The detailing on these balconies of a row of houses in Rosemont immediately caught my attention as I biked by. They’re so simple yet so creative. I have yet to see more of them anywhere else in the city.
Photo du Jour : Optical illusion balconies
By Chris Erb
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4 comments
Those are very nice – I’ve never noticed them on any version of those postwar plexes common in some parts of Rosemont and Villeray.
There is an unusually beautiful balcony – a work of art of an Automatiste or surrealist style – in southwestern Villeray, on Drolet between Jean-Talon and avenue de Castelnau, on the west side of the street (to your left as you cycle up – Drolet is a one-way street north). I bet you can find it between your work and your home.
The little duplex it is part of seems to have been transformed into a single house; probably belongs to an artist.
I know exactly the balcony you’re talking about. It really is quite nice.
That cladding, though. Ouch. The 1960s were cruel.
It’s little things like this that put the lie to the false dichotomy between art and economy that’s sometimes asserted whenever one of us complains about the featurelessness of some slapped-up development. (Comments like “Well, you urban hipster boho types must be swimming in money to want these artsy-fartsy features”, or somesuch.) Creativity need not cost a dime more.