British architecture and urban design in Canada

[Proof Sheet]

Originally Posted by Acajack

Oskenonton Lane might be the ugliest residential street in Canada.

They could film Top Boy (Canada) there.

[MolsonExport]

Montreal's outdoor staircases were simply a matter of cost vs. living space. Stairs take up considerable space (more so when they span multiple floors) and in tenement-era Montreal, it was deemed that the space that would otherwise be taken up by stairs could be used for living. This design characteristic became the norm.

Of course, with the climate, it seems shortsighted. Not as bad, perhaps, as the outhouses that were common in the decades prior to the outdoor staircase triplexes.

[MonkeyRonin]

These could also pass:

https://goo.gl/maps/Tu3nPyJd9PApfFgi7
https://goo.gl/maps/fCD4R7cHz9VSnNYv7
https://goo.gl/maps/8QWtbc9BktqF5gnP7


A bit more of an English country influence to these co-ops:

https://goo.gl/maps/drKJBrw2keXXCyXz9
https://goo.gl/maps/xzJKyPzAWTLy7zed7

[niwell]

London's semi-detached rows are immediately different than Toronto's after more than a cursory glance, but I do feel like ours were inspired by the style. Thinking of stuff like this (fairly random streetviews, I don't know London well enough):

https://goo.gl/maps/uYsCL1rXK1bnHtuN8
https://goo.gl/maps/VzyQBKD4vqufkT4QA
https://goo.gl/maps/ZkFZNopEadUdiPzH9
https://goo.gl/maps/SGBGEB65rsGiS3ng9

Toronto's tend to have steeper gables (bay and gable style), I assume for snow concerns and in general have less uniformity. The latter is simply because Toronto had less speculative built housing than most cities at the time so it's rare to have a full block of repeating styles. London houses also seem to remain more true to the original style - fewer additions and questionable siding choices - not sure if this is by policy design or personal choice.

This was alluded to earlier in the thread but I wouldn't be surprised if we actually have proportionately more UK influenced architecture than places like Australia and South Africa. They have the big colonial buildings and high streets, but residential buildings are quite different - they tend to single storey, airy construction styles which I can only assume is due to climate. Looking at streetviews of Sydney they seem to have a surprising amount of modern infill in post-1900 neighbourhoods which does give a bit of an LA vibe. Melbourne's rows seem distinct to me and quite different than what you find in the UK. Cape Town favoured Cape Dutch architecture in wealthier areas well into British rule, and while Johannesburg did have a large stock of Victorian/Edwardian architecture modeled after London of the day it was almost all demolished in the 20s-50s when they went Deco.

When I think of the classic Australian/South African pre-war colonial style house, variations of this are what comes to mind:

https://goo.gl/maps/einVNZrY2HP1nnSw7
https://goo.gl/maps/bUq6nVmksMLG2Mpm8
https://goo.gl/maps/vhpeAiyZSj89D8jdA

[MonkeyRonin]

Lots of Tudor Revival in the Kingsway:

https://goo.gl/maps/ESN8QDbnNroqHh3S8
https://goo.gl/maps/za67BAgFLr6ZUnTP6


Small apartment complex on the other side of town:

https://goo.gl/maps/rqgPfGJ7HB2DXLDCA

[shappy]

Originally Posted by niwell

London's semi-detached rows are immediately different than Toronto's after more than a cursory glance, but I do feel like ours were inspired by the style. Thinking of stuff like this (fairly random streetviews, I don't know London well enough):

https://goo.gl/maps/uYsCL1rXK1bnHtuN8
https://goo.gl/maps/VzyQBKD4vqufkT4QA
https://goo.gl/maps/ZkFZNopEadUdiPzH9
https://goo.gl/maps/SGBGEB65rsGiS3ng9

Toronto's tend to have steeper gables (bay and gable style), I assume for snow concerns and in general have less uniformity. The latter is simply because Toronto had less speculative built housing than most cities at the time so it's rare to have a full block of repeating styles. London houses also seem to remain more true to the original style - fewer additions and questionable siding choices - not sure if this is by policy design or personal choice.

Here's a particularly striking example from London. Very similar! I'm curious when these started going up in London as Toronto's first bay and gables started going up in the early 1870's, I believe.

[kool maudit]

In London tonight, and thought of this thread coming through Chiswick into the Hammersmith flyover...

...until the big blocks kick in approaching Earls Court, its a pudgier Cabbagetown through and through.

[ssiguy]

Vancouver has never had any amount of brick houses but definatly had some very nice English architecture communities and lovely gardens.

Unfortunately they have almost all been razed to the ground to make way for ugly monster houses, with big ugly concrete fences, and the proper feng shui and pulled down many of the trees as they are considered back luck. When it comes to the destruction of our old homes and heritage, Vancouver could give Dresden a run for it's money. Anyone who hasn't been to Vancouver in 30 years would be truly horrified by the wholesale destruction of entire neighbourhoods.

Vancouver has not only willingly sacrificed it's soul but also it's heritage in pursuit of the almighty dollar and what's left is ugly monster suburban homes you find in Brampton dominating our inner city.

[Hali87]

King's College in Halifax is conceptually modeled after Oxford, and the layout of its tiny campus on the edge of (larger and ostensibly "American-style") Dalhousie reflects this (apparently... I've never been to Oxford). Most of the dorms are based around a common UK design of narrow "bays" clustered around a central staircase. Some are clustered together as a block while others are incorporated into other buildings. Most of the buildings on campus are connected by a weird labyrinth of underground tunnels. This is true of the main Dal campus as well, although the two networks don't directly connect. The College is nominally "Anglican" and maintains a neat little chapel on campus, with an interior that looks like an inverted wooden ship.




Source

[theman23]

Originally Posted by ssiguy

Vancouver has never had any amount of brick houses but definatly had some very nice English architecture communities and lovely gardens.

Unfortunately they have almost all been razed to the ground to make way for ugly monster houses, with big ugly concrete fences, and the proper feng shui and pulled down many of the trees as they are considered back luck. When it comes to the destruction of our old homes and heritage, Vancouver could give Dresden a run for it's money. Anyone who hasn't been to Vancouver in 30 years would be truly horrified by the wholesale destruction of entire neighbourhoods.

Vancouver has not only willingly sacrificed it's soul but also it's heritage in pursuit of the almighty dollar and what's left is ugly monster suburban homes you find in Brampton dominating our inner city.

Do people still build monster homes? Most of whats been recently built in Vancouver is pretty decent.

The monster home are fairly ubiquitous and have probably been around long enough to be considered part of the "historic" housing stock in Vancouver now. To be honest, as ugly as they are, I don't find them any less attractive than the gablefront houses or the Vancouver specials they replaced.

[TorontoDrew]

Originally Posted by Hali87

King's College in Halifax is conceptually modeled after Oxford, and the layout of its tiny campus on the edge of (larger and ostensibly "American-style") Dalhousie reflects this (apparently... I've never been to Oxford). Most of the dorms are based around a common UK design of narrow "bays" clustered around a central staircase. Some are clustered together as a block while others are incorporated into other buildings. Most of the buildings on campus are connected by a weird labyrinth of underground tunnels. This is true of the main Dal campus as well, although the two networks don't directly connect. The College is nominally "Anglican" and maintains a neat little chapel on campus, with an interior that looks like an inverted wooden ship.




Source

Nice! The University of Toronto also has the same Oxford feel to it.

DSC_8059 by Boris T, on Flickr

Morning Light by Jack Tome, on Flickr

Chapter House, University of Toronto by Duane Schermerhorn, on Flickr

Toronto: University College, University of Toronto by The City of Toronto, on Flickr

University of Toronto by VV Nincic, on Flickr

Trinity College Chapel at University of Toronto by Tony Chen, on Flickr

Canada 2016 – Toronto – University of Toronto by Michiel, on Flickr

Chapter House, University of Toronto by Duane Schermerhorn, on Flickr

Knox College, University of Toronto by MKImagery (Nashville), on Flickr

University of Toronto Fall 2012 by Ed Van-West Garcia, on Flickr

#DOT18, Daniels Building, University of Toronto, Architecture & Landscaping by Nina B, on Flickr

Victoria University at The University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada by Leo Li, on Flickr

David Bosanquet Gardens, Trinity College, University of Toronto by Marcus Teee, on Flickr

Knox College by Viv Lynch, on Flickr

I could keep going, so many examples on campus but I think you get the point.

[kwoldtimer]

I always thought of Romanesque Revival as being more American than British. Am I mistook?

[hipster duck]

^I think you're right.

In my original post, I meant to say Baroque Revival/Edwardian Baroque.

[TorontoDrew]

Originally Posted by kwoldtimer

I always thought of Romanesque Revival as being more American than British. Am I mistook?

I just did a whole 2 minutes of research. It seems it got it's start in Germany and England around 1630 and continued until 1830. It started the same time in Canada as it did the U.S .

Oxford has more Gothic Revival architecture, I think U of T has a mixture of both. So it's definitely not an American thing. and was employed in the U.K almost 200 years before it became popular in North America.

[someone123]

Originally Posted by Hali87

King's College in Halifax is conceptually modeled after Oxford, and the layout of its tiny campus on the edge of (larger and ostensibly "American-style") Dalhousie reflects this (apparently... I've never been to Oxford).

Dalhousie was originally modeled after the University of Edinburgh. It was founded by the Earl of Dalhousie. Dalhousie is not organized into colleges like Oxford. King's is sort of analogous to an Oxford-style college but doesn't have the same kind of affiliation with Dalhousie. I am not sure about U of T; presumably not every student there belongs to one of the colleges. Dalhousie has some old stone residence buildings but as far as I know they're just a part of the overall residence options and don't have any special admissions requirements or much in the way of special social events or traditions and so on.

You probably already know this if you went to King's but it is in a historical sense a Loyalist offshoot of King's College in NYC which later became Columbia University. Columbia was founded as King's. King's College in Halifax is the oldest English-speaking university in the Commonwealth outside of the UK.

One thing that always bugged me about King's is that they have the quadrangle setup but the middle of it is half parking lot. In older pictures it was partly or mostly lawn. Likewise Dalhousie has a couple large parking lots now that were lawns. The Dal and King's campus areas are full of almost-great spots that are marred by the odd ugly building or poor landscaping choice, although it has gotten a bit better in recent years. King's built an ugly precast library building in the 90's which has aged pretty badly, and I am sure would have looked nicer if built more recently. It was a big mistake for them to not use real stone.

I guess I'd say the main style of the older Dal and King's buildings is sort of Georgian-inspired. There is a sort of folksy local version of Georgian styles that uses rough stones and is quite appealing.


Source

[Kilgore Trout]

Originally Posted by TorontoDrew

Urban and dense they are but I find them to be soulless structures The streetwalls they create look sterile and depressing.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[CivicBlues]

Originally Posted by ssiguy

Vancouver has never had any amount of brick houses but definatly had some very nice English architecture communities and lovely gardens.

Unfortunately they have almost all been razed to the ground to make way for ugly monster houses, with big ugly concrete fences, and the proper feng shui and pulled down many of the trees as they are considered back luck. When it comes to the destruction of our old homes and heritage, Vancouver could give Dresden a run for it's money. Anyone who hasn't been to Vancouver in 30 years would be truly horrified by the wholesale destruction of entire neighbourhoods.

Vancouver has not only willingly sacrificed it's soul but also it's heritage in pursuit of the almighty dollar and what's left is ugly monster suburban homes you find in Brampton dominating our inner city.

I was waiting for your racially tinged histrionics re: Vancouver. Now you're blaming the Chinese (mostly from HK mind you as they pioneered the monster house phenomenon) for turning Vancouver into Dresden. You need mental health check, seriously before you go off on an elderly Asian lady on the Bus. That or a one way ticket out of the Lower Mainland.

[Forumer]

https://i.cbc.ca/1.4028315.148969186...rg-academy.jpg

[kwoldtimer]

Originally Posted by Forumer

https://i.cbc.ca/1.4028315.148969186...rg-academy.jpg

Second Empire. See also Montreal City Hall and Ottawa's Langevin Block (as is was formerly known...).

[dreambrother808]

Originally Posted by CivicBlues

I was waiting for your racially tinged histrionics re: Vancouver. Now you're blaming the Chinese (mostly from HK mind you as they pioneered the monster house phenomenon) for turning Vancouver into Dresden. You need mental health check, seriously before you go off on an elderly Asian lady on the Bus. That or a one way ticket out of the Lower Mainland.

Haha. His post is highly exaggerative. Driving through Shaughnessy, the majority of homes are older stock with McMansions dotted here and there. East Van was already filled with an endless array of hideous Vancouver Specials (which can be weirdly charming), so whatever replaces them is never a step down. Often their replacements are moderately successful attempts at replicating craftsmen-style or occasionally more modern and creative.