[flar]

McMaster University

​

 

[Mustapha]

Lovely young things and the archetecture is nice too.

 

[Hipster Duck]

You've got a keen eye for the jailbait, there, flar.

just kidding. great set of pictures.

 

[flar]

^^they're all second year and up

What do you guys think of the McMaster Health Sciences building?

Here's a view from above:

scroll to see it---->

 

[taal]

Holy Sh*T WTF is that thing.

nah ... I was just talking about one of the girls ... jk


Anyway I've seen that monster in person before it's gastly beyond belief. The funny part is Uoft has a similar building!! For it's health sciences department (I think). They have a really long building although it doesn't have quite as much concrete ... not sure if anyone knows what I'm talking about.

Anyway I kinda like it person, hard to admit but I do.

I've always thought when it comes to Universities in Ontario you have:
UofT
then many many many steps below
Queens / McMaster

Note the many many steps below is only due to the massive size of Uoft .. I actually think it is the largest if not one of the largest schools in North America ... less *non public* / state schools in America which can be huge.

 

[urbandreamer]

I was in Hamilton this past weekend for an extensive real estate tour of the city; I walked from downtown (a tragedy) to Westdale and McMaster and was astonished at that Hospital/Health Sciences building: I decided it is my favourite building in Ontario! Very impressed!

Overall, Hamilton and especially Westdale (hadn't been there before) was a big surprise. Westdale/McMaster is perhaps the nicest "college town" in Canada. I'm actually contemplating going to the medical school there.

Flar, you beat me to the photos! I was about to post my Hamilton photos--I've got some different angles, I think, so shall get around to posting them here soon....

 

[christiesplits]

As a Mac student myself, I'll give the campus a pass. Its important to note that those ivory tower buildings (actually, only three of them) are about 1/15 of the campus, with most of the buildings constructed from 1960 to 1980.

The campus has its charm, though I wouldn't rank it as high as Toronto, McGill, Queens or Guelph... but its certainly miles ahead of York, Ryerson, Brock and Concordia. The real asset is the neighbouring Cootes Paradise, a wooded area on the eastern-most end of Lake Ontario, which is surprisingly underused by students.

As far as Downtown Hamilton, I don't think I've ever seen so many parking lots/Tim Hortons/tanning salons located in the centre of a city... and I've been to Winnipeg. The only area I've actually enjoyed is James Street North, which has a slowly emerging indy arts scene. I have yet to make it to Locke Street which I heard has charm.

 

[flar]

Mac's campus isn't bad, I like the University of Western Ontario's better. I've always had mixed feelings about the Hospital. I can appreciate what they were trying to acheive, but I also find it ugly and imposing at times, maybe too industrial and scary for a children's hospital (it has a children's hospital now but will be fully converted to a childrens hospital in the next few years).

Here is some background on the McMaster Health Sciences building:

from http://www.aia.org/nwsltr_print.cfm?pagename=aah_jrnl_20051019_change

The McMaster Health Sciences Centre (MHSC) in Hamilton, Ontario, designed in 1972 by Craig, Zeidler, & Strong Architects, commemorates an important moment in hospital design. To keep a step ahead of the rapid changes taking place in medicine, Zeidler created an infinitely flexible space, deliberately designed never to be finished. This utopian vision, a concept of ever-changing architectural form, is demonstrated clearly in MHSC’s design, function, and image as a prototype of the “plug-in machine†modern hospital. While critics rejected the high-tech mechanical image of the hospital, others understood Zeidler’s intentions and appreciated his achievement. Even today, 30 years after the building was completed, its presence is powerful...MHSC, which was designed never to be finished, did not change in accordance with the original vision. The building did not follow its intended master plan, the expansion possibilities were not fulfilled, and the interior redevelopment was limited in scope. In this way, the vision that had intended to create an infinitely flexible and dynamic structure resulted in a static monument. Still, the importance of this project cannot be underestimated. MHSC is now an icon in the history of the modern high-tech hospital. Its bold design, which continues to raise many tough questions, denies any compromise in the expression of its utopian concept. It has stimulated the transition toward the postmodern hospital.

urbandreamer: sorry, I knew I should have posted my set of fall photos instead of the Mac tour this week, but I look forward to seeing your shots. If you had walked the same distance but went south of downtown and headed east, that's where all the real estate surprises are. You would have first encountered a large neighbourhood of mansions, followed by a very old neighbourhood mixed with apartments and rowhouses, then a neighbourhood of stately middle class Victorian semi detached, another neigbhourhood of Edwardian mansions, a middle density area of older homes and old 3 storey apartments around Gage Park, then a tudor revival neighbourhood like Westdale but not as nice.

mjl08: Locke St. South is nice. I think most Mac students live their entire university lives in Westdale and West Hamilton with occasional journeys to Hess Village. Downtown Dundas is also nice, but has more to offer the senior citizen than the student.

 

[urbandreamer]

Flar: Neighbourhoods I explored: Locke St, King St, James St N, (most of downtown--gorgeous buildings, a shame about all the parking lots, abandoned shops, etc; overall, Hamilton's downtown was clearly designed to be a beautiful place, unlike say Toronto's....), Westdale, McMaster; then I hopped on that 51 bus and took it to Gage Park, and explored the residential neighbourhood there--reminds me of Cabbagetown.

I will be back soon to explore more! The housing stock is amazing, imho.

Locke St/Aberdeen is very nice, and here's what I decided the major streets/areas are like:

Locke St==downtown Guelph.

Westdale==uptown Waterloo meets West Broadway/University town (UBC)

Downtown==downtown Kitchener meets DES (Vancouver) meets downtown Montreal (c.1995)

Eastside==old Toronto--aka, Cabbagetown and Jarvis St, old town Toronto c.1940.

Mjl08: get your ass to Locke St asap! It's very nice, in a yuppie sort of way. (It's one of the best yuppie streets/neighbourhoods in all of Canada!)

 

[jswag]

Nice photos Flar. McMaster seems to have a nice variety of architectural styles, and certainly seems to have experimented a bit more than other universities. I for one have grown to appreciate some of the architecture from the 60s and 70s-- there's a lot of it at UWaterloo where I attend. The Math building is similarly powerful to the McMaster hospital (both of which I have grown to appreciate).

 

[adma]

Nice photos Flar. McMaster seems to have a nice variety of architectural styles, and certainly seems to have experimented a bit more than other universities.

I'm not sure; beyond the Health Sciences Centre, a lot of what McMaster built seems either conservative or a fussy/lighthearted sort of "experimentation".

In a way, the entire high concept of York U is more "experimental" (to a fault, arguably) than what non-Zeidler McMaster was doing at the same time...

 

[christiesplits]

The new glass-panelled Engineering building is near completion. Think industrial park meets Diamond & Schmidt, definitely an improvement on the termporary bunker that once graced the spot.

 

[taal]

I used to visit Hamilton all the time, it's really nice place. But I don't quite share your feelings about the different neighborhoods:

Particularly downtown. For a city of it's size and compared to our American neighbors I for one like downtown very much. They're shops things to do and surprisingly enough that's very rare in most NA cities except for the biggest ones (less Canada of course where that isn't so much the case). Beautiful though? Not to me. They have a nice collection of older building but I've never really liked downtown compared to other Canadian cities (yes, taking into mind that it's far from it's peek now) but still I find it's the rest of Hamilton that makes it stand out. Hamilton has a ton and had a ton of things it needs to improve about it's downtown - notice the past tense as well. Moreover I've always found it to be a mishmash and far from beautiful. Anyway, I still visit Hamilton every once in a while and again what I really like is what's off the beaten trail and what these pictures are showing the rest of us who haven't had a chance to experience them.

Flar: Neighbourhoods I explored: Locke St, King St, James St N, (most of downtown--gorgeous buildings, a shame about all the parking lots, abandoned shops, etc; overall, Hamilton's downtown was clearly designed to be a beautiful place, unlike say Toronto's....), Westdale, McMaster; then I hopped on that 51 bus and took it to Gage Park, and explored the residential neighbourhood there--reminds me of Cabbagetown.

I will be back soon to explore more! The housing stock is amazing, imho.

Locke St/Aberdeen is very nice, and here's what I decided the major streets/areas are like:

Locke St==downtown Guelph.

Westdale==uptown Waterloo meets West Broadway/University town (UBC)

Downtown==downtown Kitchener meets DES (Vancouver) meets downtown Montreal (c.1995)

Eastside==old Toronto--aka, Cabbagetown and Jarvis St, old town Toronto c.1940.

Mjl08: get your ass to Locke St asap! It's very nice, in a yuppie sort of way. (It's one of the best yuppie streets/neighbourhoods in all of Canada!)

 

[flar]

^^most of downtown Hamilton was demolished. There are several "superblocks" that are the product of urban renewal from the 50s to 80s. (eg: Jackson Square/Eaton Centre, City Hall block, Convention Centre/Hamilton Place/AGH, York Blvd). There is also a huge area of parking lots between King William and Hughson--enough space there to build another city. I don't know why all that was demolished.

Urbandreamer is probably talking about King St. and Gore Park, which is a beautifully designed urban space that is unfortunately being used as a bus terminal. Fortunately, that is set to end in two years and the south leg of King St will be pedestrianized.

(btw urbandreamer, I'm glad to see you got around to more areas than I thought)




EDIT:
The Hamilton Series so far:

Part I: Twilight of the Industrial Age
Part II: The Splendour of Durand
Part III: Jamesville
Part IV: The Infamous Barton Street
Part V: Locke St. South and Kirkendall
Part VI: Westdale
Part VII: The Delta
Part VIII: The Textile District
Part IX: Mountain and Skyline
Part X: Inner City
Part XI: Industry
Part XII: Where Dundas St. used to go
Part XIII: A Victorian Neighbourhood
Part XIV: Stoney Creek
Part XV: Hess Village
Part XVI: Corktown
Part XVII: Concession Street
Part XVIII: Ancaster
Part XIX: St. Clair Heritage Conservation District
Part XX: Inner City Vernacular Housing
Part XXI: Downtown
Part XXII: Along the Mountain Brow
Part XXIII: Lost Stone Heritage
Part XXIV: The North End
Part XXV: The Bayfront
Part XXVI: Strathcona
Part XXVII: Beach
Part XXVIII: McMaster University

 

[Observer Walt]

Flar obviously has a deep appreciation of Hamilton (my home town) and has documented it in detail. I appreciate his varius threads.

Hamilton has many very attractive neighbourhoods. It is unfortunate that the two main images it presents to outsiders (the steel mills, visible from the Skyway, and the downtown core) are its least attractive sides.

Downtown was a very attractive place during the 50s and 60s, by all accounts. Office workers inhabited it during the day, and "housewives" would go down to Eaton's and nearby stores, and spend the day shopping. By night, there were restaurants and movie theatres. Then the heart got ripped out of it, as Flar points out, thanks to misguided projects including Jackson Square, the Eaton Centre, etc. Gore Park, a magnificent public space, is still attractive, but less than it could be. I would suggest that this is less because it is a bus interchange point and more because it is "home" to so many homeless, addicts, etc.

Move away from the downtown core, as Urbandreamer did, in almost any direction including, recently, north up James Street to the waterfront. The charm of various "hidden" neighbourhoods may be surprising, as Flar continues to show us.