The North American Moscow

[mousquet]

Originally Posted by Kilgore Trout

Believe me, Montreal has its own versions of this too...

Who doesn't anyway? Frankly, only second-rate cities of minor importance don't have it.

The problem with that type of modern urban planning was dreary conformity taken to a large scale, which most people dislike by nature, thank goodness.
I think it was some kind of fascistic or Marxist ideals that were sadly retained by early modernism.
Like, all in the same apartments of the same buildings in the same streets, with the same cars parked on the same boring parking lot.
You see? Everything the same, so no one's jealous in the end.

It was brutal and sad, and much of it was torn down by now where I am, for most people just hate it, then they'd turned into ghettos.
That's why guys like Le Corbusier are so controversial.
Some call them geniuses, most find them obnoxious.

[Texcitement]

That's a great tag for these photos. Have been to Moscow several times, and thought it was the ugliest city I've ever visited. However, looking at these photos, I swore I was back there.

[muppet]

Great series. I genuinely thought I was looking at Moscow until I started seeing the signs in English. Quite convincing, other than the stranger who actually smiled at another.

[TomOfBoston]

The area around Concordia University's Sir George Williams campus in Montreal has been called Little Moscow due to all the high rise slab apartment houses. But they are cheek and jowel so they don't have the barren wasteland look.

[yaletown_fella]

Originally Posted by Crawford

Bleak. Suburban Toronto is an alien place, from a U.S. perspective.

Most of the area around the "city centre" and major arterials are bleak.
Generally, Mississauga is much nicer once you head south of Dundas. Gordon Wood, Mineola, Port Credit and Lorne Park look like a different world than the area documented in this thread.

[TomOfBoston]

Originally Posted by Kilgore Trout

Believe me, Montreal has its own versions of this too...

- https://goo.gl/maps/1ZJDyTMALbr
- https://goo.gl/maps/cKtKC6TdSZz
- https://goo.gl/maps/twVXXYVDzQ62

True but nowhere as extensive as in the Toronto area.

[cabasse]

zupagrafika totally needs to put out a brutal toronto book, or at least a sheet of models. are there some more unusual blocs in toronto than whats pictured here?

[MonkeyRonin]

Originally Posted by cabasse

zupagrafika totally needs to put out a brutal toronto book, or at least a sheet of models. are there some more unusual blocs in toronto than whats pictured here?

Like these guys?


https://urbantoronto.ca/forum/thread....8967/page-133


Or something like this?

https://goo.gl/maps/RrCSEbG5jBs

[Doug]

Originally Posted by MonkeyRonin

Like these guys?


https://urbantoronto.ca/forum/thread....8967/page-133


Or something like this?

https://goo.gl/maps/RrCSEbG5jBs

Yuck. The Masters in Etobicoke. I lived there in the late 80’s. Dystopian hellhole.

[Shawn]

Nice set Doady, and I'd echo the other comments about keeping your pics composed like this instead of the typical glamor shots. These are waaaay more fun to look at.



This happy lady makes the entire set: take away what appears to be an LV bag, put a more colorful scarf on her head, and you have a nice Muscovite babushka to complete the effect!

[cabasse]

Originally Posted by MonkeyRonin

Like these guys?

https://urbantoronto.ca/forum/thread....8967/page-133

Or something like this?

https://goo.gl/maps/RrCSEbG5jBs

exactly! those would fit right in.

[Doady]

Originally Posted by Shawn

Nice set Doady, and I'd echo the other comments about keeping your pics composed like this instead of the typical glamor shots. These are waaaay more fun to look at.



This happy lady makes the entire set: take away what appears to be an LV bag, put a more colorful scarf on her head, and you have a nice Muscovite babushka to complete the effect!

She was very nice, asking about my camera and my photos, and offering to pose for a shot, which wasn't my idea or plan at all. I use a point and shoot camera to be unobtrusive and avoid attracting stranger's attention but still sometimes they notice and try to pose or wave to the camera or whatever. I tried to make this place look as cold as possible but I can't hide the warmth of the people.

The lady did have a very hard time getting around through the snow and ice, having to carry around her walker, with her limited mobility, and it's not an environment meant for pedestrians to begin with. Even several minutes later, after I made several photos of this building and I found her struggling at a certain spot and I had to provide some assistance. So maybe the environment is even more unfriendly than the photos suggest.

I think xzmattzx's idea of showing the more positive aspects of the environment is not a bad idea. Maybe not "glamour shots" (not really my style), but maybe not "Moscow" either. I am not sure if I will return to this particular neighbourhood for that or go to someplace new.

I think if you guys are skyscraper enthusiasts you might actually find these kind of suburban neighbhourhoods interesting to see. Toronto is different from other urban areas in North America (especially outside of Ontario) because the majority of the high-rises are located in post-war suburbia instead of the pre-war inner city. There are only 1300 high-rises in Old Toronto, York, and East York compared to 1600 high-rises in the suburbs (North York, Scarborough, Etobicoke, Mississauga, etc.). So these suburban high-rise buildings are the most representative of Toronto but they don't get represented in pictures as much.

[ukw]

You can badmouth this scenery all you want, but I would draw your attention to the fact that, as the residential signs attest, "there is no vacancy!"

[Doady]

I have re-edited all photos and also removed some photos and added different photos in their place from that same day. These photos are marked with an asterisk (*). I hope you enjoy these new photos as much as you did the others. I wish I could have kept the photos with the wider views, because there are too many close up shots here, but the photos were out of focus so I had to remove them. I bought a new camera a couple of months ago, so focusing should no longer be an issue. Now that I am no longer using a 15-year-old point-and-shoot camera, you guys will get to see the suburbs of Toronto in more detail than ever before, and hopefully I will be able to satisfy all of the demand.