{"id":477,"date":"2008-01-14T23:41:24","date_gmt":"2008-01-15T03:41:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacingmontreal.ca\/?p=477"},"modified":"2013-01-21T11:59:55","modified_gmt":"2013-01-21T16:59:55","slug":"opening-up-to-the-city-one-buildings-transformation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/2008\/01\/14\/opening-up-to-the-city-one-buildings-transformation\/","title":{"rendered":"Opening up to the city: one building’s transformation"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

There’s nothing inherently special about a downtown building with Starbucks, Quiznos Subs and Zyng Noodlery on its ground floor. In fact, that’s exactly the kind of generic chainscape we’d probably do best to avoid. But look beyond the surface and you’ll see something interesting: a once-hostile steetscape that has been opened up thanks to a simple and profitable renovation. <\/p>\n

Until 2006, Le Chatel<\/a>, a 30-storey apartment tower built in 1967, met the corner of Guy and de Maisonneuve with cold indifference: its ground floor consisted of barren planters and a blank concrete wall. It made no sense in one of the busiest parts of downtown, right across from Guy metro and in the midst of the Concordia campus. After the building was sold to a new owner, though, the ground floor was carved into three retail spaces, and the planter was converted into a large terrace. <\/p>\n

Say what you will about Starbucks, but plenty of people love it, and the location that opened in Le Chatel is no different. It generates a lot of pedestrian traffic, complimenting the activity generated by the metro entrance, school buildings and other high-traffic retail outlets nearby, many of which are open 24 hours. Whenever I walk by in the warm months, the terrace is full of people. Instead of acting as a dead space on a busy corner, Le Chatel contributes to Guy and de Maisonneuve’s constant animation.<\/p>\n

This is the kind of transformation that needs to take place in other parts of Montreal where big buildings, usually built in the 1960s and 70s, meet the street with blank walls. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There’s nothing inherently special about a downtown building with Starbucks, Quiznos Subs and Zyng Noodlery on its ground floor. In fact, that’s exactly the kind of generic chainscape we’d probably do best to avoid. But look beyond the surface and you’ll see something interesting: a once-hostile steetscape that has been opened up thanks to aContinue reading “Opening up to the city: one building’s transformation”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5008,"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":[7839,29,7842,103],"tags":[1579,1694,9,48,1693,125,20,5,1415,453],"class_list":["post-477","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-neighbourhoods","category-streetscape","category-urban-design","category-walking","tag-animation","tag-concordia-campus","tag-development","tag-downtown","tag-high-traffic-retail-outlets","tag-montreal","tag-pedestrian","tag-planning","tag-retail-spaces","tag-starbucks"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nOpening up to the city: one building's transformation - 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\/01\/14\/opening-up-to-the-city-one-buildings-transformation\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Opening up to the city: one building's transformation - Spacing Montreal\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"There’s nothing inherently special about a downtown building with Starbucks, Quiznos Subs and Zyng Noodlery on its ground floor. 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