Why is there such ugliness outside Montreal?
Various groups have won prizes for suggesting innovative ways of presenting the access points to our city instead of the existing kilometers of strip malls and concrete, but the Turcot looks like being rebuilt in the spirit of the 1950s despite these exercises. The UNESCO YUL-MTL winners are described here with videos presenting the ideas. Quel Avenir asks readers to suggest their own ideas.
Connected to this, Le Devoir also asks why most modern Quebec architecture is so bad. Frédérique Doyon ends the article with a list of not-so-terrible structures built here in recent years.
The Journal simply looks at the impending calvaire des automobilistes as the Turcot is tweaked and patched to hold up its creaking structure before the reconstruction.
William 18:22 on 2011/11/26 Permalink
In the Le Devoir article, I thought it was interesting that the first architect to be quoted blamed the Americans. How very Canadian of him.
Robert J 22:53 on 2011/11/26 Permalink
The author says the “megacentre” is imported from the States. Our outdoor malls are actually different from most in the States in that we do less strip development and more Brossard-style megacentres with large retailers separated by parking lots. What you see in the states is the same type of stores but strewn along a highway or major artery. I don’t like this idea that everything suburban or otherwise mediocre comes from the USA. All of the Western world has developed their own versions of car culture. It’s not as though Quebec or Canada would be exempt from the phenomenon. It’s also strange to talk about suburban “architecture”. It’s pragmatic construction for the most part, with a certain vernacular charm when its at its best (I kind of like seeing the backlit Place Versailles sign from the 40, for instance). To compare it to urban architecture has the same problems as comparing village architecture to city architecture. I think people often criticize the architecture when they mean to criticize the planning.
qatzelok 09:59 on 2011/11/27 Permalink
It’s a common mistake to call the soulless style/placement of suburbia “American.” But this style/placement is related to no culture – except the culture of money.