Molson Hall
McConnell Hall
McGill’s Molson and McConnell Halls are adjacent to each other, and both located above Molson Stadium. To outsiders, such as myself (a McGill alumni who did not live in residence), the world of student halls is a foreign one, belonging to some parallel universe. These particular staircases have always fascinated me.
Sometime during my undergrad studies, I ventured up the residence area north of McGill’s main campus after dinner time. I saw students climbing these stairs, wearing hoodies or jogging pants, perhaps satisfied with their cafeteria meal, pursuing the conversations from dinner table. The image of these stairs (now deserted for the summer?) stuck with me as the mental image of what college life is for out-of-towners.
I was in the area tonight, and snapped these pictures.
4 comments
Gorgeous!
I stayed in a McConnell room once when I was working in another city and looking for an apartment here, and it was poured concrete in every direction. With so many great apartments in Montreal it’s hard to imagine willingly living there.
You missed Gardner Hall at the top of the hill.
Oh Gardner, how i miss your concrete brick, prison style rooms…
The kids do live there willingly!! My son, a freshman last year, found the Soviet era style had its own brand of charm. He seems to feel that the opporunity next year as a second year to live in an apartment was made so much richer an anticipated pleasure as a result of having lived in McConnell!Also, and perhaps seemingly counterintuitive, the living in residences, such as they are, allows the kids to choose their social network, rather than relying strictly on the random chance associations that apartment living in the first year might lead to. As a parent, I became a full convert to the the “Upper Rez” experience by the end of my son’s freshman year at McGill. No doubt, the buildings could use some physical plant improvements, but the experiences had there appear to more than make up for the dilapidated state of the dorms.
I agree with Sonya, but $10,000 for a room and meal package for upper rez is grossly overpriced.