Montreal does not have a single downtown building offering a transitory vertical view onto this beautiful city.
So nowhere in Montreal can you ride up to a room or office in a glass-walled elevator and admire this stunning mountain and skyline.
(Come to think of it, Montreal does not have many - or any - rooftop terraces to go to, adding to the tragedy)
People in transit should not be oppressed by ugliness along the route but our architects and city planners have done just that.
Imagine how crazy awesome it would be to ride to the top of Place Ville Marie in a glass elevator stuck to the outside of the building?
Heck people down on the ground would love it too, as it would give us our best view of people in windows since the go-go girl dancing silhouette girl shook her stuff at Drummond and St. Catherine.Tourists would love getting a glimpse of our beautiful mountain and skyline, so let's stop forcing them to travel through awful concrete vertical tubes, it's barbaric..
(And don't talk to me about that stupid elevator on the Olympic Stadium, Montreal from Ville d'Anjou? Or the one in the scrubland known as the Delta Hotel? No thanks.) Our Catholic clergy, police and architecture set would love this too as it would cut down on elevator pregnancies and assaults and it would fit in with out Westmount-Square-style Van der Rohe concept of letting the exoskeleton show.
See also: Summer bummer: no place to enjoy the view
http://www.tourisme-montreal.org/blog/7-great-rooftop-patios-in-montreal/
ReplyDeleteOur winters' cold temperatures might mess up the mechanics and electronics of such external elevators, which is probably why we also don't have escalators that merge directly onto the street from the Metro.
ReplyDeleteCities such as San Francisco, for example, do indeed have elevators. Indeed, they even have escalators which are accessible from street level and having no shelter against the weather. You would think that rain, heat, and cold could potentially cause trouble to the gear works.
Addendum and typo correction to my previous post:
ReplyDelete"Cities such as San Francisco, for example, do indeed have external elevators."
See here for examples:
https://www.google.ca/search?q=san+francisco+outside+elevator&biw=1280&bih=669&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi-xPjYtOPLAhWnnYMKHdeVCGwQsAQINw&dpr=1
and sample of street level BART exit escalator, San Francisco:
https://www.google.ca/search?q=escalator+from+BART+street+level&biw=1280&bih=669&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjl-qittePLAhWstIMKHTiCAJgQ_AUIBigB#imgrc=iruzMGyY5riyqM%3A
I believe the QE Hotel has a Gold Floor elevator with glass views of the city.
ReplyDeleteStreet-level (sheltered) escalator in downtown Calgary:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.google.ca/maps/@51.045902,-114.070385,3a,75y,304.96h,81.04t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sKu1SRgB9gZOL0iQ3J_Sa7A!2e0!7i13312!8i6656?hl=en
I can't remember actually seeing it operating, come to think of it.
An often overlooked reality of glass structures is the way in which they decimate bird populations due to collisions, especially in the Spring. Precautions or adjustments can be made, though, which can make glass windows and doors safer. However, this is generally not a consideration for urban builders and architects.. The recent and stunningly visual film, The Messenger, illustrates this.
ReplyDeleteGood point about birds colliding with glass walls. Then there is the problem of melting ice chunks falling from glass, window sills, and ledges onto pedestrians and vehicles below.
ReplyDeleteIncidentally, the recently-proposed notion of creating heated sidewalks downtown seems to have been shelved.
I doubt this would even be feasible, again due to the harshness of our winters. The constant expansion and contraction of the heating elements, not to mention the complication of rain, sand, grit, salt, litter fragments, etc., would soon destroy such expensive installations.
In comparison, NYC's cut-and-cover subway lines have the additional side-effect of sending warm air upward through sidewalk gratings thus preventing any thick layers of ice from forming--which, in any case, is much less of a problem down there.