Ugly Canada 2 (Only architecture, planning and design faux pas)

[GeneralLea]

The Toronto CAMH building was also in the same reddit just a couple days ago, maybe even yesterday.

[megadude]

Wouldn't call it ugly, but it ain't pretty. I think some people would admire it for not being another Forest Hill (where it's located) mcmansion but this thing was listed two years ago for $5.2 mil. There's no front lawn and from the street, at a certain angle, it looks like the bottom half is all garages while the top floor is the living space.

Whenever this and/or the neighbouring houses were built, I personally would have sacrificed a little square footage to put some more space between the houses.

I don't think I've ever seen a mirrored garage before. I guess you include that in the duties of the house cleaner that comes every couple of weeks.





https://www.blogto.com/real-estate-t...llbank-avenue/

[SignalHillHiker]

Everybody sitting down?



They turned their bungalow into a tilt

[HomeInMyShoes]

Originally Posted by SignalHillHiker

Everybody sitting down?



They turned their bungalow into a tilt

So where is this one?

[SignalHillHiker]

Originally Posted by HomeInMyShoes

So where is this one?

https://www.google.com/maps/@47.4022...7i13312!8i6656

[O-tacular]

The new entrance to Ches’ diner?

[O-tacular]

Streetview hasn’t updated yet but one of these homes now has a pepto bismol pink paintjob covering most of the first floor including the front door. It was one of the red or brown houses in this row. The combination with the original colours that still remain was nausea inducing.

https://goo.gl/maps/EvN8sUMMJZz3X3HU6

Edit: I think it was 284. The darker trim on either side of the garage was a different shade of pink.

[SignalHillHiker]

That street is like the alley in a self-storage complex, but for people.

[MonkeyRonin]

I'm not sure if I'd categorize this moreso under "ugly" or "impressive", but I was exploring Sudbury on google maps today...and while I was familiar with its reputation for bleak industrial moonscapes, I wasn't quite prepared for this:




Kind of reminds me of a toned-down version of Kryvyi Rih in Ukraine:





The neighbourhood in the foreground - Sudbury's Little Italy - actually looks kind of interesting though. It's certainly a unique typology for this part of the world at least - reminds me of an industrial Appalachian town:
https://goo.gl/maps/DvBFmSDtqtfdj3qb8
https://goo.gl/maps/8msCB5xSYUfKi6a69
https://goo.gl/maps/r3RCAWRoCUbDmEZU7

A couple other scenes I liked in Sudbury - also very Appalachian:
https://goo.gl/maps/FinR1Xtov8HMcw9s5
https://goo.gl/maps/YUpiH3k763czMbiS6
https://goo.gl/maps/r6nuFfCRhgwJzYJR6

Except for this house straight out of the Sonora:
https://goo.gl/maps/4AF7cJSwA9E4bByQ9

[thewave46]

Originally Posted by MonkeyRonin

I'm not sure if I'd categorize this moreso under "ugly" or "impressive", but I was exploring Sudbury on google maps today...and while I was familiar with its reputation for bleak industrial moonscapes, I wasn't quite prepared for this:

The neighbourhood in the foreground - Sudbury's Little Italy - actually looks kind of interesting though. It's certainly a unique typology for this part of the world at least - reminds me of an industrial Appalachian town:
https://goo.gl/maps/DvBFmSDtqtfdj3qb8
https://goo.gl/maps/8msCB5xSYUfKi6a69
https://goo.gl/maps/r3RCAWRoCUbDmEZU7

A couple other scenes I liked in Sudbury - also very Appalachian:
https://goo.gl/maps/FinR1Xtov8HMcw9s5
https://goo.gl/maps/YUpiH3k763czMbiS6
https://goo.gl/maps/r6nuFfCRhgwJzYJR6

Except for this house straight out of the Sonora:
https://goo.gl/maps/4AF7cJSwA9E4bByQ9

Ah, my hometown.

It's pretty rare to see mining cities of this scale outside of Russia. Maybe China.

It's an eclectic mix of:
- heavy industry randomly spread about (mines, smelters, the ancillary industries that support them)
- 1910-40s company homes near that industry
- a downtown that acted as a former shopping hub rapidly becoming a corpse that had atrocious 1970s/1980s 'redevelopment' foisted on it
- 1950s-1990s suburbs randomly distributed about
- 1970s Commie Blocks (how fitting)
- modern awful on blasted off mountaintops (see Corsi Hill), and
- seemingly randomly constructed structures on whatever would work prior to any concept of zoning.

It has its areas of charm. Places where one sort of forgets one is in Sudbury. There are neighbourhoods between Ramsey Lake and the rail yards of downtown that are quite lovely.

The extended suburbs are a dog's breakfast of former company towns with blob-like suburban appendages, or former farming communities speckled with plastic-fantastic vinyl suburbia.

Other cities have rings of development that represent certain eras. They're more orderly. From the core of Victorian homes and density to the exurbs of modernity. Sudbury's anti-order. It isn't boring, I suppose.

[O-tacular]

Bonus points for the creepy doll legs sticking out of the trash bin.

https://www.google.com/maps/@50.9849...7i13312!8i6656

The front is almost worse.

https://www.google.com/maps/@50.9847...7i13312!8i6656

This is an area of Ogden which was incorporated into the city and used to be a town. There are charming parts of it that still feel like a town. Overall it is known to be a pretty rough area though with a history of biker clubhouses and crime. This section in particular is quite sad though. Across the berm with the train tracks is a heavy industrial area. The future Greenline LRT is set to pass behind these homes. Hopefully it helps the area.

[O-tacular]

Originally Posted by thewave46

Ah, my hometown.

It's pretty rare to see mining cities of this scale outside of the Russia. Maybe China.

It's an eclectic mix of:
- heavy industry randomly spread about (mines, smelters, the ancillary industries that support them)
- 1910-40s company homes near that industry
- a downtown that acted as a former shopping hub rapidly becoming a corpse that had atrocious 1970s/1980s 'redevelopment' foisted on it
- 1950s-1990s suburbs randomly distributed about
- 1970s Commie Blocks (how fitting)
- modern awful on blasted off mountaintops (see Corsi Hill), and
- seemingly randomly constructed structures on whatever would work prior to any concept of zoning.

It has its areas of charm. Places where one sort of forgets one is in Sudbury. There are neighbourhoods between Ramsey Lake and the rail yards of downtown that are quite lovely.

The extended suburbs are a dog's breakfast of former company towns with blob-like suburban appendages, or former farming communities speckled with plastic-fantastic vinyl suburbia.

Other cities have rings of development that represent certain eras. They're more orderly. From the core of Victorian homes and density to the exurbs of modernity. Sudbury's anti-order. It isn't boring, I suppose.

Interesting. It does remind me of a Russian mining colony. Isn't that smokestack the tallest of some kind? What is the official height?

[thewave46]

Originally Posted by O-tacular

Interesting. It does remind me of a Russian mining colony. Isn't that smokestack the tallest of some kind? What is the official height?

The Superstack

381m/1,250ft.

Not long for this world, alas. It is now disused as a smaller and much more efficient stack has replaced it and it is slated to be demolished at some point.

There would be fun 'sulfur days' in the past where an atmospheric inversion would push the SO2 down onto the city. A lovely yellow haze would descend on the city, burning the lungs.

It has been awhile since it has happened. Years? Hooray for modern emissions controls.

[O-tacular]

Originally Posted by thewave46

The Superstack

381m/1,250ft.

Not long for this world, alas. It is now disused as a smaller and much more efficient stack has replaced it and it is slated to be demolished at some point.

There would be fun 'sulfur days' in the past where an atmospheric inversion would push the SO2 down onto the city. A lovely yellow haze would descend on the city, burning the lungs.

It has been awhile since it has happened. Years? Hooray for modern emissions controls.

Thanks for sharing! I was speaking with a client some years ago who runs a logistics company. Previously he used to lay brick building smokestacks in Ontario. Wonder if he worked on this or not.

[Wigs]

Originally Posted by SignalHillHiker

Everybody sitting down?



They turned their bungalow into a tilt

Originally Posted by HomeInMyShoes

So where is this one?

Arkansas?

[O-tacular]

It's funny the wood looks like it was simply chopped from a nearby forest but I thought the Rock had very little trees that can produce usable wood.

[Wigs]

Originally Posted by MonkeyRonin

I'm not sure if I'd categorize this moreso under "ugly" or "impressive", but I was exploring Sudbury on google maps today...and while I was familiar with its reputation for bleak industrial moonscapes, I wasn't quite prepared for this:

I saw Sudbury coming in from the West on the TCH in July 2014.
The day was grey, overcast but with relatively high cloud ceiling.
The Superstack plus the degraded landscape made the area look like a Mordor-esque hellscape

I'm used to derelict industry having watched countless factories close growing up in Niagara, but nothing prepared me for this sight


Comparing Northern Ontario cities:
Downtown Sault Ste Marie also appeared to be in much better shape than downtown Sudbury as well.
I wonder what is different 8 years later.

[thewave46]

Originally Posted by Wigs

I saw Sudbury coming in from the West on the TCH in July 2014.
The day was grey, overcast but with relatively high cloud ceiling.
The Superstack plus the degraded landscape made the area look like a Mordor-esque hellscape

I'm used to derelict industry having watched countless factories close growing up in Niagara, but nothing prepared me for this sight


Comparing Northern Ontario cities:
Downtown Sault Ste Marie also appeared to be in much better shape than downtown Sudbury as well.
I wonder what is different 8 years later.

What is different 8 years later in the North? Not much. Things evolve at a snail's pace up here. Growth is anemic; many cities are in decline. When Sudbury is the 'winner' of growth, but its population increases less than 3% over a 5 year span despite dollops of government cash, it tells a tale.

The Sault's centre was its downtown. Industry was along the riverfront. It grew outwards from that point. So, the downtown was always the natural centre.

Sudbury is multi-nodal - population grew around mines, smelters, and farms. Downtown was a convenient cross-roads and shopping was centred there. When the suburban shopping-plex happened, downtown's goose was cooked.

They bulldozed a bunch of Sudbury's downtown and redeveloped it in the ethos of the 1970s and 1980s. Government offices, some apartment blocks, and a shopping centre in an effort to stem the decline. Might as well have bombed it, for all the good it did. Now we're stuck with a commuter pattern in-and-out and the derelict parts are so massively constructed as to be undevelopable at a human scale.

[ssiguy]

When I was a kid everyone referred to Sudbury as "The Moon".

[Nashe]

Originally Posted by O-tacular

It's funny the wood looks like it was simply chopped from a nearby forest but I thought the Rock had very little trees that can produce usable wood.

To be fair, none of that looks to have a diameter more than 4". And the door is as tall as you could probably find straight timber for in NL.