Rear end of the M9 condo development (phase 1) on rue Prince in the Cité Multimédia.
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14 comments
Ouf!
Personnellement, j’aime pas du tout.
:)
“rue Prince”… see? that wasn’t so hard.
And about the condos… yeah they are not so great. Not because of the colours (Montreal needs some interesting new buildings to save it from the bland-o-rama of the recent completely-flat-alternated-brick trend). Nor because of the fact that they’re condos (we’d prefer to make all property owners live in the suburbs?). But from photos, seen here ( http://citynoise.org/article/8257 ), the setbacks are rather huge. Who approves this stuff?
I haven’t seen this development first hand, but overall, I prefer attempts to at least try and create something contemporary, vs the po-mo/fake-neo-classical stuff I see going up on Sherbrooke and de Maisonneuve Streets.
Nice photo, anyways.
A lot of “colourful” and “bold” designs went up in the 70s but that we can’t look at now without cringing. Oh, and remember those asymetrical hairstyles of the 80s? I bet the designers of this building didn’t live through either era. I, unfortunately, did.
This is just the first phase. The orange facade is actually on the back side of the building and another one will be build on the remaining lot. The front facade has no set back and is build right on the sidewalk.
… I figured out what’s great about it: it’s all diagonals and quadrilaterals, playing off the angles of balconies.
It’s kind of perverse, but I think I like it.
We’re lucky to not have been blighted with blue-green aluminum-and-glass towers like the ones throughout Vancouver and on the lakeshore in Toronto.
newironshapes, What do you mean by your first comment about “rue Prince”?
Eventually, after Phase 2 is built, the orange wall will only be visible to condo dwellers. The actual façade of the building on Prince is actually quite bland (during the day). It’s mostly just a wall of big windows with green trim around them. At night it’s actually pretty neat as the green highlights around the windows are lit up. It’s actually kind of eerie walking down the street at night and seeing it.
“we’d prefer to make all property owners live in the suburbs?”
Yup, after seeing what they’re doing to the cities.
Chris, it’s because you didn’t write Prince Street.
Julie, I haven’t been out to Vancouver in years, but when I did travel more I too was struck by the number of fairly monochrome glass condo towers in the west end. I suppose there’s even more now. I couldn’t decide whether I liked it or not: although I do remember seeing at least one tower with a tree growing on the roof, which I thought was wonderful. I guess the blue-green palette makes sense when you’re surrounded by sea and mountains. I wonder if there was a decision made at the city level to opt for such uniformity in design?
I don’t mind it at all. In fact there is something weirdly retro about it, sort of looks like prefab slum to me, or a quasi upscale, “Balconville” if you will.
Looks like something straight out of Amsterdam…
That building is on the cover the current Canadian Architect magazine. There’s a copious article on it inside,which includes many very nice pics and a rendering of the next phase (including a 20 storey tower that should be quite something if it gets build).
Rear end of the M9 condo development (phase 1) on rue Prince in the Cité Multimédia.
14 comments
Ouf!
Personnellement, j’aime pas du tout.
:)
“rue Prince”… see? that wasn’t so hard.
And about the condos… yeah they are not so great. Not because of the colours (Montreal needs some interesting new buildings to save it from the bland-o-rama of the recent completely-flat-alternated-brick trend). Nor because of the fact that they’re condos (we’d prefer to make all property owners live in the suburbs?). But from photos, seen here ( http://citynoise.org/article/8257 ), the setbacks are rather huge. Who approves this stuff?
I haven’t seen this development first hand, but overall, I prefer attempts to at least try and create something contemporary, vs the po-mo/fake-neo-classical stuff I see going up on Sherbrooke and de Maisonneuve Streets.
Nice photo, anyways.
A lot of “colourful” and “bold” designs went up in the 70s but that we can’t look at now without cringing. Oh, and remember those asymetrical hairstyles of the 80s? I bet the designers of this building didn’t live through either era. I, unfortunately, did.
This is just the first phase. The orange facade is actually on the back side of the building and another one will be build on the remaining lot. The front facade has no set back and is build right on the sidewalk.
… I figured out what’s great about it: it’s all diagonals and quadrilaterals, playing off the angles of balconies.
It’s kind of perverse, but I think I like it.
We’re lucky to not have been blighted with blue-green aluminum-and-glass towers like the ones throughout Vancouver and on the lakeshore in Toronto.
newironshapes, What do you mean by your first comment about “rue Prince”?
Eventually, after Phase 2 is built, the orange wall will only be visible to condo dwellers. The actual façade of the building on Prince is actually quite bland (during the day). It’s mostly just a wall of big windows with green trim around them. At night it’s actually pretty neat as the green highlights around the windows are lit up. It’s actually kind of eerie walking down the street at night and seeing it.
“we’d prefer to make all property owners live in the suburbs?”
Yup, after seeing what they’re doing to the cities.
Chris, it’s because you didn’t write Prince Street.
Julie, I haven’t been out to Vancouver in years, but when I did travel more I too was struck by the number of fairly monochrome glass condo towers in the west end. I suppose there’s even more now. I couldn’t decide whether I liked it or not: although I do remember seeing at least one tower with a tree growing on the roof, which I thought was wonderful. I guess the blue-green palette makes sense when you’re surrounded by sea and mountains. I wonder if there was a decision made at the city level to opt for such uniformity in design?
I don’t mind it at all. In fact there is something weirdly retro about it, sort of looks like prefab slum to me, or a quasi upscale, “Balconville” if you will.
Looks like something straight out of Amsterdam…
That building is on the cover the current Canadian Architect magazine. There’s a copious article on it inside,which includes many very nice pics and a rendering of the next phase (including a 20 storey tower that should be quite something if it gets build).