Most condo projects do have pretentious names. In my neighbourhood, le Sophia, le Sopra… many have references to Paris, New York, or more exotic places. They are hardly going to call it “noisy and polluted stretch of rue Sherbrooke”, are they?
The developers’ names do seem to disappear, fortunately.
That said, it doesn’t look too bad in the photo – there does seem to be an effort to have provided some unity of colour and form with surrounding buildings, and conserved the mature trees. I guess it is early in the season to see whether the landscaping is a success.
this is actually a pretty kickass project, respectful, super nicely executed and adding a lot to the the area.
Okay, the name is over the top.
But seriously, the way the development respects the scale of the buildings around it, the way the architecture follows the slope of the street–it’s one of the most well-executed projects in the city. This photo above is hardly the best angle of the building–the development had to be built around the heritage property on the left–but the corner at De Bullion and St-Norbert fits perfectly into its surroundings.
This is probably as good as it gets. Good materials, respectable architecture.
It’s not bad, somewhat uninspired, but they made quite the effort to keep the mature trees. I actually much prefer the cheaper but nicely designed apartments in the block west on the south side of Nobert.
In terms of pretentiousness, the 333 Sherbrooke almost next door advertises a “European lifestyle” which I have yet to figure out. I doubt they want it to mean incredibly tiny yet atrociously expensive apartments :)
…ouch, your lens makes my eyes hurt. I agree in the scale and the materials, and love the pointy corner, but I still find the end product strangely ho-hum; same goes for 333 Sherbrooke. I much prefer the recycled office building-to-condos at the corner of St-Hubert and Sherbrooke, very pretty indeed.
I presume they mean a “lifestyle” in which residents can walk over to the métro and buses and go to the shops or to a café 5 minutes away – all true at the 333 across the street from Montmartre; that residents who are more than able to own a car will not need to do so. There is a feature on the sale of the largest and most expensive apartment at the 333 in the current edition of mon toit at cyberpresse.ca – it is very, very expensive but also very large, and the smallest apartments at 333 are far from tiny at 800 square feet. http://montoit.cyberpresse.ca/habitation/articles/10365-Un-appartement-de-34-millions-vendu-en-deux-semaines.html
Odd, I think it is clear what they mean by “European lifestyle”, and don’t find it pretentious, by real-estate standards.
In Europe they say strange things about “America” or “Canada” as well. Great empty spaces and all that. I tell them those do exist, but I flee them like the plague.
They did preserve the mature tree and the original building (ormstown brick!) but the anonomous grey-black exterior is too sombre and muted. We need a little pizazz here. Just a little. Sherbrooke around here is getting a bit thick of this kind of building, and it’s boxing in the street with no other redeeming feature (except tax revenue for the ville) and what’s wrong with a little setback from the street? I hate this steep canyon thing going on with much new real estate in mtl.
Anyway, I haven’t checked this project out in person yet this spring, thanks for the spark and exploration destination. I agree with poster(s) above who say it’s a better than average project.
Tristou, just to clarify, those aren’t my photos! Sorry if it looked like I meant to take credit for them! They’re from mtlurb.com, which has a remarkable number of photos for pretty much every project going up in the city.
Nice project. I actually visited it a couple years back before buying somewhere else. I just couldn’t commit, mostly because by the time I showed up, there were only ground floor or 1st floor units left (too low for my taste).
I like that they preserved the heritage house and the corner. They used it as the sales office and then transformed it into a house for sale.
I think European lifestyle, as mentioned already, means proximity to cafés, bars, transportation, etc … It is just a way of glamorising the project. As mentioned above, in Paris, they love saying Cuisine Americaine and stuff like that.
As for the other commercial-turned residential building on Sherbrooke mentioned above, it is TERRIBLE! The exteriors are nice and the project looks good on the surface, but I visited several units, and the layouts are just crazy. Very small bedrooms, incredibly tiny balconies (20 centimeters wide or something like that). The layouts are just non-livable. However, the owner/sales agent is this really cool Egyptian woman. I wish her all the best!
Finally, I hate 333 Sherbrooke. Now THAT is pretentious and way overpriced.
Although I’m very glad that they retained the trees and they seem to have used better than average materials I still think that the overall look is completely uninspired. Especially for such an important street like Sherbrooke.
This development also suffers from two problems that I see on a lot of infill projects in Montreal.
1) The building comes right up against the sidewalk on both streets. This makes it unpleasant to walk past and I’ve seen a number of street sections around town made inhospitable thanks to developers wanting to maximize the use of their (probably expensive) lot.
2) There doesn’t appear to be an entrance facing either of the streets. This cuts the building off from it’s surroundings and ensures that it doesn’t integrate into the neighborhood. Other cities such as San Francisco have made street level entrances on all new buildings mandatory. This building has turned it’s back on the neighborhood that it’s in.
Because of the above I still think this development is a fail. If this is considered to be a “good”developemnt in Montreal, we are in pretty bad shape.
11 comments
What a pretentious name.
Most condo projects do have pretentious names. In my neighbourhood, le Sophia, le Sopra… many have references to Paris, New York, or more exotic places. They are hardly going to call it “noisy and polluted stretch of rue Sherbrooke”, are they?
The developers’ names do seem to disappear, fortunately.
That said, it doesn’t look too bad in the photo – there does seem to be an effort to have provided some unity of colour and form with surrounding buildings, and conserved the mature trees. I guess it is early in the season to see whether the landscaping is a success.
this is actually a pretty kickass project, respectful, super nicely executed and adding a lot to the the area.
Okay, the name is over the top.
But seriously, the way the development respects the scale of the buildings around it, the way the architecture follows the slope of the street–it’s one of the most well-executed projects in the city. This photo above is hardly the best angle of the building–the development had to be built around the heritage property on the left–but the corner at De Bullion and St-Norbert fits perfectly into its surroundings.
http://mtlurb.com/forums/showpost.php?p=35682&postcount=55
This is probably as good as it gets. Good materials, respectable architecture.
It’s not bad, somewhat uninspired, but they made quite the effort to keep the mature trees. I actually much prefer the cheaper but nicely designed apartments in the block west on the south side of Nobert.
In terms of pretentiousness, the 333 Sherbrooke almost next door advertises a “European lifestyle” which I have yet to figure out. I doubt they want it to mean incredibly tiny yet atrociously expensive apartments :)
…ouch, your lens makes my eyes hurt. I agree in the scale and the materials, and love the pointy corner, but I still find the end product strangely ho-hum; same goes for 333 Sherbrooke. I much prefer the recycled office building-to-condos at the corner of St-Hubert and Sherbrooke, very pretty indeed.
I presume they mean a “lifestyle” in which residents can walk over to the métro and buses and go to the shops or to a café 5 minutes away – all true at the 333 across the street from Montmartre; that residents who are more than able to own a car will not need to do so. There is a feature on the sale of the largest and most expensive apartment at the 333 in the current edition of mon toit at cyberpresse.ca – it is very, very expensive but also very large, and the smallest apartments at 333 are far from tiny at 800 square feet. http://montoit.cyberpresse.ca/habitation/articles/10365-Un-appartement-de-34-millions-vendu-en-deux-semaines.html
Odd, I think it is clear what they mean by “European lifestyle”, and don’t find it pretentious, by real-estate standards.
In Europe they say strange things about “America” or “Canada” as well. Great empty spaces and all that. I tell them those do exist, but I flee them like the plague.
They did preserve the mature tree and the original building (ormstown brick!) but the anonomous grey-black exterior is too sombre and muted. We need a little pizazz here. Just a little. Sherbrooke around here is getting a bit thick of this kind of building, and it’s boxing in the street with no other redeeming feature (except tax revenue for the ville) and what’s wrong with a little setback from the street? I hate this steep canyon thing going on with much new real estate in mtl.
Anyway, I haven’t checked this project out in person yet this spring, thanks for the spark and exploration destination. I agree with poster(s) above who say it’s a better than average project.
Tristou, just to clarify, those aren’t my photos! Sorry if it looked like I meant to take credit for them! They’re from mtlurb.com, which has a remarkable number of photos for pretty much every project going up in the city.
Nice project. I actually visited it a couple years back before buying somewhere else. I just couldn’t commit, mostly because by the time I showed up, there were only ground floor or 1st floor units left (too low for my taste).
I like that they preserved the heritage house and the corner. They used it as the sales office and then transformed it into a house for sale.
I think European lifestyle, as mentioned already, means proximity to cafés, bars, transportation, etc … It is just a way of glamorising the project. As mentioned above, in Paris, they love saying Cuisine Americaine and stuff like that.
As for the other commercial-turned residential building on Sherbrooke mentioned above, it is TERRIBLE! The exteriors are nice and the project looks good on the surface, but I visited several units, and the layouts are just crazy. Very small bedrooms, incredibly tiny balconies (20 centimeters wide or something like that). The layouts are just non-livable. However, the owner/sales agent is this really cool Egyptian woman. I wish her all the best!
Finally, I hate 333 Sherbrooke. Now THAT is pretentious and way overpriced.
Although I’m very glad that they retained the trees and they seem to have used better than average materials I still think that the overall look is completely uninspired. Especially for such an important street like Sherbrooke.
This development also suffers from two problems that I see on a lot of infill projects in Montreal.
1) The building comes right up against the sidewalk on both streets. This makes it unpleasant to walk past and I’ve seen a number of street sections around town made inhospitable thanks to developers wanting to maximize the use of their (probably expensive) lot.
2) There doesn’t appear to be an entrance facing either of the streets. This cuts the building off from it’s surroundings and ensures that it doesn’t integrate into the neighborhood. Other cities such as San Francisco have made street level entrances on all new buildings mandatory. This building has turned it’s back on the neighborhood that it’s in.
Because of the above I still think this development is a fail. If this is considered to be a “good”developemnt in Montreal, we are in pretty bad shape.