The Great Canadian Montreal or Chicago quiz

[kool maudit]

Originally Posted by rousseau

I figure no one is going to get #1 wrong. The architecture, the fences in front the yards and the boulevard with grass and trees in the median are all unmistakably Chicago.

I guess you're right, but if you misremember your Dorchesters and Bernards, mix them up a bit... stranger things have happened.

[Kilgore Trout]

I honestly never would have thought to compare Montreal and Chicago, but there's definitely a surprising amount of overlap. Basically the entire west end of Montreal is kind of Chicago-ish.

[Proof Sheet]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

time for a Jacksonville-Toronto quiz (may the greatest skyline win)

Milton or Rigaud
Scarborough or Laval
Wasaga Beach or Old Orchard
or just a random guess the highway commercial hell

[Proof Sheet]

Originally Posted by JHikka

These are neat ideas for threads but, yeah, the license plate, or lack thereof, is a big giveaway. Black bar-ing all of them might resolve it.

The amount of VW's and Nissan's in the images tends to make me think of Montreal. If it was Montreal of the 70's, the presence of a Renault 5 would be a dead giveaway.

[lio45]

Originally Posted by rousseau

I figure no one is going to get #1 wrong. The architecture, the fences in front the yards and the boulevard with grass and trees in the median are all unmistakably Chicago.

#7 is even worse, it is just impossible to not know it's Montreal.

[lio45]

On this one:
http://www.mcgillimmobilier.com/en/c...elec-montreal/

(a.k.a. your pic #2)

you left a very visible "Saint-Patrick St." in the middle of the street.

[Proof Sheet]

Originally Posted by lio45

#7 is even worse, it is just impossible to not know it's Montreal.

The VW and the low roof line Shell were giveaways

[rousseau]

Originally Posted by lio45

#7 is even worse, it is just impossible to not know it's Montreal.

Originally Posted by Proof Sheet

The VW and the low roof line Shell were giveaways

Not to mention the tiny footprint of the gas station. America doesn't do small like that.

Hey, check out these newish triplexes with staircases going up to the second floor in Chicago that I stumbled upon: https://www.google.ca/maps/@41.90369...7i16384!8i8192.

Could the architect be a Montreal fan?

[kool maudit]

Originally Posted by Kilgore Trout

I honestly never would have thought to compare Montreal and Chicago, but there's definitely a surprising amount of overlap. Basically the entire west end of Montreal is kind of Chicago-ish.

I haven never been to Chicago, but my sense it is that it feels very different when you are in it. From photo threads, though, I always saw some similarity in terms of the vernacular architecture,

[begratto]

Originally Posted by rousseau

Not to mention the tiny footprint of the gas station. America doesn't do small like that.

Hey, check out these newish triplexes with staircases going up to the second floor in Chicago that I stumbled upon: https://www.google.ca/maps/@41.90369...7i16384!8i8192.

Could the architect be a Montreal fan?

In Montreal they wouldn't be detached houses though, they'd be row houses. Having a detached house just isn't something important to most Montrealers.

[Kilgore Trout]

Originally Posted by kool maudit

I haven never been to Chicago, but my sense it is that it feels very different when you are in it. From photo threads, though, I always saw some similarity in terms of the vernacular architecture,

Yeah it feels totally different. I have a very limited experience – just a very jetlagged afternoon on a long layover from Hong Kong to Montreal. But walking from Logan Square to Wicker Park, it felt a little more vast, a little more empty, a little less lived-in. It was a bit like walking down Sherbrooke in NDG if you removed half the businesses and tidied everything up.

[niwell]

Originally Posted by Kilgore Trout

Yeah it feels totally different. I have a very limited experience – just a very jetlagged afternoon on a long layover from Hong Kong to Montreal. But walking from Logan Square to Wicker Park, it felt a little more vast, a little more empty, a little less lived-in. It was a bit like walking down Sherbrooke in NDG if you removed half the businesses and tidied everything up.

This is a great description of the differences.

I thought of it more in terms of variance between Toronto, but my main takeaways from my many times in Chicago is that the main streets are a bit... stretched out? Wider building footprints than here, more gaps, more residential interludes. Things are centred around nodes a bit more. Everything looks surprisingly tidy even in the bombed out areas.

Toronto and Montreal seem to have grown in tune with their commercial mainstreets. Here due to streetcar fare return most of all, not sure about Montreal and other Canadian cities. Chicago (and many other American cities) had massive residential growth and the commercial buildings followed over time. Leaving lots of gaps.

[lio45]

From my Chicago visits I'd say that one of the main difference is detached (though very close) vs attached.

This sort of street, in Chicago, would look similar except that from the street, a pedestrian who isn't too obese would be able to walk between the buildings to get to the backyards:

https://www.google.com/maps/@45.4865...7i16384!8i8192

[Kilgore Trout]

That's true, but Toronto is also mostly detached yet feels way more jam-packed than Chicago. My short visit to Chicago was the first and only time I'd been to the Midwest, and it really underscored the whole ethos of the region.

[lio45]

Styles are so similar you could swap them and no one would notice... except in Montreal they touch and in Chicago they (barely) don't touch.

Chicago:
https://www.google.ca/maps/@41.91029...7i16384!8i8192

Montreal:
https://www.google.com/maps/@45.4864...7i16384!8i8192

[niwell]

Yeah, Toronto feels way more condensed in most ways than Chicago. The lot sizes are notably smaller, and it really shows on commercial streets.