Looks like Montreal's war on δkʮbridges!® appears to have been lost, as an audacious plan to plant one over St. Antoine between the Bell Centre and a new proposed building could very well get approval because of hockey worship.
This puts Montreal in an awkward position as we are The City Without Skybridges.
Montreal has blocked more proposed skybridges than Sly Stallone's chin has blocked uppercuts.
Montreal blocked a proposed skybridge over Notre Dame near Peel for the ETS student complex many moons back - even though there had already been such a structure long ago in the same spot.
We blocked another one around McGill College for the narrowly-averted concert hall disaster.
Our logic for opposing the overhead pedestrian routes is that we already have an underground city where you can shop till you drop and then get up and shop and then drop again. Oh and the skybridges block out the sky to those below, say the haterz.
But suddenly skybridges are popping up above us all over... one in the Griff, one at the superhospital, so now we're a city that looks like we like skybridges but we just don't have many of them.
How sad is that?
A new plan is needed.
Here is that plan: a massive make-work project connecting buildings all around town regardless of whether they need to be connected or not.
We'll allow pedestrians, then longboards, then scooters, then motorcycles, then electric cars, then regular cars then trucks and trains to travel these airborne paths and eventually turn this city into Fritz Lang's Metropolis.
First we connect the Sun Life building to Place Ville Marie because yes.
Then we build a skybridge! from the old Eaton's (now called Garlic of Fashion) building to the Super Sexe strip club for reasons of convenience.
Montreal has blocked more proposed skybridges than Sly Stallone's chin has blocked uppercuts.
Montreal blocked a proposed skybridge over Notre Dame near Peel for the ETS student complex many moons back - even though there had already been such a structure long ago in the same spot.
We blocked another one around McGill College for the narrowly-averted concert hall disaster.
Our logic for opposing the overhead pedestrian routes is that we already have an underground city where you can shop till you drop and then get up and shop and then drop again. Oh and the skybridges block out the sky to those below, say the haterz.
But suddenly skybridges are popping up above us all over... one in the Griff, one at the superhospital, so now we're a city that looks like we like skybridges but we just don't have many of them.How sad is that?
A new plan is needed.
Here is that plan: a massive make-work project connecting buildings all around town regardless of whether they need to be connected or not.
We'll allow pedestrians, then longboards, then scooters, then motorcycles, then electric cars, then regular cars then trucks and trains to travel these airborne paths and eventually turn this city into Fritz Lang's Metropolis.
And then it's on to Drummond and De Maisonneuve where we could install skybridge! where the Drummond Court once stood.
Let's not forget about the skybridge to route the AMT trains around the Bell Center so they can arrive in Windsor Station.
ReplyDeleteHere is a re-posting of my comment which dealt with the same topic you brought up some time ago:
ReplyDeleteI could be wrong, but I seem to remember that Mayor Drapeau was opposed to such walkways which traversed a city street and not those which were on private property such as hospitals.
In fact, the largest glassed-in and concrete walkway in Montreal that does indeed cross over a street is the one on Viger at the corner of Rue Coté (west of St. Urbain) which links the Convention Centre (Palais du Congres) and Place d'Armes Metro to Chinatown, Complexe Guy Favreau and Complexe Desjardins.
Then there is, of course, the well-known pre-Drapeau-era walkway crossing over University Street just north of Pine Avenue which connects the former Royal Victoria Hospital's (MUHC) building and the Montreal Neurological Institute.
More recently, a glassed-in walkway was connected between buildings of the CRIUGM Geriatic Institute (the former Veterans' Hospital) on Queen Mary Road corner of Cedar Crescent.
One could make a very valid argument that such walkways also function as fire escapes. Imagine being trapped in a building with no way out but down to ground level where the flames and smoke could be more intense.
In spite of Drapeau's great accomplishments for Montreal, in his declining years he had some pretty weird ideas like banning those sidewalk newpaper vending boxes. I can only assume that he was afraid we might end up like San Francisco where those boxes are an ugly eyesore.
Isn't there one in NDG bettween two houses (for some reason). Near Vendome metro.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad we don't have them. They take people off the street. If you've ever been to Calgary, you don't see many people outside but lots of them walking along their network of Skybridges from building to building