Montreal’s business district is unfortunately quite bland, lacking the canyons and imposing prewar architecture of the financial districts in Boston or New York or the important, money-making bustle of King and Bay in Toronto.
It does, however, have a few inspiring corners. One of them is Belmont St., whose imposing greyness frames a gorgeous vista of the cathedral’s dome at the end of the street. Another is the corner of University and René Lévesque, from which Place Ville Marie rises triumphantly and the view down René Lévesque reveals the Sun Life Building, CIBC Tower and now the Crystal, a surprisingly elegant condo tower.
January 21, 2008
10 comments
That’s a great pic. You’d never guess our business district is as quaint as it actually is. Our pre-war stuff is on St James (St Jacques). I guess, had these towers been built where the the Palais des Congres is, it would have been a very grand business district indeed.
Bah, moi je le trouve pas si pire notre quartier des affaires.
Which building would be the Crystal, on your pic?
The Crystal isn’t in my photos. It’s at the corner of RL and Mountain (hence its full name, Le Crystal de la Montagne). Here’s a nice photo of it taken by a forumer on mtlurb.com:
Montreal’s downtown isn’t the prettiest, it’s true. But it’s not that bad, if you ignore all the parking lots that make it look like we were bombed not that long ago and are still recovering.
Some of my favourite places to apprecite our pas-si-pire business district:
1) The view of the mountain from the esplanade or the top of PVM
2) The parks: Square Dorchester, Philips Square, Square Victoria, the little park on de la Gauchetière behind St. Patrick’s basilica, Place Riopelle
3) The view from Champ de Mars looking towards downtown
4) The Raoul Wallenberg space behind Christ Church cathedral
5)The view of Old Montreal and Place d’Armes from St-Urbain and Viger.
I also get a kick when I help my mother in her community garden at the corner of St. Antoine and Lucien L’Allier… makes me feel like I’m in a developing nation, working ths soil at the foot of skyscrapers.
Tristan, that extends beyond what I was considering to be the business district! I was referring specifically to the office/financial district around René Lévesque and Beaver Hall Hill, not anything beyond that.
I love downtown as a whole; you’re right that it definitely has a lot of gorgeous places.
The Crystal is indeed an excellent building. I hope that many more of the parking lots and empty spaces downtown are filled with buildings of such quality. The light at the top that slowly changes colour that was just turned on the other day is also a nice touch.
Montreal’s CBD is quite decent, and as pointed out above, pre-war architecture would be present if the CBC didn’t move out of old montreal towards dorchester blvd in the 50’s-60’s. This is assuming of course that developers wouldn’t of knocked down everything.
I think walking on McGill street provides a much better sense of a real CBD than on Rene-Levesque, especially now with the development of the new Quebecor building. Add a few more high-rise office buildings and Rene-Levesque will have some serious competition.
As for the current CBD, it seems that Rene-Levesque is too Linear, everything is concentrated on one street. If they built a few tall buildings on empty parking lots north and south of the RL, it would give the CBD that level of density found in other north american cities; which in my opinion, can definitely be done without destroying the atmostphere of sainte-catherine street.
I read an interesting fact about PVM the other day. The developers in the 1960’s secured Alcan to be an anchor tenant (they leased 8 full floors at one point), but in doing so, Alcan negotiated that PVM must have an aluminum exterior. Voila!
Great photo du jour of Place Ville Marie, it’s always been my favorite Montreal landmark after the Royal Victoria Hospital and Habitat 67.
At least it isn’t falling apart like that other Montreal landmark, or should I say eyesore the Stade Olympic.