Used to get my hair cut here. These two old Italian brothers, one of them moonlighted as a security guard, would shave you up with an electric razor. Cut hair for a lot of black guys from the area. They had pretty cool 50s style 8x10s on the wall of elaborate haircuts like the Duck's Ass that were false advertising. These guys could barely run that razor up and down your head without screwing it up. Cheap though. In spite of its presumably great location south east of the Bell Center this place isn't exactly highly sought after. It's no isolated case, its neighbour, the plant store closes for the winter.
This building looks like it'll get knocked down. It's directly across from the Bell Center, south side. Quite a beautiful sight when you're coming off the highway exit waiting for the light.If someone wants to speculate as to why such a big deal as the Bell Center has brought zero development or investment in the area, please leave your thoughts in the comment section.
The building in the lower picture, on St-Antoine, was where I would take my manual Underwood typewriter to be repaired by Woodfine Brothers...the parking lot beside the building used to have more of an incline, and was always worried that my 1966 Plymouth Valiant 200 would start rolling in to the traffic below.
ReplyDeleteWell, the “new forum” is in itself an intellectual wasteland (as every new people’s opium — pro sports — venue is), so it is not surprising that the area immediately surrounding it is a parking lot wasteland with batmen* frantically advertising their parking lot on game nights to give a smidgeon of a whiff of accounting credence to those money-laundering ventures†.
ReplyDeleteThe whole venture itself has consistently failed to yield a return on investment, yet we keep hearing from the Fraser institute and their ilk that “private sector knows best” (this proves that pro-sport is a deliberate “investment” to put the people to sleep so they don’t get interested in politics). If the “new forum” was a public building, we would hear lots of calls for it’s demolition and replacement with a high-rise office tower with a swanky shopping mall beneath.
Now, the AMT wants to build a splendid station in lieu of the horribly nondescript excuse for a train station there. Two city blocks further east, there is one of the most beautiful train stations in North-America that have not really seen a train for 35 years.
Let’s tear down the stupid forum, sell the hockey club to some texan millionnaire (and watch the Parti Québécois enrollment skyrocket) and bring back the splendor of teeming commuters to Windsor Station.
* The guy with waving those big tennis rackets to guide aircraft landing on flat-tops.
† Parking lots are a money-laundering venture par excellence; why do you think that the city administration quicky withdrew it’s scheme to cut down the number of private lots downtown? The mob made it clear that such a shenanigan would not get tolerated… (Dry cleaners, too, are a good laundering venture — witness that guy who had all his stores firebombed when he started a $1 dry-cleaning chain some years ago).
@Jean...
ReplyDeleteIt would better than a waste land if the Overdale district was not demolished by promoters Douglas Cohen and Robert Landau who just left the land empty instead of building it up...
I remember taking the train from Windsor station with my dad in the late '80s. He pointed out he window and told me that they were going to build a new hockey stadium RIGHT THERE. I couldn't understand how a whole stadium could possibly FIT in the space he was pointing at.
ReplyDeleteI don't think I understood how malleable the city is (i was about 8 years old - the buildings had been there for a decades or centuries).
Now i can't even find Windsor station anymore.
The current AMT terminal is a disgrace to the city. The washrooms are filthy, homeless bums are in there at night washing up and making for an insecure environment. There are no food/beverage outlets, no AMT employees on duty, no sign of CP Police...the Metra station in Waukegan has more amenities and proves once again that Montreal is a third-tier city. Perhaps if a movement started to rename the station "Gare Brian-Mulroney" after Jean Charest's hero and political mentor, it would gain the facilities every other major North American city takes for granted.
ReplyDeleteI think the problem is a total lack of human scale to the area. There's a great picture in Montreal Metropolis of a bird's eye view of the city, centered on Mary, Queen of the World circa 1930. There's so much going on in that photograph, a massive section of city - shops, apartments, light industry etc - that has been completely lost. The Bell Center absolutely needs a more human feel - and ideally a train station worked into the mix would be the best possible solution. The influx of pedestrian traffic would necessitate a wide variety of human-scale services, and if a train station were conceived as a southern extension of the Underground City's core, it could generate far stronger inter-social traffic, bringing in many citizens who otherwise would have no reason to go there. However, I think there's a pervasive feeling that this area will inevitably see the next major development era as a prime location for the extension of the downtown core - skyscrapers and all. Should this happen it will become extremely important that it doesn't develop a ghost-town feel during certain times of the day - think President Kennedy and Union at 10pm on a Thursday.
ReplyDeleteIf the area around the Bell Center was re-conceptualized as a 'Heritage Area', a lost neighbourhood with a specific cultural identity, then at least a strong argument could be made both for interesting design and necessary human-scale integration.
The preponderance of grey cement and the massive scale of the Bell Centre compared to its surroundings combine to make the area around it an unappealing space. The Bibliotheque nationale, Palais des Congres and Bell Centre are all part of this pattern, in my view -- just big oversized eyesores that have damaged the space around them. For an example on a smaller scale, check the new black facade on the modern part of the Hotel Godin at Sherbrooke and St-Laurent. It's lifeless and alienating compared with the more ornate, old-fashioned part of the hotel. Even Ex-Centris has sucked the soul out of a section of St-Laurent. There are too many huge soulless modern architecture projects in Montreal featuring vast expanses of grey concrete. It's lifeless and practically cries out "Go away!"
ReplyDeleteThe Bell Centre was a mistake in urban planning. Not only does it make the stunning Windsor Station obsolete, but the arena simply perpetuates the perception that downtown's southern border is at St. Antoine street. St Antoine is treated as a back alley and the Bell Centre doesn't speak to its surroundings at all. It turns its back to every side except the front; It is a horrendous failure of a design.
ReplyDelete"It is a horrendous failure of a design."
ReplyDeleteMan, architecture in Montreal in general is dead.
By extension, how 'bout those awful, impersonal "smart centers." Pieces of shit.
What blows me away is even with all this knowledge at our disposal we still mess urban planning up. I went to Dix 30 and found the design and planning behind it to be lacking.
Is it so hard to make a pedestrian friendly outside mall without fricken cars?
I agree with some other commenter. Montreal is second if not third rate now. The day we lost the Expos was the day we lost our "Major League" tag.
As for the Bell Center (and its awful narrow staircases and dead ghosts), this is Montreal. No thinking goes into urban planning. I wouldn't be surprised if a bunch of wink, wink, nudge, nudge took place.
Which city is more corrupt: Montreal or Chicago?
I know. Impossible to answer but I thought to ask anyway.
Sorry the for scattered comment.
Odd request: Any chance you guys don't post my previous comment? Want to edit the URL. Lame I know but, hey, at least I don't play for the Habs. If you do, just burn this one. Thanks.
ReplyDelete