Great Canadian Skyline Thread II

[J.OT13]

The Connaught never housed the Museum of Nature. The museum was housed in the Victoria Building 2 years prior to the completion of Connaught (1911 vs 1913). Both were designed by the same architect in the same style (Tudor-Gothic)

The Victoria Building, 1.6 km south of Parliament Hill, housed Parliamentary functions between 1916 and 1920 after the Centre Block burned down.

[Chadillaccc]

The Calgary skyline on my birthday...


Birthday Skyline by Chadillaccc, on Flickr

[esquire]

Spectacular view!

And of course, happy birthday mr. chadillaccc!

[Chadillaccc]

Originally Posted by esquire

Spectacular view!

And of course, happy birthday mr. chadillaccc!

Thanks buddy. It was a couple weeks ago, just completely forgot I took it at my buds place.

[WhipperSnapper]

The foreground has lots of potential. I would be sadden to see the facades combined and incorporated into larger tower development as you see in Toronto.

[Kilgore Trout]

My dad worked for years in that little grey strip mall type building on McLeod Trail. I'm astonished to see it's still there. I kind of wish that the new towers around Victoria Park were half as tall but filled twice as many empty/underutilized lots.

[Chadillaccc]

Ugh. I couldn't agree more. The grey stripmall was to be the site of Keynote IV, but that project was cancelled. It is zoned for a significant structure though, so will eventually go forward.

Originally Posted by WhipperSnapper

The foreground has lots of potential. I would be sadden to see the facades combined and incorporated into larger tower development as you see in Toronto.

The CMLC Entertainment and Cultural District plan aims to keep those buildings as is, except for possible renovations into residential or other uses. Some of them are protected. I hope that aim is achieved. There is moooore than enough surface parking in the region to (hopefully) ensure none of those old warehouses are bastardized. In the right mid-ground is Arts Commons (as I'm sure you know WS), is about to be demolished and rebuilt in a super modern structure. The project is fully funded. Done effectively, the empty lots in the area alone (not including Stampede Park), could hold another ~15 to 20,000 people and over a thousand hotel rooms. With the casino, arena, convention centre, museum, national music centre, central library, and performing arts centre all within a 10 to 15 ish minute walk of each other I think the ECD plan has pretty solid legs.

[J.OT13]

Originally Posted by Chadillaccc

Ugh. I couldn't agree more. The grey stripmall was to be the site of Keynote IV, but that project was cancelled. It is zoned for a significant structure though, so will eventually go forward.



The CMLC Entertainment and Cultural District plan aims to keep those buildings as is, except for possible renovations into residential or other uses. Some of them are protected. I hope that aim is achieved. There is moooore than enough surface parking in the region to (hopefully) ensure none of those old warehouses are bastardized.

Good! Preserve heritage areas as is, otherwise you get soul-less heritage facades bolted to a bunch of generic towers. Heritage is more than just bricks; the entire structure has value. Walking in to those old buildings, the smell, the huge wooden beams, the history of the place. You lose all that with facadism.

[J.OT13]

Gatineau (Hull) with Ottawa's Tunney's Pasture area in the background, left.


https://twitter.com/LeDroitca/status...95965637939200

Another shot of Hull from last summer.


https://twitter.com/ASolisMontero/st...77823912669186

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by 🌳🌱🌿🌴🍁

Yeah I especially like that first one, which gives a good perspective of the relationship between different buildings and areas... Ottawa is my native city but I don't know it as well as I would like to – thought the back of that building to the left of the embassy was the Museum of Nature for a moment, but I guess it is the Connaught Bldg. Have been back at various moments but will have to get a better sense next time.

The Connaught is probably the most beautiful, centrally-located, largely unknown building in Ottawa.

[J.OT13]

The Feds exceeded at building beautiful office buildings in the first 50 years more or less (Langevin, Victoria, Connaught, Justice, Confederation). They were all close to Parliament and maintained a similar architectural language, in keeping with the tradition of their American counterpart (unified architecture near the centre of government, but both countries went with very different architectural styles obviously). They continued to build very competent, if a little more austere in the following 50 years (Bank of Canada, new central Post Office, Veterans Affairs, Supreme Court), introducing a new style.

Then it all went to crap (Portage, Chaudiere, L'Esplanade Laurier, C.D. Howe, DND), and lots of decentralization efforts (Tunney's, Confederation Heights). Many new office buildings were basic boxes built by the private sector with the government in mind. Not that they are all terrible buildings, though some are today due to a lack of maintenance, but they are mostly functional and lack any sort of distinction. They did manage some great projects like the Arthur Erickson Bank of Canada expansion.

Over the last few years, it's been hit or miss. The James Flaherty Building is high quality. A newer building on Eddy in Hull is very distinctive with a flat-iron look, but others like the new building on Victoria in Hull is quite boring.

[Chadillaccc]

Originally Posted by J.OT13

Good! Preserve heritage areas as is, otherwise you get soul-less heritage facades bolted to a bunch of generic towers. Heritage is more than just bricks; the entire structure has value. Walking in to those old buildings, the smell, the huge wooden beams, the history of the place. You lose all that with facadism.

Exactly. You just described why I love the restoration of the Simmons Mattress Factory building in the East Village. I didn't even know that was why, but they kept every original beam, most of the original floorboards, and all they did was add a glass, non-structural elevator shaft which actually added rather than detracted from the character, especially in the context of the four new (at the time) businesses that call the building home now. I hope we see more of that with these east Beltline warehouses.

[Echoes]

https://www.instagram.com/p/CKEZxKRraQn/

[905er]

I think Gatineau's skyline is underrated probably b/c it just gets lumped together with Ottawa's table top... but on it's own, it's a pretty decent skyline.

[🌳🌱🌿🌴🍁]

Originally Posted by Echoes

...

Nice Saskatoon shot... A few more angles of WPG from 2–3 years ago:








- my photos

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by 905er

I think Gatineau's skyline is underrated probably b/c it just gets lumped together with Ottawa's table top... but on it's own, it's a pretty decent skyline.

In all modesty (cause I live here), I'd say that's true. And it's going to improve within the next couple of years as well, notably with the addition of a 20-25 storey condo building called Le Viu 2 on Laurier close to the river. Which will create a nearly interrupted "wall" of towers in the view from the river between the Alexandra and Macdonald-Cartier bridges.

There is also a decent wall of towers (though with more gaps) on the other side as well, between the Alexandra and Chaudière bridges.

[zoomer]

Originally Posted by Chadillaccc

The Calgary skyline on my birthday...


Birthday Skyline by Chadillaccc, on Flickr

Love the mood, composition, colours and clarity of this shot Chad, great shot!

A few Instagram skyline pics of Victoria:

https://www.instagram.com/p/CHbEMHWD..._web_copy_link


https://www.instagram.com/p/CJ35ODbjtD4/



https://www.instagram.com/p/CHdxOskj-5r/



https://www.instagram.com/p/CFwBzq5j_o3/



https://www.instagram.com/p/CHeNc7QllMa/



https://www.instagram.com/p/Bu2CrqwhbAp/



https://www.instagram.com/p/CHN0RSDgKdU/



https://www.instagram.com/p/Bvg4u9PhoRC/



https://www.instagram.com/p/CG_fF_5D..._web_copy_link



https://www.instagram.com/p/BnjPV9bD..._web_copy_link



https://www.instagram.com/p/BtxRH7mBn4J/



and finally one of my own from 2019 just for perspective:

October 10 Victoria BC by JohnnyJayEh, on Flickr

[Hali87]

Originally Posted by J.OT13

They continued to build very competent, if a little more austere in the following 50 years (Bank of Canada, new central Post Office, Veterans Affairs, Supreme Court), introducing a new style.

I'd never really noticed the similarity before, but the old Halifax Memorial Library is in that same kind of Ottawa-deco style:


Source

[J.OT13]

Some great Victoria shots? What's with the height restrictions?

[J.OT13]

Originally Posted by Hali87

I'd never really noticed the similarity before, but the old Halifax Memorial Library is in that same kind of Ottawa-deco style:

Source

Ya, reminds me a lot of the National Printing Bureau in Hull and the Bank of Canada.

http://www.capitalmodern.ca/modern/w...inting-bureau/

https://www.bankofcanada.ca/about/bank-head-office/