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

[niwell]

Originally Posted by Wigs

Have you seen the newer ones? The Brezhnevkas (70s-80s era-typically 7-14 storeys plus) might be decent like older Toronto commieblocks, but it's still a mess of banality.
Stalinkas for the Nomenklatura to me are some of the most interesting

Yekaterinburg, Russia (capital of the Ural region)
4th largest city - look at all dem Commie slabs

I specifically said Soviet as opposed to Russian! Some of the newer apartment blocks over there are pretty hideous from what I can tell. The 1950s stuff is the best (some great examples in Berlin) but even the blocks built under Brezhnev have a certain charm lacking in newer examples. Known some people who've lived in them both pre and post Iron Curtain and had generally positive reviews all things told.

Yekaterinburg looks more like Scarborough on steroids - but instead of new banal glass towers like Scarb the new stuff does kinda look like that KW proposal.

[MonctonRad]

Originally Posted by O-tacular

I had no idea there was a market for literal human shit:

https://nationalpost.com/news/canada...19aef7283/amp/

Yes, as if things couldn't get any worse:

- homelessness, drug epidemic, vagrancy, panhandling, petty theft
- WestJet abandoning service from Moncton to Toronto Pearson
- Dollarama opening up in our fashion mall (CF Champlain).

And, to add insult to injury, we are quite literally importing shit from the US!!!

CBC article:

Maine has a surplus of human waste. It's being shipped to New Brunswick
Company is sending 130 truckloads per month of biosolids across the border
Jacques Poitras · CBC News · Posted: Mar 08, 2023 6:00 AM AST | Last Updated: March 8
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-b...wick-1.6770909


New home for American shit on a farmers field in NB

[MolsonExport]

As Canadians, we have to take a lot of crap from the Americans, but this is too much.

[Wigs]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

As Canadians, we have to take a lot of crap from the Americans, but this is too much.

Yankees are full of shit, and we don't want nor need anymore

[WhipperSnapper]

The billionaire Željko Prica is responsible for the look of Waterloo's skyline.

The urban form is closer to the West End Vancouver than Laval or a Soviet era industrial complex.

[WhipperSnapper]

Hire Matt Damon to grow some potatoes for the American fast food industry. Win. Win.

[Gresto]

Originally Posted by harls

• Video Link

I'll have to save that for future use.

[Wigs]

Originally Posted by WhipperSnapper

The billionaire Željko Prica is responsible for the look of Waterloo's skyline.

The he should at least import some cool stuff from former Yugoslavia
https://www.rferl.org/a/unusual-yugo.../30248286.html

[MonkeyRonin]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

KW is growing like gangbusters. It has a flourishing new economy built on the Internet. It has money.

For some reason, it also has a really ugly collection of highrises. Why is it so hard to get things right? (London isn't much better).

To be fair to KW, I think we need to distinguish between Kitchener and Waterloo. Kitchener has been seeing lots of new development too, but mostly of the type that is fairly typical of average new high-rise condo construction from Toronto to Montreal to Vancouver to Kelowna to Saskatoon. Mostly kind of nondescript, but generally decent. Add in the heritage rehabilitations, LRT, and streetscape improvements and it's actually becoming a more attractive place. 

Waterloo on the other hand builds shitty stuff only. Most (almost all?) of the new development there is geared towards students; which without any oversight, tends to mean the cheapest, ugliest housing stock possible. The sheer volume is kind of impressive (and notable for being one of the few places in North America where low density suburban SFH is open to mid & high-rise redevelopment), but it sure is fuckin' ugly.

That said, I remember visiting Waterloo in the 2000s and it wasn't pretty back then either. It's always just kind of been an ugly place. I guess a university full of engineers doesn't make for an aesthetically inclined populace?

[hipster duck]

Waterloo is so bad it's good! Now that they're forming a skyline of bargain basement EIFS clad towers, it's starting to become a bit of a local vernacular.

I'll say this: it doesn't look like anywhere else in North America for a city of its size.

[Wigs]

Originally Posted by niwell

I specifically said Soviet as opposed to Russian! Some of the newer apartment blocks over there are pretty hideous from what I can tell. The 1950s stuff is the best (some great examples in Berlin) but even the blocks built under Brezhnev have a certain charm lacking in newer examples. Known some people who've lived in them both pre and post Iron Curtain and had generally positive reviews all things told.

Yekaterinburg looks more like Scarborough on steroids - but instead of new banal glass towers like Scarb the new stuff does kinda look like that KW proposal.

My bad, niwell
мои извинения мой хороший человек Николай

[rousseau]

Originally Posted by MonkeyRonin

To be fair to KW, I think we need to distinguish between Kitchener and Waterloo. Kitchener has been seeing lots of new development too, but mostly of the type that is fairly typical of average new high-rise condo construction from Toronto to Montreal to Vancouver to Kelowna to Saskatoon. Mostly kind of nondescript, but generally decent. Add in the heritage rehabilitations, LRT, and streetscape improvements and it's actually becoming a more attractive place. 

Waterloo on the other hand builds shitty stuff only. Most (almost all?) of the new development there is geared towards students; which without any oversight, tends to mean the cheapest, ugliest housing stock possible. The sheer volume is kind of impressive (and notable for being one of the few places in North America where low density suburban SFH is open to mid & high-rise redevelopment), but it sure is fuckin' ugly.

That said, I remember visiting Waterloo in the 2000s and it wasn't pretty back then either. It's always just kind of been an ugly place. I guess a university full of engineers doesn't make for an aesthetically inclined populace?

I enjoy ragging on KW as much as anyone, but you're right. King Street in Kitchener and partway into Waterloo is undergoing a visual renaissance courtesy of the new condos and LRT lining it. It's starting to look very Toronto-esque (if not clear, that's an extremely good thing).

The student ghetto (this isn't actually a term in use anywhere outside Montreal, though) in Waterloo is bleakly Soviet-esque (if not clear, that's an extremely bad thing), but the amazing influx of foreign students is spectacular in terms of the people on the street and the restaurants catering to them. The other day I went to a unique little food court (https://www.google.ca/maps/@43.47702...7i16384!8i8192) consisting of six or seven stall-like vendors next to each other without walls or barriers in between them making food for students congregating in the crowded space next to the windows, and I was the only white person there out of the forty or so working at and patronizing it. Maybe two-thirds of them had non-Canadian accents.

Not something I would have expected to see outside of the GTA ten years ago.

[Wigs]

Originally Posted by rousseau

I enjoy ragging on KW as much as anyone, but you're right. King Street in Kitchener and partway into Waterloo is undergoing a visual renaissance courtesy of the new condos and LRT lining it. It's starting to look very Toronto-esque (if not clear, that's an extremely good thing).

agreed. The King St spine is on the up and up.
Can't wait for ION to connect with Cambridge. any update on that timeline?

[SignalHillHiker]

[905er]

^^^ where the hell is that monstrosity located?.. That is absurdly ugly!!!

[O-tacular]

Originally Posted by SignalHillHiker

SHH’s St. John’s examples these last few pages will go down in the annals of Ugly Canada thread history as some of the worst architectural disasterpieces in existence. That Church conversion is worse than the Rooms. Dear Lord! My eyes are bleeding and my soul is weeping. Why?!?

[SignalHillHiker]

That’s not us. No idea where it is haha.

[GeneralLea]

Originally Posted by Wigs

The he should at least import some cool stuff from former Yugoslavia
https://www.rferl.org/a/unusual-yugo.../30248286.html

I wish I had more time to explore the former Yugoslavia when I was there last time. I have or well, probably by now had family there. There's some beautiful cities and countrysides out there.

[ssiguy]

That church conversion is an abomination!

[megadude]

I love the novelty of that church. I'd love to see that thing in person. Even more so than St. Basil's Cathedral or Notre Dame de Paris.