, 2018, 9:47 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by WhipperSnapper

Montreal still probably tore down more for the sake of urban renewal and post war planning than every other Canadian city combined. The key differences with say, Toronto, is that it had much more to begin with and it didn't build it's modern era office core on top of the old one. What's done is done. I'm not going to cry over it. Still, imagine how different Toronto would be if the modern core centred at King and Bay as well as the and Eaton Centre was developed instead in present day Cityplace and Southcore. There would be millions more square feet of brick and beam spaces that creatives love and our own St Jacques.

Yet there are large parts of the city that didn't see that much demolition. Victorian-era Westmount is almost completely intact; Old Montreal as well for the most part, victorian-era sections of Le Plateau are also almost intact (minus some slabs in Milton Parc), in fact most of Le Plateau is the original build-up from 1850's to 1920's, Outremont is also intact, as is Pointe-Saint-Charles, Saint-Henri, Le Village... Griffintown was heavily demolished, large parts of downtown as well, including Chinatown, but there remains a lot in the Golden Square Mile and shaughnessy Village. We all wish there would have been more preservation, but for the most part, Montreal did better than most other NA cities.