Your city hall - Page 7

MonkeyRonin · #**121** Posted **Feb 24, 2015, 6:12 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by J.OT13

Impressive for a small town.

Nevermind being impressive for a small town, Cobourg's city hall is easily among the top 10 of cities of any size.

If I had to make a "Top 10 Canadian City Halls" list (who doesn't love lists?), it would include, in no particular order: Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Quebec City, Hamilton, Halifax, Victoria, Cobourg, Sherbrooke, and Kingston, with Belleville a close #11. Surrey and Edmonton get honourable mentions.

Stratford, St. Thomas, Brockville, Carleton Place, North Vancouver, St. Albert - those are impressive "for small towns".

eemy · #**122** Posted **Feb 24, 2015, 7:25 PM**

I'll be honest, I actually kind of like Mississauga's city hall.

TorontoDrew · #**123** Posted **Feb 24, 2015, 7:45 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

here is wisdom. foul as it may be, but quoted for truth.

Sad but the same thing could be said for almost every region across North America. Personally I don't think you can paint every small town with the same brush as many have been able to maintain and improve their main streets while dealing with the impacts that Big Box retailers have burdened their towns with.

Here's Huntsville's Town Hall . Just 2 km away from your typical big box centre.

posted by: www.kim-ogrady.com

CanadianCentaur · #**124** Posted **Feb 24, 2015, 8:39 PM**

Edmonton's city hall, built and opened in 1992

Source: http://www.iangrantphotography.ca/blog/?p=154

What most people don't know is that it has not one, but two glass pyramids on top - the 2nd one is smaller and entirely hidden from view behind the front one.

Thank God they didn't go with the one with four cones on top.

This is the old city hall, built in 1957, before it was demoed in 1989/90.

Source: http://www.fineart.utoronto.ca/canar...city.hall.html

coolcanadian · #**125** Posted **Feb 24, 2015, 11:21 PM**

Toronto's city hall complex, with old and new municipal buildings.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jacklandau/8834356416/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/notorio...an/9290896578/

Amazing detail on Old City Hall

http://www.flickr.com/photos/benroffelsen/9511163335/

Great location

http://www.flickr.com/photos/naibank/11146230925/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/tomms/6416203955/sizes/l

TownGuy · #**126** Posted **Feb 24, 2015, 11:22 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by MonkeyRonin

Nevermind being impressive for a small town, Cobourg's city hall is easily among the top 10 of cities of any size.

If I had to make a "Top 10 Canadian City Halls" list (who doesn't love lists?), it would include, in no particular order: Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Quebec City, Hamilton, Halifax, Victoria, Cobourg, Sherbrooke, and Kingston, with Belleville a close #11. Surrey and Edmonton get honourable mentions.

Stratford, St. Thomas, Brockville, Carleton Place, North Vancouver, St. Albert - those are impressive "for small towns".

It almost saw the wrecking ball in the early 70s

SignalHillHiker · #**127** Posted **Feb 25, 2015, 12:39 AM**

Via Memorial's Archives. Found a pic of our first one:

And some more info about why we didn't have municipal governments until 1888, and even then without mayors, etc.

We were a much bigger deal back then. To compare:

*****

J.OT13 · #**128** Posted **Feb 25, 2015, 12:41 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by hipster duck

^Yeah, I've got to get up to Carleton Place. I only know it as a godawful strip of Tim Hortons and Rona Home Improvement stores along Highway 7, which looks like something straight out of suburban Michigan.

I drove past that suburban box store area multiple times and thought that was all there was to Carleton Place. Then I had to go to the historic core for work/school and was shocked at how awesome it looked.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fischbob

Canada Day, Market Square by Seeing Is, on Flickr

This picture make Saint-John look like a much larger city.

Quote:

Originally Posted by SignalHillHiker

Our logo is pretty bad.

As is Pride:

Ottawa has a similar coat of arms:

St. John's pride logo makes quite a statement...

Quote:

Originally Posted by MonkeyRonin

Nevermind being impressive for a small town, Cobourg's city hall is easily among the top 10 of cities of any size.

If I had to make a "Top 10 Canadian City Halls" list (who doesn't love lists?), it would include, in no particular order: Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Quebec City, Hamilton, Halifax, Victoria, Cobourg, Sherbrooke, and Kingston, with Belleville a close #11. Surrey and Edmonton get honourable mentions.

Stratford, St. Thomas, Brockville, Carleton Place, North Vancouver, St. Albert - those are impressive "for small towns".

OK, so I might have undersold Cobourg's by... a long shot.

I pretty much agree with your other comments on top 10 and impressive "for small towns".

hipster duck · #**129** Posted **Feb 25, 2015, 4:39 AM**

Somewhat interestingly, Vancouver's city hall seems to have been ordered out of the same catalog as Houston's city hall.

Houston and Vancouver. Perhaps the two most dissimilar cities in North America:

Houston

Source

Vancouver

source

lio45 · #**130** Posted **Feb 25, 2015, 5:54 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by hipster duck

Somewhat interestingly, Vancouver's city hall seems to have been ordered out of the same catalog as Houston's city hall.

Houston and Vancouver. Perhaps the two most dissimilar cities in North America:

Toronto's was ordered from the same catalog as Albany's. (But newer and bigger.) And slightly newer still, from the same Romanesque Revival catalog we have Cincinnati's which at first sight looks even more like Toronto's.

I love that style.

(Incidentally, I happen to think TO's new city hall, the one on the logo, also looks great in its own category.)

Houston and Vancouver shared a boom during the same period, and they both needed new, bigger, grander city halls at the same time (with architecture of the era). It makes sense.

Hali87 · #**131** Posted **Feb 25, 2015, 10:33 AM**

Dartmouth's old city hall:

Source

Charlottetown:

Source

SignalHillHiker · #**132** Posted **Feb 25, 2015, 11:29 AM**

That's cool - we even have the same motto as Ottawa, more or less.

Dr Awesomesauce · #**133** Posted **Feb 25, 2015, 11:49 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by SignalHillHiker

What the h*ll is number 9?! That's awesome.

eemy · #**134** Posted **Feb 25, 2015, 12:46 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dr Awesomesauce

What the h*ll is number 9?! That's awesome.

It is apparently now a neighbourhood in Saint John, NB, which is kind of interesting. Saint John is on the list twice in a manner of speaking.

esquire · #**135** Posted **Feb 25, 2015, 2:53 PM**

It's surprisingly hard to find a decent shot of Winnipeg's City Hall on Google Image Search. Here's the best I could do:

Source: Wikipedia

This might have to do with how awkward it is to photograph the complex... the council chamber where all the politicians live is on the left, the administration building is on the right and there's a small courtyard in between.

I do like the midcentury modern design, but I can't help but feel that the layout of two separate buildings was a bit of a bust. The result is a complex that is less than the sum of its parts.

lio45 · #**136** Posted **Feb 25, 2015, 4:33 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by jeremy_haak

It is apparently now a neighbourhood in Saint John, NB, which is kind of interesting. Saint John is on the list twice in a manner of speaking.

I don't know how much population was living right outside Halifax's or Hamilton's city limits in 1881, but there's a chance the top four "CMAs" in Canada then were Montreal, Toronto, Quebec City, Saint John NB.

Nouvellecosse · #**137** Posted **Feb 25, 2015, 4:36 PM**

Well Dartmouth and Bedford were separate towns at the time. I don't recall metro Saint John ever being larger than Greater Halifax

Surrealplaces · #**138** Posted **Feb 25, 2015, 4:46 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

St. Thomas does have a lovely city hall.

stthomas.ca

Kind of reminds me of Calgary's old city hall.

Little City Hall by SLiDegt, on Flickr

lio45 · #**139** Posted **Feb 25, 2015, 4:48 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nouvellecosse

Well Dartmouth and Bedford were separate towns at the time. I don't recall metro Saint John ever being larger than Greater Halifax

Yeah, I had kinda expected that the "sprawl factor" would be comparable for the two (same region, same era).

Saint John just happened to have a satellite town cracking the top ten at that time, Halifax did not.

Did Hamilton have relatively populous satellite cities too? I'd guess... not as much as the two maritimes cities, I suppose that compared to them it was a more dense and compact industrial city with overcrowded working class neighborhoods.

So Saint John was likely in the top five and certainly in the top six.

Still amazing, considering it's what, 30th? today, and falls really below the radar on the national level.

Chorduroy · #**140** Posted **Feb 25, 2015, 5:09 PM**

Regina's old city hall (1965-1976):

Prince Edward Building by daryl_mitchell, on Flickr

And Regina's original city hall (what a shame it's gone):