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  #41  
Old Posted Oct 3, 2018, 12:59 AM
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I agree with Ottawa city council - the architectural integrity of the Chateau Laurier must be preserved.

In terms of being an icon, the Chateau Laurier is right up there with the Centre Block and the Peace tower on Parliament Hill!!
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  #42  
Old Posted Oct 3, 2018, 2:35 AM
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Yeah the Chateau Laurier is one of the finest looking buildings in not only Ottawa, but the country. The architectural integrity absolutely must be preserved as the previous extension renderings are trash.

Maybe I'm biased because Ottawa is my hometown but its my favourite of the railway hotels. The Royal York and Hotel Vancouver would round out my top 3. Honourable mentions go to the Chateau Frotenac and Hotel Macdonald, they are both timeless designs that are also landmarks in their respective cities.
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  #43  
Old Posted Oct 3, 2018, 4:33 AM
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Those additions cannot get approved, they are awful and I can't understand how that was the best they came up with! Ugh please don't let that happen to a classic building!
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  #44  
Old Posted Oct 3, 2018, 5:06 AM
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I don't like any of the additions to Canada's grand railway hotels. The Royal York was so much better before they added the east wing; wrecking the symmetry of the building in the process.
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  #45  
Old Posted Oct 3, 2018, 6:45 AM
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I actually don't mind Royal York's east wing, it was built relatively similarly to the original (style and materials) and it fits in fairly well, you'd have to look closely to notice the different parts. I also don't mind the asymetry either.
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  #46  
Old Posted Oct 3, 2018, 1:41 PM
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It occurs to me that I have stayed at 8 of these hotels. It might be 9, but I can't recall whether I ever stayed at the Palliser or the Macdonald in Edmonton. The two still on my list for a stay, some day, would be the Empress in Victoria, and the Algonquin in St Andrews by-the-Sea.
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  #47  
Old Posted Oct 3, 2018, 1:47 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by MonctonRad View Post
I agree with Ottawa city council - the architectural integrity of the Chateau Laurier must be preserved.

In terms of being an icon, the Chateau Laurier is right up there with the Centre Block and the Peace tower on Parliament Hill!!
Seconded!

There is a certain fetish in architectural circles to add a modern twist on a classic facade (see: Royal Ontario Museum) and I just don't get it. It's one thing for a new building, but why change something classic? In a sense, keeping with the original theme should be fairly easy for an architect, no?
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  #48  
Old Posted Oct 3, 2018, 1:53 PM
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Originally Posted by wave46 View Post
Seconded!

There is a certain fetish in architectural circles to add a modern twist on a classic facade (see: Royal Ontario Museum) and I just don't get it. It's one thing for a new building, but why change something classic? In a sense, keeping with the original theme should be fairly easy for an architect, no?
Ottawa, in the case of the Chateau Laurier expansion, seems to want to bridge the divide between modern and historical. The end result, I fear, is going to be kitsch.
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  #49  
Old Posted Oct 3, 2018, 2:24 PM
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Has anyone mentioned the Bessborough Hotel in Saskatoon? Originally built for the CNR.


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  #50  
Old Posted Oct 3, 2018, 2:33 PM
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The Prince Edward Hotel in Brandon Manitoba was built by the Great Northern Railroad. Hotel on Victoria Avenue with a train station at the back. I only remember it when it was being torn down. Winnipeg and Brandon lost a lot of architecture in the 70's with the destruction of many gems built in the early part of the 20th century.


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  #51  
Old Posted Oct 3, 2018, 2:56 PM
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Originally Posted by VANRIDERFAN View Post
Has anyone mentioned the Bessborough Hotel in Saskatoon? Originally built for the CNR.


It's almost like a mini-Château Frontenac.
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  #52  
Old Posted Oct 3, 2018, 3:04 PM
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Toronto's first major railway hotel was the Queens Hotel. It was torn down for the Royal York.
1856 - 1927


All images sourced from: https://static.torontopubliclibrary.ca

Front Street 1886


Wrecking 1927 for the Royal York. You can see Union Stations roof at the top right.


1867


Showing plans for one of Toronto's first P.A.T.H connections from the hotel to Union. Still in use today by the Royal York.


1927 the last year it was in operation across from the new Union Station
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  #53  
Old Posted Oct 4, 2018, 3:51 AM
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The windsor hotel is often argued to be the OG railway hotel. Though not built by any of the railway companies, it was built nearby a number of important train stations. It was built in 1878 and extendedn in 1906. A fire ravaged the original building and led to its demolition in the 1950`s. The 1906 annex remains to this day. The CIBC tower stands in place of the original structure.

During it`s prime it was Canada`s biggest (750 rooms in 1906), tallest (both wings 40m in height), most prestigious hotel, was host to presidents, PMs, kings and queens and a plethora of famous personalities. It was also here that the NHL was formed.

It closed in 1981.



With the 1906 annex.

Last edited by Rico Rommheim; Oct 4, 2018 at 4:27 AM.
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  #54  
Old Posted Oct 5, 2018, 3:52 AM
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Montreal`s second railway hotel, but it`s first official one was CP`s Viger station, built in 1898. Viger Station was peculiar in that it was both a train station on the ground floor and a hotel on the upper floors. At roughly 38m tall, it was one of the tallest buildings in Canada at the time. Also peculiar I find is it`s small scale compared to the other Canadian railway hotels. Although the fact that it was built so early and had to compete with a parade of other hotels may explain this.

The Viger was built to rival the Windsor, and as such it was built closer to old montreal (which was essentially downtown then) and closer to the francophone bourgeois neighbourhoods. By 1935 the hotel was closed and never reopened. Two factors explain this: the gradual of shifting of "downtown" from old montreal to ste-catherine street and the 1929 crash.

Designed by Bruce Price, the Viger was the only chateau-esque railway hotel Montreal ever had.





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  #55  
Old Posted Oct 5, 2018, 5:42 AM
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If we are expanding our criteria a bit, sacacomie deserves a mention.
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  #56  
Old Posted Oct 5, 2018, 6:42 AM
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This thread is fascinating actually, this site is normally photo dependent but these stories are really inetersting with all the history on these properties. I wonder if new towers will carry stories through history the way these old ones did
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  #57  
Old Posted Oct 5, 2018, 1:20 PM
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When did the Viger come down?

In some ways, its history is similar to the CP Royal Alexandra in Winnipeg. Both got left behind in the dust as the cities' respective downtowns shifted away in other directions... in Winnipeg's case, away from Main Street and towards Portage Avenue.
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  #58  
Old Posted Oct 5, 2018, 1:26 PM
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Originally Posted by esquire View Post
When did the Viger come down?

.
It never came down, thankfully. It seems to have about as many lives as a cat.

But it's sat abandoned for many years. Though there are finally concrete plans to do something with it. (Work may even have started - I haven't been in that part of Montreal for a while.)
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  #59  
Old Posted Oct 5, 2018, 1:27 PM
p_xavier p_xavier is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by esquire View Post
When did the Viger come down?

In some ways, its history is similar to the CP Royal Alexandra in Winnipeg. Both got left behind in the dust as the cities' respective downtowns shifted away in other directions... in Winnipeg's case, away from Main Street and towards Portage Avenue.
It's not? It's actually being renovated.
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  #60  
Old Posted Oct 5, 2018, 1:28 PM
Mrs Sauga Mrs Sauga is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by esquire View Post
When did the Viger come down?

.
THankfully it never came down

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