British architecture and urban design in Canada

[Andy6]

Originally Posted by someone123

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.

All U of T undergraduates are members of a college, although not necessarily one of the prestigious traditional ones. I'm not sure how that works at UTM, which used to be Erindale College when I taught out there. I guess it still counts as a "college" enrollment.

At Manitoba you could be a member of a college but probably only about 30% were, in my time anyway.

[SaskScraper]

Some of the more British looking buildings in Saskatchewan:


Government House, Regina. © Jesse Spector

In Saskatoon, some of the older buildings like schools and even some newer residential homes have some British architecture influence.


https://www.saskatoonpics.com/School...ol/i-6D9c3xG/A
https://www.google.ca/maps/@52.12581...2!8i6656?hl=en


The University of Saskatchewan, home to the largest cluster of Health Science disciplines in Canada, has a whole compliment of buildings that remind me of back in the UK.


http://www.usask.ca/chemistry/groups...ages/page1.htm
https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia....f-saskatchewan


Some other U of S buildings with British form architecture

https://goo.gl/maps/WH7ZzK1FnSmdWdet5

https://goo.gl/maps/QX3sUy4qMSk5UdUQ6

https://www.google.ca/maps/@52.12895...2!8i6656?hl=en



'The Bowl' on U of S campus would make a good Quidditch pitch apparently

https://www.reddit.com/r/saskatoon/c...university_of/

[Andy6]

Originally Posted by Kilgore Trout

It's distinctive and interesting because you don't see it elsewhere, but, setting the novelty factor aside, I don't know how attractive it really is. Clambering up what is essentially a fire escape to your home isn't all that appealing to me. I admit that some of the steep, narrow staircases inside converted bay-and-gable houses in Toronto are probably even more dangerous.

[MonkeyRonin]

Originally Posted by Andy6

It's distinctive and interesting because you don't see it elsewhere, but, setting the novelty factor aside, I don't know how attractive it really is. Clambering up what is essentially a fire escape to your home isn't all that appealing to me. I admit that some of the steep, narrow staircases inside converted bay-and-gable houses in Toronto are probably even more dangerous.

It's near-perfect urban form; with well-built, old masonry buildings offering a functional mix of unit types & sizes. They provide affordable accommodation for a diverse range of users at a comfortable density.

Interior stairs would of course be more logical than the twisting exterior staircases, but they're nonetheless a fun quirk - and really shouldn't be an obstacle for any able-bodied person. And for those that aren't, there's always the ground floor.

[rousseau]

I'm a massive fan of Montreal's triplex neighbourhoods, but those staircases are treacherous, especially in the winter if people aren't meticulous about keeping the snow and ice off of them.

And while the living area undoubtedly would have been cramped for the Catholic families back in the day, these days having a roommate or two is totally cool, from what I can tell. Most of the single-floor units are in the the 1,000-1,200 sq ft range (90-110 sq m). They've always seemed more than spacious to me, from the ones I've been in.

[someone123]

This is kind of a tangent but while we tend to give a lot of attention to these traditional inner-city housing styles, and Montreal does have hundreds of blocks of these triplexes, hasn't modern infill significantly changed the norm in many Canadian cities (most of the ones that have vibrant urban neighbourhoods)? The idea that Montreal is a city of triplexes and Toronto is a city of rowhouses seems a bit outdated when Toronto is full of condo towers.

While the triplex street might be denser than rowhouses or detached houses, it is less dense than modestly dense midrise or highrise condo buildings. And in fact there are mixed areas that might have a block with houses and 1 condo tower that are the same density. People might or might not like a block with houses and gardens and a point tower more than triplex streetwalls; it's a matter of taste I guess.

[Martin Mtl]

Originally Posted by someone123

This is kind of a tangent but while we tend to give a lot of attention to these traditional inner-city housing styles, and Montreal does have hundreds of blocks of these triplexes, hasn't modern infill significantly changed the norm in many Canadian cities (most of the ones that have vibrant urban neighbourhoods)? The idea that Montreal is a city of triplexes and Toronto is a city of rowhouses seems a bit outdated when Toronto is full of condo towers.

Strange observation. How can the reality of Toronto being full of condo towers has any corollary on the reality of Montreal, where no condo towers are being build in the vast triplexes neighborhoods ? There are no condo towers in Le Plateau, Villeray, Mile-end, Rosemont, Hochelagua, Verdun (minus Nun's Island), St-Henri, etc. They can keep building thousand of condo towers in Toronto, that will not make the notion of Montreal being a triplexes city outdated.

[someone123]

Originally Posted by Martin Mtl

Strange observation. How can the reality of Toronto being full of condo towers has any corollary on the reality of Montreal, where no condo towers are being build in the vast triplexes neighborhoods ? There are no condo towers in Le Plateau, Villeray, Mile-end, Rosemont, Hochelagua, Verdun (minus Nun's Island), St-Henri, etc. They can keep building thousand of condo towers in Toronto, that will not make the notion of Montreal being a triplexes city outdated.

I meant the idea that Toronto is a city of rowhouses in the same way that we may think of Montreal as a city of triplexes. I'd guess that the city of Toronto has a lot more people living in highrise towers than in Victorian rowhouses (hence their contribution to density is more important), and most of the foot traffic is along the commercial corridors or downtown. The houses do still take up a significant portion of total land depending on how far out you go.

In Vancouver there are a lot of older areas that had pretty modest building stock originally like Mount Pleasant with its detached wooden houses and mid-century walkups. But infill is changing that overall picture considerably, plus there are entire new inner city areas like Olympic Village which are mostly midrise and then there are highrise residential areas on the downtown peninsula.

[Kilgore Trout]

Here are a few British-ish scenes around Montreal.

Westmount City Hall – like some kind of Tudor Revival country estate


Windsor Station and St. George's Church – a bit Scottish


Redpath Street – feels vaguely like a suburban part of London


Pine Avenue – a bit of Marylebone


Gage Road – again, some generic suburban UK vibes here


Belvedere Road – a real Hampstead feel


Royal Victoria College – feels like this would fit into Bloomsbury

[esquire]

I am hard pressed to think of buildings in Winnipeg that look particularly British.

The ones that come to mind most readily are some university buildings similar to the U of S ones that SaskScraper posted, maybe some Protestant churches, but not a whole lot else. For a city that was steeped in British culture for the first half of its existence, it doesn't really look British in character. I mean, I'm sure there are some decent isolated examples, but not many.

[urbandreamer]

Winnipeg was founded by Scots for the Scots. It reminds me of smaller Scottish cities like Perth. Galt, Ayr, Paris, Elora, Fergus and Guelph also have similar roots and if they'd had Winnipeg's early explosive growth would look like Winnipeg imo. It makes sense that many of Winnipeg's prewar architects and builders would be Scottish and English.

eg: A distant relative - an Englishman - designed a proposal for the Manitoba Legislature building:
https://archiseek.com/2015/1913-desi...dings-winnpeg/

[Andy6]

Winnipeg's iconic architect, John D. Atchison, was out of the Chicago Art Institute and came to Winnipeg in 1905. His buildings, most of which still exist and many of which define the character of downtown Winnipeg and the city's posh residential areas, are listed here.

John H. G. Russell was from Toronto and designed many other buildings in Winnipeg, not quite as many major ones as Atchison though (and Russell's skyscraper, the Childs Building, was (unluckily for his legacy) the only major one that was subsequently demolished).

The growing metropolis of western Canada wasn't really interested in fusty old English-looking buildings.

[urbandreamer]

Atchison and Russell were both Scots/Scots-Irish Presbyterians.