The Laurentien Hotel was an affordable downtown hotel built in 1948 and demolished in 1978 after the CPR bought it and ordered it torn down for speculatory purposes. It was the second hotel in Montreal to contain over 1000 room. The hotel was profitable at the time of its demise.
I like it, or should I say, would have liked it. It's very 40s, kind of spartan, but with a hint of grandness.
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Mohkínstsis — 1.6 million people at the Foothills of the Rocky Mountains, 400 high-rises, a 300-metre SE to NW climb, over 1000 kilometres of pathways, with 20% of the urban area as parkland.
The Laurentien Hotel was an affordable downtown hotel built in 1948 and demolished in 1978 after the CPR bought it and ordered it torn down for speculatory purposes. It was the second hotel in Montreal to contain over 1000 room. The hotel was profitable at the time of its demise.
The Laurentien Hotel looks Stalinist. I can barely remember staying there when I was about 5 years old.
It had an interesting form, and was useful in the sense that it offered cheap rates for mostly business travellers right next to Windsor station, central station and a bus terminal. But up close it really didn't look all that great.
The old Newfoundland Hotel in the background, the current one under construction.
TD Place at the intersection of Water and Prescott Streets under construction. This was the period during which an enormous public backlash against modern buildings made us a largely anti-development city.
And a few older ones from before confederation.
This beautiful building is now gone, replaced by a normal office building and now across the street from the hideous brick monstrosity, Atlantic Place:
1950, a few months after joining Canada:
__________________ Note to self: "The plural of anecdote is not evidence."
It had an interesting form, and was useful in the sense that it offered cheap rates for mostly business travellers right next to Windsor station, central station and a bus terminal. But up close it really didn't look all that great.
Interesting... it definitely looked plainer and more austere up close, which is surprising given its prominent location in Canada's most populous city.
I would imagine that this hotel would have taken on a much grander form had it been built either 15 years before or 15 years later, much like how many mid-1990s buildings tend to look pretty drab and cheap compared to the ones from the prosperous mid-1980s or mid-2000s.
Sherbrooke's skyline hasn't changed much since 1889. The church that can be seen on the older picture has been replaced by a larger one and the two red brick buildings have been horizontally expanded, but that's pretty much all. I bet no other city in Canada can rival with that level of status quo...
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