Great Canadian Skyline Thread II

[Sewciu85]

Originally Posted by kool maudit

You can just sort of feel how the hills mean other languages, other guys, other cities.

Whereas QC edges onto eternity.

Yeah I get the same feeling about other guys in cities over the hills when I’m in Calgary and feel like I’m on the edge of eternity during an Edmonton sunset lol.
You’re like the resident poet/philosopher here huh?

Honestly, I felt like nyc edged onto eternity because I can feel it in Edmonton and most of the world but I definitely want to feel qc one day. Guess I felt it a bit during the 400th bday.

Respect to qc, it’s a stunning city.

[kool maudit]

It's fun to get poetic about cities and their environments because it expresses what they represent to us and how they make us feel. That said, New York edges onto Hoboken, Secaucus, Scarsdale and Philadelphia. Whereas Quebec is a frontier city, and it looks and feels the part. Last stop before the tundra and all.

I was actually being pretty literal, if admittedly a bit fluffy!

[TorontoDrew]

Originally Posted by kool maudit

It's fun to get poetic about cities and their environments because it expresses what they represent to us and how they make us feel. That said, New York edges onto Hoboken, Secaucus, Scarsdale and Philadelphia. Whereas Quebec is a frontier city, and it looks and feels the part. Last stop before the tundra and all.

I was actually being pretty literal, if admittedly a bit fluffy!

Frontier City NYC

NYC by MadMartigen, on Flickr

[rousseau]

Damn it, the northeast US has such great terrain. We got shafted by the melting glaciers here.

[TorontoDrew]

Originally Posted by rousseau

Damn it, the northeast US has such great terrain. We got shafted by the melting glaciers here.

You were a few million years to early to enjoy the mountains and warm shallow sea that was here.

[MolsonExport]

The mountainous parts of Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania extend their tentacles very close to NYC. It is amazing how close you can get to approaching NYC while still being in the forested mountains, then BANG--the massive city suddenly reveals itself and the traffic/navigation becomes insane. Unlike Toronto, where the exurbs, distribution depots, and creeping miltonization (big box barf, repeated ad nauseam) start at a great distance from the city. Montreal is that way too...that stretch of Highway 20 is basically solid city from slightly east of St. Hyancinthe to the centre-ville, and then along the 40 extends well past Vaudreuil. Likewise from St. Jerome in the North to St. Jean d'Iberville in the South.

[TorontoDrew]

Probably the same for Winnipeg Calgary and Edmonton.

[Kilgore Trout]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

The mountainous parts of Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania extend their tentacles very close to NYC. It is amazing how close you can get to approaching NYC while still being in the forested mountains, then BANG--the massive city suddenly reveals itself and the traffic/navigation becomes insane. Unlike Toronto, where the exurbs, distribution depots, and creeping miltonization (big box barf, repeated ad nauseam) start at a great distance from the city. Montreal is that way too...that stretch of Highway 20 is basically solid city from slightly east of St. Hyancinthe to the centre-ville, and then along the 40 extends well past Vaudreuil. Likewise from St. Jerome in the North to St. Jean d'Iberville in the South.

Driving between Montreal and Toronto is one of the most painfully boring stretches of road I've ever encountered, except for one mildly rocky and interesting part around Gananoque. It's especially bad when you consider it's the same distance as the drive from Montreal to New York, which is stunning – first the Adirondacks, then the Catskills, then you're suddenly at the GWB.

The northward approach to Montreal is particularly sprawly. I drove back from Lac Labelle this weekend and it's kind of depressing. You exit from beautiful mountain scenery only to have 45 minutes of eight-lane highway and pancake-flat big-box suburbia.

That said, when you approach from the south along the 10 or the 15, the transition from farm fields to suburbia to awesome Champlain Bridge panorama is very quick...

[TorontoDrew]

Not as bad as Toronto to Windsor with the same small rocky break. Meanwhile go 2 hours north and you have some of the most beautiful rugged untouched scenery in the country. The Quebec Windsor corridor might be boring but it hasthe most fertile land in Canada. It might look boring but it tastes good lol.

[lio45]

Originally Posted by kool maudit

We talked about this a little bit in the tourism thread, but the thing about Quebec is that it marries European city form with American scale. The Saint-Lawrence is just a beast, the valley vistas are enormous. Some say that in Europe, QC would be unremarkable, but it isn't true. Like the over-heavy blocks of Buenos Aires, the QC vista is totally outscaled, totally New World.

Yeah, and for an example that struck me in that particular pic we're discussing, the very visible Valero refinery in Lévis with those hills in the distance behind it, is a somewhat un-European sight.

[lio45]

(Having posted the above and thinking about it, it's pretty ironic that not far behind the hills in question lies the U.S. state of Maine where these (other) guys do speak a foreign language.)

Originally Posted by kool maudit

You can just sort of feel how the hills mean other languages, other guys, other cities.

[Pavlov]

Originally Posted by Kilgore Trout

Driving between Montreal and Toronto is one of the most painfully boring stretches of road I've ever encountered, except for one mildly rocky and interesting part around Gananoque. It's especially bad when you consider it's the same distance as the drive from Montreal to New York, which is stunning – first the Adirondacks, then the Catskills, then you're suddenly at the GWB.

The northward approach to Montreal is particularly sprawly. I drove back from Lac Labelle this weekend and it's kind of depressing. You exit from beautiful mountain scenery only to have 45 minutes of eight-lane highway and pancake-flat big-box suburbia.

That said, when you approach from the south along the 10 or the 15, the transition from farm fields to suburbia to awesome Champlain Bridge panorama is very quick...

You can add about 30 minutes of beautiful scenery (at the cost of adding about fifteen minutes of total trip time) by taking the Thousand Islands Parkway between Brockville and Gananoque (exits directly from the 401 at both ends). But yeah, it's otherwise a terribly boring drive (other than for a few weeks in autumn when the leaves are changing).

[lio45]

Originally Posted by WhipperSnapper

I'll back you up. He has been a homer with an eye on belittling Calgary at every opportunity. There's nothing that hasn't been covered many, many times in regards to wood sided houses in close proximity to the Calgary CBD This is just another poke under false pretenses.

Wait, I'm a homer?!? I couldn't be further from that. I keep panning my hometown(s) on this forum, and I'm merciless when judging things at home.

I never made negative comments on any of the numerous Calgary skyline shots that were posted here lately. I commented on this particular one because from this view, the contrast is absolutely crazily striking between the tall skyscrapers of the CBD and tiny little wooden detached SFHs just a few blocks away. And that's super weird to me. (Do you guys need me to post that pic after having circled the Bow and some of the closest SFHs in a bright color? You won't find anything close to that in Mtl or TO or Van. It is striking.)

To put my comments in perspective, I'm the exact equivalent of an Edmontonian after many years of the Stantec tower, whose "base line" for a skyline is what he's used to, who sees one particular angle of Montreal that makes it look really tabletop, and who comments that from that angle, with the new Griffintown condos, there's a tabletop effect.

Would you tear that guy a new one? Or insult him?

He'd be correct - the skyline from that point of view looks rather tabletop, and if you're used to skylines having a few jutting sticks (Edmonton/Chicago/NYC/etc.) then that's noticeable and presumably comment-worthy.

[lio45]

Originally Posted by giallo

Jesus. Is this really necessary? The guy just pointed something out. He was very wrong, of course, but it wasn't like he was getting personal or anything.

Tone down the insults, man.

Hmm, no, I would say I was fully correct - there are indeed wooden SFHs in the neighborhood called Sunnyside, and that's just mere blocks from the CBD where the tallest skyscrapers are.

(I can provide Google Street Views proving that I'm right, if necessary.)

[Pavlov]

Originally Posted by lio45

To put my comments in perspective, I'm the exact equivalent of an Edmontonian after many years of the Stantec tower, whose "base line" for a skyline is what he's used to, who sees one particular angle of Montreal that makes it look really tabletop, and who comments that from that angle, with the new Griffintown condos, there's a tabletop effect.

Would you tear that guy a new one? Or insult him?

He'd be correct - the skyline from that point of view looks rather tabletop, and if you're used to skylines having a few jutting sticks (Edmonton/Chicago/NYC/etc.) then that's noticeable and presumably comment-worthy.

I think that if your hypothetical Edmontonian poster added something like "Montreal's tabletop skyline is so weird and exotic... Absolutely does not exist in any of the big cities I'm familiar with", that poster may have received a few replies pointing out that many cities have skylines which look like tabletops when viewed from certain angles (and also pointing out that the development of Montreal's skyline was shaped by height limits etc.)

[lio45]

Originally Posted by Pavlov

I think that if your hypothetical Edmontonian poster added something like "Montreal's tabletop skyline is so weird and exotic... Absolutely does not exist in any of the big cities I'm familiar with", that poster may have received a few replies pointing out that many cities have skylines which look like tabletops when viewed from certain angles (and also pointing out that the development of Montreal's skyline was shaped by height limits etc.)

Actually, I have yet to see someone give me another example of a location where there are little wooden detached SFHs a few blocks from some of the tallest skyscrapers in the entire country.

In the analogy, we're in a semi-fictional situation in which nearly all cities have skylines with one or several towers peaking significantly above everything else, and we are talking about one angle that makes Montreal look particularly tabletop. I don't think the Edmontonian Biscuit/Cunt/Dumbass/whatever is out of line at all in this scenario. The point of this thread is the pictures and the commenting. I did the same to Vancouver earlier - one angle had it looking even more like the uniform sea of green/white glass condo towers than usual, and I pointed that out (and also, that I didn't like it ) ... and I don't recall anyone panicking.

[lio45]

Originally Posted by Pavlov

(and also pointing out that the development of Montreal's skyline was shaped by height limits etc.)

I never disputed that the apparently-controversial fact that I observed was the result of how Calgary's development was shaped by various (reasonable) factors. I just said I found it fascinating, weird, and exotic that such tall skyscrapers would coexist in such close proximity to tiny wooden detached SFHs.

[Coldrsx]

https://twitter.com/upheseesmedown/status/1298767454676557824

[lio45]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

Likewise from St. Jerome in the North to St. Jean d'Iberville in the South.

While that name rings a bell, I don't recall the last time I've heard it called that, it's been St-Jean-sur-Richelieu for, at least, decades, even (I'm pretty sure) way before the municipal mergers.

[Pavlov]

Originally Posted by lio45

Actually, I have yet to see someone give me another example of a location where there are little wooden detached SFHs a few blocks from some of the tallest skyscrapers in the entire country.

Small SFH blocks from Denver's CBD:

https://www.google.ca/maps/@39.7507163,-...nHucRWEKdBA0eA9xpGMBQ!2e0!7i16384!8i8192

Small SFH blocks from Portland's CBS:

https://www.google.ca/maps/@45.4996978,-...itch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i16384!8i8192

Small SFH blocks from Ottawa's CBD:

https://www.google.ca/maps/@45.4138094,-...dMQ8I11L1YXaNHIeLxCVw!2e0!7i16384!8i8192