Montage du jour : La Place Bonaventure près de la rue «de l’inspecteur»

11 comments

1. Notice the nice landscaped garden all around the ground level of Place Bonaventure. This is to give a buffer-zone to catch falling debris. Look closely at Place bonaventure and you will se much building-acne, where they have replaced much of the exterior facade material, and they do it by hitting it with a hammer, it if falls of, they put the mold on and put some new concrete in it’s place. Look closely at the facade and you will see hundreds of such repairs.
   I hope that the madness of using (cheap) concrete as an exterior cladding material will stop: concrete doesn’t endure Canadian climate conditions!

2. Well thanks for bursting my bubble! I was so glad to see more green and more windows… :-(

3. That’s not rue de l’Inspecteur, it’s rue de la Gauchetiere.

4. @ Beeg : I know, but take a look at the street sign and you will see that it said : Rue de l’inspecteur.

5. De L’Inspecteur still exists further south at the corner of William street (appropriately it’s where Police station 20 is) but it doesn’t exist anymore at Gauchetiere. Was it simply renammed Mansfield (wich is not exactly a projection of today’s de l’Inspecteur but pretty close) or was it done away entirely? Anybody knows?

6. Aussi laid avant qu’après.

7. Well on a 1942 map that I have, it’s Mansfield above Dorchster and de L’Inspecteur below Dorchester.

8. I was expecting some vicious comments about PB. Quite, honestly, I would have preferred a complex a la PVM or TD Centre to have been built above the CN tracks here for a myriad of reasons…. but PB is an interesting building and especially as a concept. Perhaps it was built in the wrong place on the periphery of downtown and because of its bunker-like appearance it did nothing to expand the CBD and foster street life of any kind. Rather, it blocked and cut off downtown Montreal from the water and those neighborhoods such as Griffintown, Goose Village etc…we are still trying to work around this nightmare of urban planning and design.
   Conceptually, a design centre is not obsolete. The Pacific Design Centre in Los Angeles (West Hollywood) is essentially the same concept (minus the retail mall and hotel) and it is extremely successful. The 3rd and final building -the Red Building- is being built now to accommodate demand. Comparatively though, the design is more human, interesting, and timeless AND it is in a 24 hour, living neighborhood with shops, restos, showrooms, everywhere.

9. The red brick buildings in the distance are at the corner of LaGauchetiere and Beaver Hall Hill. One of those buildings was “Office Equipment Co. Ltd”, occupying the whole building. In 1972 I worked there as a photocopier repairman. I wish I could have a hi-res copy of that photograph.

10. Concernant la rue de l’Inspecteur, elle débutait au nord à partir de La Gauchetière, un peu à l’est de Mansfield, soit vis-à-vis l’entrée de la Gare Centrale. La Place Bonaventure a été bâti en 2 étapes: le bloc principal à la limite de l’ancienne rue de L’Inspecteur. Ensuite, la partie du stationnement et du débarcadère de l’hôtel à l’emplacement de la rue de L’Inspecteur. On peut voir la construction de cette partie sur la photo de 1966 avec les panneaux de protection bleus. La rue Mansfield a été prolongée vers le sud jusqu’à St-Jacques en démolissant quelques édifices. C’est pourquoi l’édifice récent du siège social de Point Zéro est un bâtiment étroit comblant le terrain résiduel longeant la rue Mansfield.

11. One of the early problems of Place Bonaventure was olfactory.

    In the Fifties and early Sixties, as steam locomotives became obsolete, CNR started to use Passenger Diesel Locomotives regularly into and out of Central Station, and, once it was constructed, PB.

    Their Diesel fumes, when idling on trains beneath the complexes would permeate the buildings above, into the concourse of Central Station proper, and the new Place Bonaventure.

    When Central Station was constructed, the plan was to use only electric locomotives within the station, and, of course, as always, thru the Mount Royal Tunnel.

    Steam locomotives to be added/removed at Bridge Street Station across Bridge St from Goose Village, at Turcot East, to the North at Gohier near Vertu and at Val Royal near Cartierville.

    To that end, electric locomotives were acquired by CNR from the National Harbours Board on the waterfront in exchange for steam switch engines.

    These electric locomotives handled most of the passenger train movements in and out of Central Station.

    However, for whatever reason, two Diesel Locomotives managed to collide beneath Central Station towards Grotto and the South entrance of the M R Tunnel in 1946.

    Increasingly, Yard Diesels were used to switch trains in and out of Central Station in the Fifties.

    http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=292309&nseq=0

    There is another Diesel evident just to right of closer locomotive in photo above. 1954.

    The above view looks North towards Central Station where PB would be above the tracks today.

    The CN Headquarters building would later be built to the West/Left.

    The girders of the overpass above St Antoine can be seen beyond the Diesels.

    After Bonaventure Station burned in 1948, CNR Lakeshore commuter service was quickly moved to Central Station, these trains being hauled DIRECTLY out of Central Station by one of the CN’s unique Suburban Tank Engines rather than switching from Electric to Steam as other outbound trains did.

    CN Suburban Tank Engine ready to depart Central Station West to the Lakeshore, 1954.

    http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=292270&nseq=1

    Place Bonaventure would now be above this location.

    Regardless, once road passenger Diesels, and, later, the Turbo, were left idling for any length of time beneath, the whole complex would reek of Diesel exhaust.

    Years ago, as kids, during the boredom of a hot, muggy summer in Monrtreal, we would take the 150 Autobus to Central Station from Terminus Atwater, take the long escalator down from the corner of Dorchester beneath the Queen Elizabeth Hotel, walk South thru the concourse, and out the back, then down L’Inspecteur to a small courtyard and a parking lot.

    There we could gain CNR property at track level, where there was a platform, and we would walk to the South end of that platform overlooking St. Antoine and L’Inspecteur.

    We were not directly visible from the station, and would spend part of the afternoon watching trains, electric locomotives, and light engines roll past, keeping an eye on the time to catch the 5:07 out of Windsor station for Montreal West. 25 Cents Fare.

    Diesels backing into Central Station.

    http://members.shaw.ca/cprclc4/CNRPics/CNR6705.jpg