Great Canadian Skyline Thread II

[Rico Rommheim]

Originally Posted by megadude

Does anyone ever draw comparisons between a sea of triplexes in Montreal with a sea of tract housing in a suburb?

No. They do not.


Also if you ever want to see an urban build in Montreal that mixes plexes, SFH and apartments look no further than Montreal's outer boroughs like Parc extension, Lachine, and even the suburban city of Longueuil.

There are actually several neighbourhoods where the continuity of the plexe is intermingled with one storey bungalows and apartment blocks. It's quite common actually.

The street I live on for example is a continuous selection of all these housing typologies. My triplex neighbours a 1950's 3 storey apartment building, and 100m down the street there is a 1960's bungalow that neighbours a small duplexe. Other streets in my neighborhood have a side that has almost exclusively 1930's triplexes whilst on the other side are almost exclusively post-war SFH built in haste for returning veterans.

[J.OT13]

Night shots of Ottawa.


https://twitter.com/Orcadian1/status/1307848503247491073


https://twitter.com/JulieSMatthews/status/1334874683905339393

[Kilgore Trout]

Originally Posted by megadude

Does anyone ever draw comparisons between a sea of triplexes in Montreal with a sea of tract housing in a suburb? Both have a bunch of similar looking structures jammed into a big space.

It's really just the effect of seeing them from above. The flat grey roofs don't help. On street level there is quite a lot of architectural variety between different plexes, on top of natural variation between how each building and apartment is maintained.

That particular photo was taken in the western part of Verdun, which was developed between the 1920s and 50s. Here's what it looks like at street level:

https://goo.gl/maps/WicdKBpNAD43WxaX9

As you can see the impression you get walking around there isn't "tract housing."

[Monolith]

Courtesy RDW989 from the Vancouver forum

Originally Posted by RDW989

Walking across the Granville Bridge today, noticed that the skyline is changing.

My pix, today (Jan 26 2021)
Vancouver House, Grovesnor Pacific, (the crane for the Butterfly?), Burrard Place, 1335 Howe
[IMG][url=https://flic.kr/p/2kw5dmB]

[Chadillaccc]

Late January Jaunts by Chadillaccc, on Flickr

Late January Jaunts by Chadillaccc, on Flickr

A walk in January by Chadillaccc, on Flickr

[kool maudit]

In the late 19th century, the terrace houses of London were often spoken of in similar terms as the tract housing of US suburbia is now, i.e. monotonous, bleak, soulless.

[isaidso]

Originally Posted by kool maudit

In the late 19th century, the terrace houses of London were often spoken of in similar terms as the tract housing of US suburbia is now, i.e. monotonous, bleak, soulless.

Having been born in London and lived there my first 11-12 years large swaths of it were. That may be hard for Canadians to accept because people here gush over it. Some of it is very beautiful but some of it is monotonous, bleak, and soul destroying. They were shabby, decrepit, damp, and tended to have little/no greenery whatsoever. It went on like this for miles in every direction. It didn't help that these areas were also poor, rough, and in some case, crime ridden. Canadians have an idealized image of London born of Dickens, James Bond, the Monarchy, and cobble stone streets. It glosses over a lot.

I've also lived in Montreal. Some bits echo those depressing places in London but overall Montreal's terrace housing neighbourhoods are nicer places to be. Granted I didn't spend time in the east end.

[J.OT13]

The ByWard Market and Lowertown in 2014, based on the Andaz Hotel u/c centre, right.


https://twitter.com/MyLowertown

[Prometheus]

July 13, 2019


SCROLL--------->


Source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/153361961@N07/48320439272/in/photostream/

[niwell]

Canadian cities in general had relatively little speculatively built housing prior to the post-war era. While there were obviously common themes and repeated designs it was rare to have entire blocks of the same building thrown up at once you see in London or major American cities. I can't speak to Montreal but Toronto in particular was heavily owner built/occupied compared to the North American average, and even "developers" tended to only build a row of 2-6 houses/semis of the same design concurrently. Even during the heights of their respective pre-WWII booms the growth in TO/MTL paled in comparison to contemporary NYC,Chicago, or earlier London. So there just wasn't as much being built as well.

For the most part we also lacked the loss-leader streetcar developments of the interwar years, partly because of the above reasons but also most of our transit systems had been amalgamated and only served profitable areas.

Hamilton may actually have the highest amount of older speculative identical blocks per capita due to its heavy industrial past. Maybe there are some other examples too.

[MolsonExport]

love the van pano

[megadude]

That would make for a great canvas on a wall.

[esquire]

Yeah, that Vancouver panorama has to be one of the prettiest skyline shots I've ever seen here. Beautiful.

[Coldrsx]

https://twitter.com/danschyk/status/1353867500321030145

[rousseau]

Originally Posted by niwell

Canadian cities in general had relatively little speculatively built housing prior to the post-war era. While there were obviously common themes and repeated designs it was rare to have entire blocks of the same building thrown up at once you see in London or major American cities. I can't speak to Montreal but Toronto in particular was heavily owner built/occupied compared to the North American average, and even "developers" tended to only build a row of 2-6 houses/semis of the same design concurrently. Even during the heights of their respective pre-WWII booms the growth in TO/MTL paled in comparison to contemporary NYC,Chicago, or earlier London. So there just wasn't as much being built as well.

For the most part we also lacked the loss-leader streetcar developments of the interwar years, partly because of the above reasons but also most of our transit systems had been amalgamated and only served profitable areas.

Hamilton may actually have the highest amount of older speculative identical blocks per capita due to its heavy industrial past. Maybe there are some other examples too.

This is the background information I never had as a teen and young twenty-something wondering why New York and Chicago looked so damn epic but Toronto didn't.

Hamilton's identi-blocks are all detached single family homes, so you don't really get the same effect as in the big northeastern cities (and Montreal, of course).

[Metro-One]

Originally Posted by isaidso

Having been born in London and lived there my first 11-12 years large swaths of it were. That may be hard for Canadians to accept because people here gush over it. Some of it is very beautiful but some of it is monotonous, bleak, and soul destroying. They were shabby, decrepit, damp, and tended to have little/no greenery whatsoever. It went on like this for miles in every direction. It didn't help that these areas were also poor, rough, and in some case, crime ridden. Canadians have an idealized image of London born of Dickens, James Bond, the Monarchy, and cobble stone streets. It glosses over a lot.

I've also lived in Montreal. Some bits echo those depressing places in London but overall Montreal's terrace housing neighbourhoods are nicer places to be. Granted I didn't spend time in the east end.

It’s the same for Japan and other Asian cities. Don’t get me wrong, there are many urban aspects here that I would love to bring over to Canada (some built form, some social) but there is also a lot of bland ugliness and terrible suburban sprawl that is often overlooked. Once the romance is gone Canadian homes and apartment towers / condos are far more pleasing to the eye than their contemporary Japanese counterparts. The old temples and narrow cobble stone streets are a very small part of urban Japan.

Where Japan is hands down better however is in the entertainment districts and alley usage. No dumpsters. Near zero crackheads. Unique tiny establishment after unique tiny establishment. Wonderful signage everywhere.

[Rico Rommheim]

MONTRÉAL by PHOTOS X PRESSE, on Flickr


Montréal by Dominic Hains, on Flickr


ChinatownAvantGuyFavreau by Daniel Heikalo, on Flickr


Molson Montreal by Taymaz Valley, on Flickr

[megadude]

Are there any other building topping signs beside FARINE FIVE ROSES that prominently add to the value of a skyline photo?

The Redpath wordmark logo sign is beautiful, but it's on the side of an unremarkable sugar refinery on Lake Ontario. What is that sign was much larger and actually stuck out from the roof and was lit up at night?

[craner]

Originally Posted by Chadillaccc

Late January Jaunts by Chadillaccc, on Flickr

Late January Jaunts by Chadillaccc, on Flickr

A walk in January by Chadillaccc, on Flickr

Where is the pooch Chad ?
Kinda look forward to seeing him now.

[Metro-One]

To say that this part of the Vancouver skyline has improved immensely over the last few years would be an understatement!

Originally Posted by Klazu

Fantastic addition to Downtown skyline and the tower feels skyscraper tall. Can't wait for more towers to densify the surrounding area.