What is the iconic style of your city?

[SignalHillHiker]

I'm curious if what locals suggest for their city is different than outside impressions.

For example, when I think of Winnipeg, I think of Tyndall stone. When I think of Vancouver, I think of glass condo highrises. When I think of Montreal, I think of elevated entrances on stone buildings. When I think of Toronto, I think generally of highrises.

What style is most associated with your city? And, if you or others are aware, I'm especially curious to know if it exists elsewhere.

For St. John's, I think the iconic style - both here and among outsiders familiar with the city - is simply colourful clapboard rowhouses. Those can be found just about anywhere in Atlantic Canada and New England, though usually not with the extreme colours of St. John's.





They come in all sorts of shapes and sizes but the most common style is, I suspect, uncommon elsewhere. That would be colourful clapboard rowhouses with curved Mansard roofs. Are those common elsewhere in Atlantic Canada or New England?

[esquire]

You nailed it, SHH. Tyndall stone is definitely iconic in Winnipeg. Many of the significant public buildings in the city incorporate it - the Winnipeg Art Gallery is a prominent example.



It's not as well known as, say, the sandstone in Calgary, the glass in Vancouver or the bright colours in St. John's, but it's still probably one of the most distinctive design elements that you'll see in Winnipeg.

[Ashok]

I would say for Montreal, it's exterior staircases.

[Drybrain]

What strikes me is that there are multiple answers for any city, none wrong.

It's not my city anymore, but in Toronto, the most common answer to those familiar with the city would probably be the bay-and-gable Victorian rowhouses.



But those really occupy a relatively small part of the city—they just happen to be in the most iconic, hip, or tourist-frequented neighbourhoods. Far more common are less-ornamented Edwardian-era brick houses.



And even more common that that are these 1950 cinderblock-looking things, which feel very TO/Southern Ontario to me. Etobicoke and Scarborough are full of them, though these are actually right downtown off Queen West.


All of these styles are typically Toronto, I think, but they're also common vernacular in Ontario in general, and in the overall Great Lakes region into the U.S. (Michigan and the rust-belt American states have lots of similar styles.)

[SignalHillHiker]

LOVE that, Ashok. Love the first two of TO's as well.

BTW, you can do commercial as well, if your city has an iconic version of that.

We don't, really. Just three-floor, red brick. Very basic.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by Drybrain

.)

This style here (seen here in Toronto) is also very common in Ottawa.

[1overcosc]

In Kingston its obviously limestone. It's not as common as it used to be (it just so happens that many of the areas lost to redevelopment tended to be limestone dominated) but its still what defines the city.

[kool maudit]

Originally Posted by Drybrain

montreal has an equivalent to that. these things are in the northern and eastern ends of the city.

italians put fountains in front of them.

[SignalHillHiker]

Oh God, I love it.

We, too, have something similar - just with more poverty and fewer Italians. There are lots of suburbs like this in St. John's:

[Acajack]

For us, it's the maison-allumette" (matchstick house). Built by match and paper mill owners for the employees. The older parts of the city (especially the central part of Hull) are filled with them. There are even some in certain parts of central Ottawa.



http://goo.gl/maps/6cGNc

[harls]

Ottawa has a lot of these gambrel (barn style) roofs.





(from Flar!)


Some of these are in Aylmer, Quebec as well - pics by me.

[SignalHillHiker]

Winnipeg has those as well. They remind me of that farming game on Facebook.

[harls]

Here are some of the matchstick houses Acajack talked about (these are some old pics I took a while ago..)

[kwoldtimer]

I don't think Kitchener has what I would call an iconic style but, traditionally it's all about the brick, whether the building is residential, commercial, industrial, or whatever. For buildings that are pre-1920s, buff (pale yellow) brick is very common. The city was once known for red brick houses with dark green trim (brought over by the German pioneers, supposedly). That specific combination was common up until at least the 1950s but is no longer in style and has become rather rare.







This one was posted in another thread last year by Memph:

[BretttheRiderFan]

The Edmonton style?

70s era strip malls.

[caltrane74]

Toronto is the Glass Box.

[Kitchissippi]

Blame it on MacKenzie-King, almost blandly de rigeur in downtown Ottawa are the shades of sandstone brown and copper oxide green, even the lamp posts are those colours.



City Hall has a green painted carillon tower and green tinted glass:



The brand-new James Flaherty building goes along with this colour scheme

[CanadianCentaur]

Originally Posted by BretttheRiderFan

The Edmonton style?

70s era strip malls.

And stucco.

[Beedok]

Hamilton is commie blocks and Late Victorian/Edwardian housing.

[Trevor3]

We have long low apartment buildings with boldly painted asbestos shingles because they were breifly government owned in the 60s/70s and painted with the cheapest paint available at Home Hardware. American military construction from the 50s is kind of our thing, we also have 50s/60s era American suburban style homes littered throughout town.

Georgia Drive & Florida Loop (4-plexes), Maryland Drive duplexes at top.
100_2501edit

Montana 8-Plex
100_1209

8-Plex & multi-unit buildings
100_2548edit

Duplex & 8-Plex
100_2519

Unfortunately, a lot of the buildings are now being covered with brown or grey vinyl siding which is far more generic and kind of takes away from the look of the town that I grew up in. My building was a pink 4 plex with white trim, the neighbouring building was blue and red, light/dark orange across the street, etc... Now the boldest is that green and red vinyl stuff you see everywhere.

Maybe it's not "iconic" since we have no national reputation as such, but it's one of the things you never forget once you've been here.