Siding is a very sensible choice for a building, as it offers insulation, protection from the elements and will extend the life of your brickwork considerably.If your building is your baby, this stuff is like a little snuggly blanket your widdle one is tugging on while blissfully asleep... or it's like a blanket that will keep it warm and dry in snow or rain and ice (yeah, we get the idea.. Chimples).
It's great for sheds and wood structures but it can be pretty galling when you see it covering buildings of architectural interest or what would be alluring facades on main strips, such as this one on the Hunan restaurant in Chinatown on the Lower Main, a building flanked by goorgeous greystone structures. And this proud structure on Notre Dame in the Hank (at left) has also seen its beauty covered by the shell from hell with a cover that doesn't even leave holes for the windows. It looks like a spaceship ready to launch into another realm.
That bottom image is also of a building in St. Henri just a few feet from railway tracks, it was mentioned prominently in the Tin Flute.
I've always wanted to know what kind of horrors take place behind all that sheet metal on Notre Dame... It looks so bad.
ReplyDeleteI love that wacky little apartment near the tracks, and the other adorable houses near it. What's the Tin Flute? I admit my ignorance here.
ReplyDeleteThe Tin Flute is the name of the English translation of the classic Quebec novel Bonheur d'occasion, written by Gabrielle Roy in 1945 and set in Saint-Henri.
ReplyDeleteI can't stand the siding covering the front of the Verdun auditorium. It's such a historic building, I love the old wooden seats inside -- why cover up the outside with ugly brown siding?
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