{"id":5246,"date":"2010-01-10T21:20:20","date_gmt":"2010-01-11T02:20:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacingmontreal.ca\/?p=5246"},"modified":"2013-01-21T11:22:27","modified_gmt":"2013-01-21T16:22:27","slug":"a-view-from-plaza-saint-hubert","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/2010\/01\/10\/a-view-from-plaza-saint-hubert\/","title":{"rendered":"A view from Plaza Saint Hubert"},"content":{"rendered":"

It maybe a little late, but happy New Year folks.<\/p>\n

To me, the new year brings a new job, a new office on St-Hubert up near St-Zotique and, by extension, a whole new neighbourhood to explore. The view from our office window is cleanly cut in half: from the top we can see the bare branches of trees and the mixed use commercial-residential building across the street. The bottom half is metal trellis coated with a thick blur of snow on glass.<\/p>\n

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

Which naturally got me wondering how the Plaza St-Hubert acquired its distinct glass awning?\u00a0 The story seems to date all the way back to 1959, when the Saint Hubert merchants association wanted to convert the commercial street into the world’s biggest shopping centre<\/a>, spanning 5 blocks. Expropriations were planned to make way for a 750 store shopping centre (currently the plaza has about 390 stores) that would have closed St-Hubert street to traffic and surrounded it with parking lots. The plans boasted “one square foot of parking space for every square foot of selling space.”<\/p>\n

This grand destination was dreamed up to shelter local merchants, mostly independent family-run businesses, from increasing pressure from new shopping malls and chain stores. “Our aim is not a competitive scramble for bigger stores, for super or ultra-modern markets,” said Wilfred Sauv\u00e9, then president of the St-Hubert merchants’ association.<\/p>\n

Then, in 1971, a second plan<\/a> to create a covered pedestrian mall was proposed. But it was turned down by the executive committee<\/a> after the failure of an experimental pedestrian mall on Mount Royal Avenue.<\/a> The Mount Royal mall had been hastily abandoned that April after only 7 months in operation.<\/p>\n

Finally, in 1984, the city and merchants association finally agreed on a more modest sidewalk covering.<\/p>\n

Mark London, then executive director of Heritage Montreal called the canopy a “good piece of high-tech industrial design” but critiqued the uniformity imposed by the glass canopy in a 1985 Gazette article<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Last year there was a rich variety of 300 storefronts and signs set into hundreds of buildings, some brick, some stone, some low, some tall. Now the overall visual effect is of a single uniform, monotonous glass and steel structure 1.2 kilometres long…The buildings themselves are almost impreceptible above the canopies and the structure often lands right on the centre of windows.<\/em><\/p>\n

The result is to obliterate the diversity of shops and buildings wtih a structure that has the friendliness, interest and warmth of Mirabel Airpot. A year ago St. Hubert St. had so much variety it bordered on the garish. But with this new project, the pendulum has swung too far in the direction of uniformity and control.<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

His point is really driven home when you look at old photos of Plaza Saint Hubert before the green glass awning<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Yet when I came to the office was during a snowstorm in December, I distinctly remember stepping under the glass onto a relatively clear sidewalk and thinking: this is architecture that makes sense in Montreal.\u00a0 The Plaza St-Hubert brings together the ideal of Main Street shopping with the harsh realities of our climate; is pedestrian friendly without excluding cars, bikes and buses.<\/p>\n

Despite imposing uniformity at a local scale, the glass awning makes the Plaza distinct within Montreal, creating a unique destination and this in turn seems to help foster diversity of small independent businesses. I find that it also creates a sense of cohesiveness which tempts shoppers to walk the entire length of the plaza.<\/p>\n

I get the impression that the Plaza is hardly loved and seen from the second story window, the project is harder to swallow. Many of the second story apartments and have lost their balconies and views though the Gazette archive has no mention of complaints from local residents.<\/p>\n

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

Made in Montreal<\/a> have a cute video entitled “Plaza St. Hubert – petite histoire du kitch \u00e0 Montr\u00e9al.”\u00a0 I find it interesting is that the president of the St Hubert merchants’ association interviewed in 2009 actually has similar things to say as his counterpart back in 1959: The Plaza aims to be popular but not too trendy or luxurious. At some point the in-scene is fleeting. And the plaza wants staying power.<\/p>\n

<\/embed><\/object><\/p>\n

(Go to the made in Montreal website for a better quality version of the video)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It maybe a little late, but happy New Year folks. To me, the new year brings a new job, a new office on St-Hubert up near St-Zotique and, by extension, a whole new neighbourhood to explore. 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