Greatest Canadian Brick-and-Mortar Skyscraper Thread

[MonkeyRonin]

That one made me think of the Tower Automotive, which was abandoned for several decades but repurposed into the new Museum of Contemporary Art a couple years ago:



https://www.azuremagazine.com/articl...wcase-for-art/

[ScreamingViking]

More from the Hammer... smaller in scale than others in this thread, but not smaller in local stature.

The Medical Arts building (unfortunate placement of that sign!)

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The Royal Connaught hotel, older wing on the left that opened in 1916 and the newer (1930) on the right that was shown in a previous post. This is now condos with a boring boxy addition to the top of the original half.

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[someone123]

Here is the Acadia Sugar Refinery which was in the North End of Halifax. It was built around the 1880's-1890's and was destroyed in the Halifax Explosion in 1917.


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Another one was the Moirs factory (they started making "Pot of Gold" boxed chocolates in 1928; they started as a bakery in 1816). Torn down for 50's/60's urban renewal.


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[Chadillaccc]

The high-rise survivors of Calgary's booms...

Palliser Hotel - 55 meters - 1914


Downtown by Chadillaccc, on Flickr



Public Building/Arts Commons - 45 meters - 1931


https://perkinswill.com/news/perkins...dian-practice/



Lancaster Building - 40 meters - 1918


https://www.simons.com/en/stores/alb...a27745#slide_0

Late February Adventures by Chadillaccc, on Flickr

Late February Adventures by Chadillaccc, on Flickr


Hollingsworth Building - 35 meters - 1912


Untitled by Chadillaccc, on Flickr



Grain Exchange Building - 30 meters (not quite a high-rise) - 1909 (first elevator in the region)


Untitled by Chadillaccc, on Flickr

Untitled by Chadillaccc, on Flickr



Anderson Apartments - 30 meters (also not quite high-rise) - 1911


May in Calgary by Chadillaccc, on Flickr

[J.OT13]

Ottawa has a respectful amount of 8 to 10 storey brick "skyscrapers" from the early 20th Century, mostly on Sparks and Wellington. I might post them at some point, but not today.

Today, I give you The Hudson condo building, completed around 2010. The developer proposed two slightly taller towers, but the City rejected them asking that he come back with a proposal within the zoning. He came back with a stubby 12 storey building of the same style, but he was not satisfied. He presented a final proposal similar to the first, but with slightly shorter towers that still included a corner parkette/plaza.


https://www.hudsonparkottawa.com/


https://www.mattrichling.com/hudson-...or-sale-ottawa

[ScreamingViking]

Another of Hamilton's Pigott Building, with the neighbouring Sun Life Building. These two were among the first condo conversions in the city.


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[ScreamingViking]

Offending post deleted.

Sorry, I meant to post in the Great Canadian Pedantic Thread and goofed.

[MonkeyRonin]

We're getting pretty liberal with the definition of "skyscraper" there...

[lio45]

^ That's... a 3 story building!!! No offense but: wrong thread.

("Canadian brick-and-mortar 3-story buildings" would take a gazillion pages.)

[lio45]

Amusing how different Chad's view is from mine: he gives the heights, but not the construction dates, while if it were me I'd be giving construction dates, not heights. To each their own

[Chadillaccc]

Limiting it to skyscrapers (100 meters+) limits this thread to three cities. Limiting it to high rises (35 meters+) allows most major cities in the country to show at least one.

[lio45]

Originally Posted by Chadillaccc

Limiting it to skyscrapers (100 meters+) limits this thread to three cities. Limiting it to high rises (35 meters+) allows most major cities in the country to show at least one.

No one has yet set a formal limit for the category, we just know a 3 story building ain't in it.

Your Calgary post was fine and the Palliser is impressive. Would be at home in Manhattan.

[kool maudit]

Originally Posted by Chadillaccc

Hollingsworth Building - 35 meters


Untitled by Chadillaccc, on Flickr

I have always loved this one. An incredibly elegant building.

[someone123]

Originally Posted by lio45

Amusing how different Chad's view is from mine: he gives the heights, but not the construction dates, while if it were me I'd be giving construction dates, not heights. To each their own

The date is significant for how impressive a building was at a given height when built. For example I was thinking of the sugar refinery and it was probably one of the tallest buildings in Canada back in the 1800's (there were many refineries like this and they tended to be built in this way, no doubt for some functional reason). It would have been pretty common in the 1920's and totally unremarkable in the 1960's. The architectural style is reminiscent of a hugely scaled up 1800's brownstone which is distinctive.

(Sadly the bigger historical industrial sites of the Maritimes had a ~100% fatality rate, with maybe 1/4 being destroyed in 1917. There are a bunch of medium sized ones left but that's it as far as I know. You could do an exhaustive tour of the Maritimes and conclude it never had any big factories in the 1910 or earlier.)

[wave46]

Commerce Court North and the Sun Life Building in Montreal are gems.

[someone123]

Originally Posted by kool maudit

I have always loved this one. An incredibly elegant building.

So many of these old buildings have great detailing and they have such good proportions. Often they inspire the emotional reaction of a large and imposing building even though they are not really that big and have human-scaled elements. And then we have the modern 60 storey towers that offer up basically nothing, or modern medium scale infill that looks like a child's drawing of the older buildings.

[Chadillaccc]

Lio has a good point, wasn't thinking about dates, just the high-rise "significance" of the buildings.

I added the dates. Surprisingly even to me all but one are well over a century old!

[shappy]

Here's a more modern one from Toronto built in 1998 "The Morgan" at Spadina and Richmond. Nice texture.

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[GeneralLeeTPHLS]

Here's a "scraper" built in '31 in London as the headquarters of Huron and Erie Savings and Loan.
At 9 stories, it's proportions are a bit awkward and it looks like it's been wiped a bit from some of it's Art deco features.
https://www.google.com/maps/place/TD...!4d-81.2474181

[OldDartmouthMark]

Originally Posted by someone123

Here is the Acadia Sugar Refinery which was in the North End of Halifax. It was built around the 1880's-1890's and was destroyed in the Halifax Explosion in 1917.


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Another pic of the sugar refinery from 1911:



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