Canadian skylines of the past

[kool maudit]

no, that was an armoury. the forum is about two kilometres to the west. the building in the photo, actually the whole neighborhood, was sacrificed for the ville-marie expressway.

[Rico Rommheim]

The forum was built in 1924 on the other edge of town. This one was a armoury, gone now, to build a highway in the 60's or 70's.

edit: kool beat me.

[someone123]

This one is low quality, but rare. I can't find a better version online.

1890 bird's eye view of Halifax with inset building illustrations (the common one is 1879 with no buildings):

Source

The built up areas in this map are pretty much the extent of the more interesting parts of the city today. Something else worth noting is just how many factories there were back then; there used to be lots of industry in the Maritimes.

[SignalHillHiker]

Then and Now from Vintage St. John's.

[Bcasey25raptor]

I love this thread, thanks guys.

[isaidso]

Geez, St. John's looked quite nice back then. All the re-developments were far worse than what they replaced.

[SignalHillHiker]

Yeah, we had a very unfortunate run-in with modernity.

There is a former Councillor/Mayor and current Deputy Mayor, Shannie Duff, who has said she still dreams of being wheeled down to Water Street in her old age to see this one brought down (Atlantic Place, by far the most hated building in the city. Its construction is responsible for the rabid anti-development streak in society here):

http://i.imgur.com/j6PAbuw.jpg

Fortunately, we only lost the smallest fraction of our historic buildings. In most of downtown, you can still look in all directions and imagine it's the late 1800s, as far as the buildings are concerned.

[davidivivid]

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?f...count=1&ref=nf

[someone123]

1869 and 2010 skyline photos of Halifax:


Source

[J.OT13]

A fairly significant amount of Halifax historic buildings are still standing. Very Nice.

[Chadillaccc]

A gorgeous shot of Winnipeg's past skyline...



http://www.google.ca/search?q=winnip...ml%3B500%3B312

[MTLskyline]

1961

The Palais de Justice is located where the buildings in the foreground are:


Palais de Justice by La Presse, on Flickr

[MolsonExport]

Back when Montreal was on the cusp of having more skyscrapers of note than almost any city in the world outside the USA.

[kool maudit]

we sort of shit the bed on that one, post-'60s.

[Martin Mtl]

Building skyscrapers is nice, but it ain't a basic formula for great cities, here or anywhere else. What I really hate in that pic is to look at all the historic buildings that were demolished to make way for the horrendous Palais de justice.

[kool maudit]

montreal only really liked skyscrapers between 1955 and '65 anyway; in the deco era, we were quite averse, specifying all manner of height codes. the royal bank and sun life buildings, for all their grandeur, were old-fashioned and hesitant even when they were first built.

[Martin Mtl]

The Royal Bank and Sun Life are neo-classical scrapers build during the art-deco era, so yes, they were old-fashionned even when they were build. Aldred was the modern one of his time.

[MolsonExport]

Aldred is probably my favorite early Canadian skyscraper.

[Martin Mtl]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

Aldred is probably my favorite early Canadian skyscraper.

It's a gem. And the fact that it thrones pretty much alone in that part of Old Montreal gives it a big advantage.

[Chadillaccc]

It is a beauty. Looks like it's straight out of Gotham or something