{"id":1817,"date":"2008-12-27T14:26:56","date_gmt":"2008-12-27T19:26:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacingmontreal.ca\/2008\/12\/27\/indoor-public-spaces\/"},"modified":"2013-01-21T11:49:12","modified_gmt":"2013-01-21T16:49:12","slug":"indoor-public-spaces","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/2008\/12\/27\/indoor-public-spaces\/","title":{"rendered":"Indoor Places"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Montreal seems to contract in the wintertime.\u00a0 The snow, we can handle, but when the bitter cold sets in, and every minute outside is feels like a slap in the face, our experience of the city is reduced almost entirely to its indoor spaces.What public spaces exist for a city in hibernation mode?<\/p>\n<p>Many visitors to the city seem to be impressed (or perhaps only expect to be) by the &#8220;Underground City&#8221;. But I&#8217;ve never met a resident who is particularly enamoured with the sprawling malls and dull hallways connecting downtown office towers with transit. Although I suppose it will save you a few blocks of slip-and-slide in the dead of winter -if you manage to get your bearings in that underground maze &#8211; it hardly strikes me as a quality public space because it is so fundamentally commercial, its halls lined with boutiques and fast food, or advertisements.<\/p>\n<p>So where are some of the best places to escape the elements and the cold, for free, and just <em>be<\/em>? Here are my top picks of the moment &#8211; I&#8217;m sure there are many more, so feel free to add your favourites in the comments.<\/p>\n<p><strong>1. <em>La Grande Biblioth\u00e8que<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/spacing.ca\/network\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2008\/12\/pages-from-voici_votre_grande_bibliotheque.jpg\" title=\"pages-from-voici_votre_grande_bibliotheque.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/spacing.ca\/network\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2008\/12\/pages-from-voici_votre_grande_bibliotheque.jpg\" alt=\"pages-from-voici_votre_grande_bibliotheque.jpg\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Perhaps because I am easily excited by the charged potential of a great book collection, the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.banq.qc.ca\/portal\/dt\/accueil.jsp\"><em>Grande Biblioth\u00e8que<\/em><\/a> seduced me from my first visit.\u00a0 The library has a feel-good design that is both solid and bright, grand and airy, and its collection attracts a diversity of Montrealers from all walks of life. I feel like this institution makes tangible a little piece of this city&#8217;s spirit.<\/p>\n<p>They also house our National (Quebec) Archive, a collection of pretty much everything that was ever written in or about Quebec, or by Quebecers, going back to the days of <em>la Nouvelle France<\/em>. So you can keep exploring the city in all of its historical and fictional incarnations from your armchair.<\/p>\n<p><strong>2. The CCA&#8217;s wireless spot. <\/strong><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/alanahmontreal\/2893226403\/\" title=\"CCA blogger smoozing shindig by alanah.montreal, on Flickr\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3113\/2893226403_067fbfe623.jpg\" width=\"500\" height=\"396\" \/><br \/>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Many readers are surely familiar with the Canadian Centre for Architecture&#8217;s exhibits and vernissage parties. But its a little known secret that the CCA recently set up free, public, wireless Internet in the Shaughnessy house.<\/p>\n<p>Those who show up with a lap-top in town during the museum&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cca.qc.ca\/pages\/Niveau2.asp?page=acces&amp;lang=eng\">opening hours<\/a> are welcome to make themselves at comfy in the bean-bag chairs tables in the historic house. It should be a great space to meet fellow students, bloggers, and people who work from home. A browse through the CCA bookstore&#8217;s collection can also provide plenty of inspiration to those working on architecture, design and urban planning projects.<\/p>\n<p><strong>3. The Redpath Museum <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I have <a href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/2008\/11\/23\/photo-du-jour-redpath-albertasaurus\/\">already blogged<\/a> about this gem located on the McGill campus and free to the public. The museum&#8217;s imposing stone building, polished wood and ornate decoration give it a weighty historical feel, while shabby stuffed animals (including some that are now extinct or endangered), chatty display cards, and well-worn steps lend a comfy, Hogwarts-like appeal. During my bachelor&#8217;s degree, I attended classes in this building and admired plenty of century-old scratchiti on the underside of chairs and tables.<\/p>\n<p>With a collection of natural and cultural wonders, from dinosaur fossils to ancient Egyptian mummies (a cat and a falcon as well as 2 humans), its a great spot to spend an afternoon with a curious kid &#8211; or a curious date for that matter. A commenter on this blog has indicated that the recently-aquired triceratops skull is now on display. The triceratops skull was found in 2006 by McGill Students during a vertebrate paleontology field course in Saskatchewan. Check the museum schedule <a href=\"http:\/\/www.mcgill.ca\/redpath\/visiting\/\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><em>Images: 1. Entrance to the Grande Biblioth\u00e8que from the document &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.banq.qc.ca\/documents\/a_propos_banq\/nos_publications\/nos_publications_a_z\/Voici_votre_Grande_Bibliotheque.pdf\">voici votre grande biblioth\u00e8que<\/a>&#8221; (pdf).\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 2. Mingling in the Shaughnessy house after the CCA&#8217;s blogger round-table discussion, Sept 27 2008. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Montreal seems to contract in the wintertime.\u00a0 The snow, we can handle, but when the bitter cold sets in, and every minute outside is feels like a slap in the face, our experience of the city is reduced almost entirely to its indoor spaces.What public spaces exist for a city in hibernation mode? Many visitors<a href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/2008\/12\/27\/indoor-public-spaces\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"sr-only\">&#8220;Indoor Places&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5022,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7841,102],"tags":[1189,455,1380,125,1660,68,292,3214,28,3193,3357],"class_list":["post-1817","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-services","category-spacing","tag-canadian-centre-for-architecture","tag-food-2","tag-mcgill-campus","tag-montreal","tag-pdf","tag-public-services","tag-quebec","tag-saskatchewan","tag-spacing-montreal","tag-wireless-internet","tag-wireless-spot"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Indoor Places - Spacing Montreal<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/2008\/12\/27\/indoor-public-spaces\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Indoor Places - Spacing Montreal\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Montreal seems to contract in the wintertime.\u00a0 The snow, we can handle, but when the bitter cold sets in, and every minute outside is feels like a slap in the face, our experience of the city is reduced almost entirely to its indoor spaces.What public spaces exist for a city in hibernation mode? 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