[simply Dan]

Just back from a quick weekend in Montréal, here are a few snaps from around downtown...

My hotel:

My favourite tower:

New condo:

Tweedle Dee & Tweedle Dum:

RBC:

Urban:

Au revoir!

 

[junctionist]

To be accurate, this isn't modernist:

Still, those are some fine buildings.

 

[taal]

Montreal is amazing but I don't think I like the base of that new condo, doesn't really seem to go well with the rest.

In all my trips to Montreal one thing that I've always liked better about Toronto is that our downtown core (I'm only referring to the finical district) seems more vibrant then theirs ... more people, more activity ... so on. Ah maybe that's just do to density though.

Nice looking hotel, what is it?

 

[jswag]

This looks like a mash-up of the Soho Hotel and Brookfield Place. Anyone?

 

[simply Dan]

Nice looking hotel, what is it?

The Hôtel de l'Institut, 3535 rue Saint-Denis, located between the Latin Quarter and Plateau Mont-Royal, facing Carré St-Louis. Cheap chic!

 

[Skeezix]

My favourite tower:

Sad, though, that they had to lose the Windsor Hotel first before that tower could be built (the newer north wing of the Windsor Hotel is still standing, a portion of which is visible in the photo). The Windsor burned down, rather than being ignominiously demolished, but the loss is still felt.

 

[adma]

Then again, the alibi could be that it was circa 1960, i.e. before the preservation movement went into full gear, and the Windsor wasn't (at the time) necessarily something to really rally on behalf of. It would have been different a decade and a half later, for sure...

 

[Skeezix]

Then again, the alibi could be that it was circa 1960, i.e. before the preservation movement went into full gear, and the Windsor wasn't (at the time) necessarily something to really rally on behalf of. It would have been different a decade and a half later, for sure...

True, had it been demolished in '57 (rather than burning down), that would be the explanation. But the explanation, although very real, doesn't make up for the loss. Many Torontonians still feel pangs of loss for the General Post Office, the Temple Building, etc. The 1950s attitudes towards Victorian architecture, and the lack of an effective preservation movement, don't make us feel any better about it.

 

[adma]

NB: the Temple Building wasn't torn down until 1970.