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  1. Je vais déménager à Manhattan au mois d'Août. Je garde un pied-à-terre à Vancouver et reviens fréquemment à Montréal. Je viens de voir cette nouvelle toute fraiche. Je vais habiter tout juste à côté de Washington Square, et ce nouveau développement m'intéresse au plus haut point. J'esssaierai de vous en faire part régulièrement. Voici l'article du Wall Street Journal: First Look at NYU Tower Plan University Wants 38-Story Building on Village Site; Critics Fret Over Pei Design By CRAIG KARMIN New York University on Thursday expects to unveil its much-anticipated design plans for the proposed 38-story tower in Greenwich Village, one of the most ambitious projects in the school's controversial 25-year expansion plan. Before and after: The space between two towers designed by I.M. Pei, above, would be filled by a new tower, in rendering below, under NYU's plan. The tower, sight-unseen, is already facing backlash from community groups who say the building would interfere with the original three-tower design by famed architect I.M. Pei. Critics also say the new building would flood the neighborhood with more construction and cause other disruptions. The concrete fourth tower with floor-to-ceiling glass windows would be built on the Bleecker Street side of the site, known as University Village. It would house a moderate-priced hotel on the bottom 15 floors. The 240-room hotel would be intended for visiting professors and other NYU guests, but would also be available to the public. The top floors would be housing for school faculty. In addition, NYU would move the Jerome S. Coles Sports Center farther east toward Mercer Street to clear space for a broader walkway through the site that connects Bleecker and Houston streets. The sports complex would be torn down and rebuilt with a new design. Grimshaw Architects The plan also calls for replacing a grocery store that is currently in the northwest corner of the site with a playground. As a result, the site would gain 8,000 square feet of public space under the tower proposal, according to an NYU spokesman. NYU considers the new tower a crucial component of its ambitious expansion plans to add six million square feet to the campus by 2031—including proposed sites in Brooklyn, Governors Island and possibly the World Trade Center site—in an effort to increase its current student population of about 40,000 by 5,500. The tower is also one of the most contentious parts of the plan because the University Village site received landmark status in 2008 and is home to a Pablo Picasso statue. The three existing towers, including one dedicated to affordable public housing, were designed by Mr. Pei in the 1960s. The 30-story cast-concrete structures are considered a classic example of modernism. Grimshaw Architects, the New York firm that designed the proposed tower, says it wants the new structure to complement Mr. Pei's work. "It would be built with a sensitivity to the existing buildings," says Mark Husser, a Grimshaw partner. "It is meant to relate to the towers but also be contemporary." Grimshaw Architects NYU says the planned building, at center of rendering above, would relate to current towers. He said the new tower would use similar materials to the Pei structures and would be positioned at the site in a way not to cut off views from the existing buildings. Little of this news is likely to pacify local opposition. "A fourth tower would utterly change Pei's design," says Andrew Berman, executive director of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation. He says that Mr. Pei designed a number of plans about the same time that similarly featured three towers around open space, such as the Society Hill Towers in Philadelphia. Watch a video showing a rendering of New York University's proposed 38-story tower, one of the most ambitious projects in the university's vast 2031 expansion plan. The tower would be located near Bleecker Street in Manhattan. Video courtesy of Grimshaw Architects. Residents say they fear that the new tower would bring years of construction and reduce green spaces and trees. "We are oversaturated with NYU buildings," says Sylvia Rackow, who lives in the tower for public housing. "They have a lot of other options, like in the financial district, but they are just greedy." NYU will have to win permission from the city's Landmark Commission before it can proceed. This process begins on Monday when NYU makes a preliminary presentation to the local community board. Jason Andrew for the Wall Street Journal NYU is 'just greedy,' says Sylvia Rackow, seen in her apartment. Grimshaw. While the commission typically designates a particular district or building, University Village is unusual in that it granted landmark status to a site and the surrounding landscaping, making it harder to predict how the commission may respond. NYU also would need to get commercial zoning approval to build a hotel in an area designated as residential. And the university would have to get approval to purchase small strips of land on the site from the city. If the university is tripped up in getting required approvals, it has a backup plan to build a tower on the site currently occupied by a grocery store at Bleecker and LaGuardia, which would have a size similar to the proposed tower of 270,000 square feet. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704198004575311161334409470.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_MIDDLENexttoWhatsNewsForth
  2. http://nymag.com/homedesign/urbanliving/2012/hudson-yards/ Atop the 1,300-foot office tower, soon to rise at 33rd Street and Tenth Avenue, by Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates. Photo: Rendering by Visualhouse From 0 to 12 Million Square Feet In a few weeks, construction begins on New York’s largest development ever. Hudson Yards is handsome, ambitious, and potentially full of life. Should we care that it’s also a giant slab of private property? An exclusive preview. By Justin Davidson Published Oct 7, 2012 ShareThis On a Friday afternoon in September, a conclave of architects and real-estate executives gathers in a hotel conference room to look over plans for Manhattan’s largest remaining chunk of emptiness. Hudson Yards, the railroad depot that stretches from Tenth Avenue to the Hudson River, and from 30th to 33rd Street, barely registers on the mental map of most New Yorkers. Look down from a neighboring window, and you see only a pit full of trains hazed with their diesel fumes. The planners’ view, though, takes in sugarplum dreams of the city’s shiny next wing: an $800 million concrete roof over the yards, and above it the country’s largest and densest real-estate development: 12 million square feet of *offices, shops, movie theaters, gyms, hotel rooms, museum galleries, and open space, and 5,000 apartments, all packed into 26 acres. In the first, $6 billion phase—scheduled for completion by late 2017—the tallest tower will top the Empire State Building, and even the shortest will have a penthouse on the 75th floor. The people in the conference room can visualize that future in high-resolution detail. On the screen, digital couples stroll among trees pruned to cubical perfection. A chain of glowing towers garlands the skyline, and tiny figures stroll onto a deck hanging nearly a quarter-mile in the air. Architects discuss access points, sidewalk widths, ceiling heights, flower beds, and the qualities of crushed-stone pathways. You could almost forget that none of this exists yet—until one architect points to a lozenge-shaped skyscraper and casually, with a twist of his wrist, remarks that he’s thinking of swiveling it 90 degrees. The Related Companies, the main developer of the site, has called this meeting so that the designers of the various buildings can finally talk to each other, instead of just to the client. I’m getting the first look at the details at the same time some of the participants are. Suddenly, after years of desultory negotiations and leisurely design, the project has acquired urgency: Ground-breaking on the first tower will take place in the coming weeks. There’s a high-octane crew in the room: William Pedersen, co-founder of the high-rise titans Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates; David Childs, partner at the juggernaut Skidmore Owings and Merrill; Elizabeth Diller, front woman for the cerebral boutique Diller Scofidio + Renfro; *David Rockwell, a virtuoso of showbiz and restaurant design; Howard Elkus, from the high-end shopping-center specialists Elkus Manfredi; and landscape architect Thomas Woltz, the only member of the group new to New York real-estate politics. Their task is to compose a neighborhood from scratch. The success of Hudson Yards depends on the question: Can a private developer manufacture a complete and authentic high-rise neighborhood in a desolate part of New York? “This isn’t just a project; it’s an extension of the city,” says Stephen Ross, Related’s founder and chairman. New York has always grown in nibbles and crumbs, and only occasionally in such great whale-gulps of real estate. In the richest, most layered sections of the city, each generation’s new buildings spring up among clumps of older ones, so that freshness and tradition coexist. A project of this magnitude, concocted around a conference table, could easily turn out to be a catastrophe. The centrally planned district has its success stories—most famously, Rockefeller Center. Coordinated frenzies of building also produced Park Avenue, Battery Park City, and the current incarnation of Times Square. But this enterprise is even more ambitious than any of those, and more potentially transformative than the ongoing saga of the World Trade Center. New York has no precedent for such a dense and complex neighborhood, covering such a vast range of uses, built in one go. That makes this Ross’s baby. Hundreds of architects, engineers, consultants, planners, and construction workers will contribute to the finished product. Oxford Properties Group has partnered with Related, and the city dictated much of the basic arrangement. But in the end, how tightly the new superblocks are woven into the city fabric, how organic their feel, and how bright their allure will depend on the judgment and taste of a billionaire whose aesthetic ambitions match the site’s expanse, and who slips almost unconsciously from we to I. “We went out and selected great architects and then created a whole five-acre plaza,” Ross says. “People will have never seen such a world-class landscaping project. I can’t tell you what that plaza will look like, but what I visualize is a modern-day Trevi Fountain. It’s going to be classical and unique.” The best clue to what he has in mind isn’t in Rome, but at Columbus Circle. Ross lives and works in the Time Warner Center, which Related built, and if you imagine the complex blown out to five times its size, you begin to get a sense of what’s coming at Hudson Yards: crowds flowing from home to boutique, hotel to subway, office to spa, concert to restaurant—and all that activity threaded around and through a curving plaza equipped with fountains and a very tall monument, as yet unchosen. The Time Warner Center brought profitable liveliness to Columbus Circle, the once moribund, now vibrant hinge between midtown and the Upper West Side. But massive as it is, the Time Warner Center is dainty by comparison. Hudson Yards circa 2017 1. This office tower, by Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates, will become Coach headquarters. 2. Apartments by Diller Scofidio +Renfro, joined by David Rockwell: condos on top, rentals below. 3. The flagship office building, also by KPF: 1,300 feet high. 4. The curvy multiuse tower by David Childs contains a hotel, condominiums, and a big Equinox gym. 5. The shopping arcade (please don't call it the mall). 6.The Culture Shed: still unrevealed, but a great big space for traveling exhibits and other events. Photo: Rendering by Visualhouse Unnumbered buildings (the western half of the development) have yet to be designed. Photo: Map by Jason Lee The view from the High Line. Photo: Rendering by Visualhouse Photo: Rendering by Visualhouse Photo: Rendering by Visualhouse Photo: Rendering by Visualhouse Photo: Rendering by Visualhouse Start on the High Line, at West 30th Street near Tenth Avenue. At the moment, the landscaped section peters out here, but the old elevated railway continues, forking both east and west to form the southern border of Hudson Yards. Eventually, you’ll be able to continue your stroll beneath the canopy of an office tower housing the headquarters of the leather-goods company Coach. It’s a tricky spot, and the interaction of city street and raised park forces the architecture to perform some fancy steps. The building genuflects toward Tenth Avenue on muscular concrete legs. Coach’s unit reaches out toward the High Line, and the crown greets the skyline at a jaunty tilt. With all its connections and contortions, the tower, designed by Kohn Pedersen Fox, assembles its identity out of the complexities of city life. “My whole career has been about taking buildings that are inherently autonomous and getting them to become social gestures,” remarks Pedersen. Head up a couple of blocks from Coach’s future headquarters, and at West 33rd Street, another KPF tower tapers from vast hoped-for trading floors to a jagged peak 1,300 feet up. A state-of-the-art office building these days requires huge open layouts and thick bundles of elevator shafts, which tend to give it the natural grace of a hippopotamus thigh. But look up: Here, the design artfully disguises the two towers’ bulk by making them seem dramatically foreshortened, as if they were speeding toward the sky. One slopes toward the river, the other in the direction of midtown, parted like stalks of corn in a breeze. The cone of space between them draws sunlight to the ground and leaves a welcome break in the city’s increasingly crowded skyline. With any luck, you should be able to stand at the foot of these towers and feel sheltered but not squashed. It would have been far easier to wall the development off and let each tower stand in isolated splendor. Instead, planners have tried to soften the borders of their domain. That’s not just civic-mindedness; it’s good business. If Hudson Yards is going to be a truly urban place, it will have to lure people who neither work nor live there but who come because everyone else does. The development will have two major magnets, one for commerce, food, and entertainment, the other for that primal necessity of New York life: culture. Related is pinning a lot of financial optimism on a five-floor, two-block-long retail extravaganza that links the two KPF towers, rather like the Time Warner Center shops, only bigger, busier, sunnier, and more tightly knit to the city. “We don’t want this to feel like a mall,” insists its architect, Howard Elkus. Pedestrian passageways cut through the building, extending the streets indoors, and a succession of great glass walls turn window-shopping into a spectator sport. The liveliness engine is on the fourth floor, where a collection of informal but high-end food outlets curated by Danny Meyer looks out over the central plaza—“Eataly on steroids” is how one Related executive describes it. Above that are more expensive restaurants and a ten-screen multiplex. Stroll out the western side of the shopping center toward the central plaza, walk diagonally across to 30th Street, halfway between Tenth and Eleventh Avenues, and you come to the most intriguing and mysterious element of Hudson Yards: the Culture Shed. Having set aside a parcel of land for cultural use, the city put out a call for ideas. Elizabeth Diller and David Rockwell answered with an amalgam of architectural and institutional innovations: a flexible gallery complex to accommodate traveling exhibits and nomadic performing events. Together, they designed an enormous trusslike shell that could fit over the galleries or roll out like a shipyard gantry to enclose a vast performance space. The city refuses to discuss architectural details, how the still-theoretical organization will function, or who would pay to build and operate it. But it’s easy to imagine it being used for film premieres and high-definition broadcasts from the Metropolitan Opera or as a permanent home for Fashion Week, which now camps out in tents. The Culture Shed can give Hudson Yards the highbrow legitimacy and cutting-edge cool it needs to become an integral part of New York, and also create a cultural corridor running from the Whitney Museum at Gansevoort Street (now under construction), through Chelsea’s gallery district, and up to Lincoln Center. The project may be in the wishful-thinking stage—it could still get scaled back or dumbed down, or it could vanish altogether. But it does have one crucial booster: the Related Companies. “The Culture Shed is critically important,” says Jay Cross, the executive who is running the Hudson Yards project. “We’re going to be major supporters because we want and need to see it come to fruition.” Hudson Yards is getting much more from the city than just the Culture Shed. While planners keep working out ways to weld the complex to its environs, the West Side has already begun to embrace its coming addition. New rental towers have sprouted in the West Thirties and burly office buildings will soon rise along Ninth and Tenth Avenues. “There are communities around us—Hell’s Kitchen, Midtown South, West Chelsea, New Jersey to the west—that if we do a great job are just naturally going to flow in and populate that space,” says Cross. The site as a whole is a yawning pit, not so much a blank slate as an empty socket, surrounded by amenities and infrastructure just waiting to be plugged in. Hudson River Park runs along the western edge (set off by Twelfth Avenue), the High Line spills in from the south, and the future Hudson Park and Boulevard will swoop down from the north. The No. 7 subway-line extension is on the way to completion, the Javits Center is being overhauled, and maybe one day Moynihan Station will even get built. In all, $3 billion in taxpayer-funded improvements encircle the Related fiefdom—not including city tax abatements. “Where else have you ever seen this kind of public money for infrastructure to service a whole new development, in the heart of the city, with that much land and no obstacles?” Ross asks. His vocal enthusiasm for Mitt Romney and the Republican Party’s small-*government credo evidently hasn’t curbed his appreciation for public support. Although it’s the next mayor who will cut the first ribbon, in the long run Hudson Yards may well be the grandest and most dramatic piece of Michael Bloomberg’s legacy. It’s been on the city’s to-do list for almost a decade, ever since Bloomberg hoped to draw the 2012 Olympics to New York with promises of a West Side stadium. The fact that London won the games was a disappointment to him but a stroke of luck for the West Side, scuttling what would have been a disastrous stadium plan, while at the same time calling attention to the value of the real estate above the tracks. Eager for space to put up high-rises and now prompted by a big hole on Manhattan’s western flank, the city focused on a rezoning that is gradually pulling midtown’s center of gravity westward. There are two ways to conceive such a monster project. One is for a single architectural overlord to shape the whole shebang, as Raymond Hood did at Rockefeller Center. Steven Holl, whose offices overlook Hudson Yards and who has designed two similarly gargantuan complexes in China, submitted an entry that might have resulted in a work of thrilling coherence, with the same sensibility imbuing every detail, from door handles to office blocks. But the auteur development also risks yielding a place of oppressive uniformity, where each aesthetic miscalculation is multiplied many times over. Related chose the second option: recruiting an ensemble of brand-name designers. That approach emulates a sped-up version of New York’s gradual, lot-by-lot evolution; the danger is that it can produce a jumble. “Sometimes architectural vitality leads to messiness, or varying degrees of quality, and we’re trying to avoid that,” acknowledges Cross. “Every building is going to be best in class. That’s the common thread.” But bestness is not actually a unifying concept, and when the city held the competition to award the development rights in 2008, the Related entry failed to wow the city, the public, or the critics. “With a drop-dead list of consultants, contributors, collaborators, and anyone else who could be thrown into the mix … [the company] has covered all possible bases with something dreadful for everybody. This is not planning, it’s pandering,” wrote the critic Ada Louise Huxtable in The Wall Street Journal. None of that mattered: The project originally went to another developer, Tishman Speyer, and when that deal fell through, Related scooped it up. Architecture had nothing to do with it. Yet nearly five years later, with contracts signed and money starting to flow, that gold-plated crew of designers, working in separate studios, with different philosophies and, until recently, little consultation, has nevertheless produced a kind of haphazard harmony. What unites them is their taste for complexity and the deftness with which they maneuver conflicting programs into a single composition. Just past the Culture Shed, on the 30th Street side of the site at Eleventh Avenue, is the eastern half’s only purely residential tower, designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro, with David Rockwell. It’s an architectural griffin, grafting together rectilinear rental units on the lower floors with flower-petal condo layouts up high—about 680 apartments in all. The fantastically idiosyncratic bulges and dimples join in complicated ways that make the glass façade look quilted. Now walk north, back across the plaza and past a still-to-be-designed café pavilion, and you come to another tower with a textured exterior—vertical folds with stone on one side and glass on the other, as if a palazzo had merged with a modernist shaft. Actually, the building is even more hybridized than that. David Childs, the architect of the Time Warner Center and One World Trade Center, had to shoehorn a large Equinox gym plus offices, an orthopedic hospital, a sports emporium, a hotel, and a condominium into a curved base and a slender tube. “Hudson Yards is a city within a city. This tower is a city within a city—within a city,” he says. The most delicate, crucial, and treacherous design problem at Hudson Yards isn’t a building at all but the public space, and especially the five acres in the middle, an expanse about as large as Bryant Park. Done right, it could be the most vibrant gathering spot on the West Side, a New York version of Venice’s Piazza San Marco. Done wrong, it could be a windswept tundra populated only by office workers scuttling between the subway and their desks. It’s worrisome that Ross and his team postponed thinking about that void until so much of the architecture had been designed, but heartening that they are intensely focused on it now. Related has given the job to the talented Thomas Woltz, whose quietly refined restorations of gardens and college campuses may not quite have prepared him for the fierce pressure of shaping New York’s most ample new public space. It’s not just a place for people to mingle but for the relationships between the various buildings to express themselves across the connecting plaza. “One of the paintings I admire most is The School of Athens,” says KPF’s William Pedersen, referring to Raphael’s klatch of bearded philosophers chatting beneath noble vaults. “You have great historical and intellectual figures gathered together in dynamic groups of interchange, gesturing to each other. That’s the architectural assignment for each of us.” David Childs phrases a similar thought in a way that graciously defers to Woltz even while sending the message: Don’t screw this up. “We have an obligation to create great architecture, and all the buildings have to be related to the space in the center,” he says. “The void is the most important part.” Woltz has gotten it wrong once. In his first presentation, he placed a plush lawn at the center of the complex, and Ross nearly kicked him out of the room. What Ross wants is not a place to toss a Frisbee, but a town square alive with purpose and electricity. That’s a spectacular challenge; there are few great models for a European-style piazza within a ring of skyscrapers. For now, Woltz’s solution is a paved ellipse, outlined by a perimeter of trees cultivated with geometric severity—given “the Edward Scissorhands topiary treatment,” as one designer puts it. The idea is to create a verdant transition from the human scale to that of glass-and-steel giants. “In an open space next to 1,000-foot towers, our tallest tree is going to be like an ant next to a tall man’s shoe,” Woltz says. But the most maddening paradox of Woltz’s assignment is that he must tailor an open space to the motley public—in ways that will please a potentate. Like some fairy-tale monarch, Ross has dispatched his counselors to find an artist capable of supplying his modern Trevi Fountain. What he wants is something monumental enough to focus the entire project, a piece that’s not just watery and impressive but so instantly iconic that people will meet by it, shoot photos of it, notice it from three blocks away, and recognize it from the cover of guidebooks. You get the feeling that Ross is hedging his bets: If Woltz can’t deliver a world-class plaza with his trees and pavers, maybe a Jeff Koons or an Anish Kapoor can force it into life with a big honking hunk of sculpture. A giant puppy can’t solve an urban design problem, though. It’s nice that a hardheaded mogul like Ross places so much faith in the civic power of art, but he may be asking it to do too much. The plaza is the node where the site’s conflicting forces reveal themselves: the tension between public and private, between city and campus, between democratic space and commercial real estate. Occupy Wall Street’s takeover of Zuccotti Park last year pointed up the oxymoron inherent in the concept of privately owned public space: You can do anything you like there, as long as the owners deem it okay. Childs hopes that his client’s insistence on premium-brand design won’t make Hudson Yards just the province of privilege. “We want this project to be laced through with public streets, so that everyone has ownership of it, whether you’re arriving in your $100,000 limo or pushing a shopping cart full of your belongings.” The plans include drop-off lanes, so the limos are taken care of. But if the shopping-cart pushers, buskers, protesters, skateboarders, and bongo players start feeling too welcome at Hudson Yards, Related’s security guards will have a ready-made *argument to get them to disperse: This is private property.
  3. Des taxis roses pour Montréal? Publié dans la catégorie Général Nathalie Collard Mardi dernier, dans le cadre d’un évènement destiné à la relève en design, le maire de Montréal, Gérald Tremblay, a lancé cinq défis aux designers et architectes montréalais: cinq concours pour embellir la taxis_s.jpgville en améliorant les cinq points suivants: les abords du métro Champ-de-mars, le mur ouest du Palais de justice, les abri-bus, le mobilier de la future Place des spectacles et l’identification visuelle des taxis. Ce n’est pas la première fois qu’on veut “brander” les taxis montréalais. Il est vrai qu’une flotte de taxis avec une identité propre et rapidement reconnaissable donne une couleur à une ville: pensez aux taxis jaunes de New York, aux verts de Mexico ou aux belles grosses voitures noires de Londres. Or à chaque fois que l’idée est lancée, on assiste à une véritable levée de boucliers de la part de l’industrie du taxi. Les chauffeurs rappellent que contrairement à leurs homologues de New York, par exemple, ils sont travailleurs autonomes et donc, propriétaires de leur voiture. Ils n’ont pas envie d’aller faire leur épicerie la fin de semaine au volant d’une bagnole rose bonbon ou vert lime. Dans l’industrie du taxi, on préférerait que les gouvernements aident les chauffeurs à faire face à la hausse des prix de l’essence ou qu’ils les encouragent à prendre le virage vert en accordant une aide supplémentaire pour acheter un véhicule hybride. Or un n’empêche pas l’autre. L’idée de donner une identité visuelle aux taxis de Montréal est excellente et doit absolument être défendue jusqu’au bout. Ce pourrait être une couleur, un modèle de voiture ou même un logo, assez visible pour être vu à distance. Les règles du concours lancé par le maire seront dévoilées bientôt. En attendant, avez-vous des idées?
  4. Could the Miami skyline one day resemble Manhattan’s? Apr 5th 2014 | MIAMI | From the print edition A mirror of prosperity ICON BRICKELL, a three-tower complex in Miami’s financial district, was supposed to be a flagship project for the Related Group, the city’s top condominium developer. It would boast 1,646 luxury condos, a 91-metre-long pool, and a hundred 22-foot columns in its entryway. By 2010, however, it had become a symbol of the excesses of the city’s building boom, and Related was forced to hand two of the towers to its banks. Miami condo prices plunged to 60% below their peak. The vacancy rate jumped to 60%. Predictions flew that the market, the epicentre of America’s property crash, would take ten years to come back, or even longer. The speed of the recovery has surprised everyone. Condo prices are already back near peak levels in Miami’s most desirable areas, and at 75-80% elsewhere. The available supply of units has fallen back to within the six-to-nine-months-of-sales range considered normal, from a stomach-churning 40 in 2008. Only 3% of condos are unoccupied. Sales of condos and single-family homes are above pre-crisis levels across Miami-Dade County. Commercial property, too, has rebounded, with demand outstripping supply. Developers are once again relaxed enough to crack jokes. “I call the current expansion the Viagra cycle,” jokes Carlos Rosso, Related’s president of condominium development. “We just want it to last a little longer.” The recovery has been partly driven by low interest rates and bottom-fishing by private equity, which helped to clear excess inventory. But the biggest factor is that the city nicknamed the “Capital of Latin America” has attracted a flood of capital from Latin America. Rich people in turbulent spots such as Venezuela and Argentina are seeking a safe haven for their savings. Estate agents are also seeing capital flight from within the United States. Individuals pay no state or city income tax in Miami, unlike, say, New York, whose mayor wants to hike taxes on the rich further. “Somebody said to me, ‘Give me three reasons why this will continue.’ My answer was: Maduro, Kirchner and De Blasio,” chuckles Marc Sarnoff, a Miami city commissioner, referring to the leaders of the capitalist-bashing regimes in Venezuela, Argentina and New York. Another attraction is the 40% rise in Miami condo rents since 2009, buoying the income of owners who choose not to live in the tropical hurly-burly that Dave Barry, a local author, calls “Insane City”. Brokers report increased business from Eastern Europe and the Middle East (Qatar Airways will fly direct to Miami from June), and an uptick in inquiries from Chinese buyers. Is another bubble forming already? Developers say this time is different, and in some ways it is. In a few years Miami has gone from the most- to the least-leveraged property market in America. Buyers of new condos typically have to put 50% down, half of that before building starts. Banks are loth to extend construction loans unless 60-75% of the units are already sold. In both residential and commercial projects, they require developers to put in much more equity than before. Mr Rosso says Related now puts in three times as much, which limits its ambition. The firm now has 2,000 condos in the works, a tenth of what it was building in 2007. Still, a supply glut is possible. With developers gung-ho again, around 50 towers are under construction or planned in downtown Miami (including the Porsche Design Tower, whose well-heeled inhabitants will be able to take their cars up to the level on which they live in a special lift—this is useful if you really love your car). More were added last month when Oleg Baybakov, a Russian mining-to-property oligarch, bought a trio of condo-development sites for $30m, more than triple their assessed market value in 2013. Miami’s developers are adept at using “smoke and mirrors” to hide the true number of pre-sold units, says Peter Zalewski of Condo Vultures, a property-intelligence firm. Some see the first signs of trouble. The stock of unsold condos and houses has crept up slightly since last summer. A local broker says that Blackstone, a private-equity firm with a taste for bricks and mortar, bought $120m of properties with his firm’s help in 2013 but “won’t do anything like that this year”. Mr Zalewski says banks are competing harder to finance certain projects, but this may not be a sign of unadulterated bullishness. They may simply be betting that many of the 134 towers proposed but not yet under construction in South Florida won’t get built—meaning the 57 that have already broken ground will do better than forecast. Much will depend on whether Latin Americans remain addicted to Miami property and, should their ardour cool, whether Americans and others would take up the slack. Few domestic buyers are comfortable putting 50% down, especially when most of it is at risk if the project fails. One or two developers have begun to accept 30% down, a possible sign of increased reliance on home-grown buyers. The market should get a fillip from the current and planned redevelopment of several chunks of downtown Miami. One of the most ambitious projects is Miami Worldcenter, a 30-acre retail, hotel and convention-centre complex that will feature Bloomingdale’s, Macy’s and a giant Marriott hotel. A science museum will soon join the art museum . These projects build on progress made over the past decade towards becoming a world-class city, from the opening of dozens of top-notch restaurants to Art Basel picking Miami as one of the three venues for its shows (“the Super Bowl of the Art World”, as Tom Wolfe called it in his Miami novel, “Back to Blood”). Tourism is at record levels. Miami is the only American city besides New York in the top ten of Knight Frank’s 2014 global-cities index, which ranks cities by their attractiveness to the ultra-wealthy. (It comes seventh, ahead of Paris.) Property is still far cheaper than in most other cities on the list (see chart). Miami’s Downtown Development Authority (DDA) is dangling the city’s low taxes and lovely weather in front of companies to persuade them to move there. This is starting to bear fruit, especially in finance: Universa, a $6 billion hedge fund in California, recently agreed to relocate, following part of Eddie Lampert’s ESL. SABMiller, a giant brewer, has moved its Latin American head office from Colombia. . “I lived a long time in New York, but here [in Miami] it’s easier to make something from nothing,” enthuses Nitin Motwani, a DDA board member, who talks of the city’s skyline one day resembling Manhattan’s. Mr Zalewski is more cautious. Miami’s property market is “a great game”, he says, but “all it would take to send a chill through the entire market is one big project to go sideways.” Developers who joke about Viagra should keep some aspirin within reach, just in case.
  5. The Global Financial Center Index published by the China Development Institude and Z/Yen partners in London ranks financials centers worlwide based on criterias such as business stability and environnement, technology and assessment by the financial community. Montreal ranks 14th up 1 spot since the last ranking 6 months ago, ahead of cities such as Geneva, Frankfurt or Paris. Highest ranked city in Canada is Toronto in 10th place, London tops chart ahead of New York and Singapore to round top 3. http://www.longfinance.net/images/gfci/gfci_21.pdf
  6. CHRONIQUE LE VILAIN SAPIN DE MONTRÉAL MARIO GIRARDLA PRESSE J’étais à une dizaine de mètres de lui quand j’ai entendu une femme dire à son mari : « Ouain, on peut pas dire qu’ils se sont forcés ben ben fort ! » Comme des milliers de Montréalais, cette femme donnait son opinion sur le sapin, prétendument le plus haut du pays, installé depuis mercredi en plein cœur de la place des Festivals. Une laideur ! Une honte ! Un chicot ! Le sapin de 88 pieds a droit aux pires insultes sur les réseaux sociaux. Philippe Pelletier, l’un des propriétaires de Sapin MTL, l’entreprise qui a déniché et installé ce sapin, est très déçu de la réaction du public. « Les gens sont tellement méchants. Nous, on a juste voulu bien faire et offrir un cadeau à la Ville de Montréal », m’a-t-il dit hier. L’an dernier, Philippe Pelletier a voulu réaliser un coup publicitaire en organisant une compétition de lancer du sapin lors de l’Igloofest. Cette année, il est allé chercher une petite subvention de 2500 $ et un commanditaire afin de pouvoir offrir à Montréal le sapin le plus haut du monde. Philippe Pelletier voulait un sapin plus grand que celui qui trône chaque année, depuis 1931, devant le Rockefeller Center à New York. Manque de pot, les New-Yorkais ont décidé de battre leur propre record. Celui qui a été inauguré mercredi soir fait 93 pieds. Non seulement notre sapin est le plus laid, mais il n’est pas le plus grand. Quel déshonneur ! Rendu là, allons tous nous cacher dans des grottes pour le temps des Fêtes ! C’est sûr que lorsqu’on tombe sur le fameux sapin, situé à l’entrée du Grand Marché de Noël, à l’angle des rues Jeanne-Mance et Sainte-Catherine, on a un choc. Mais une fois la surprise passée, on lui trouve plein de qualités. Ce sapin est un peu comme un petit chien bâtard dont personne ne veut et qui nous séduit avec ses grands yeux tristes. Je l’avoue, au bout de deux minutes, j’ai craqué pour ce sapin imparfait. J’ai voulu l’adopter. Je me contenterai de le défendre dans cette chronique. D’abord, si on avait voulu un beau sapin comme à New York, il aurait fallu faire comme les New-Yorkais. Philippe Pelletier m’a expliqué qu’une équipe américaine travaille pendant un mois à préparer l’arbre afin qu’il ait une forme conique impeccable. Cette équipe fait exactement ce que ma mère faisait : elle demandait à mon père de couper des branches dans le bas du sapin, de percer des trous avec sa Black & Decker et d’ajouter des branches partout où il y avait des espaces vides. Maniaque, ma mère ? Pas à peu près. Le sapin de New York qui a été inauguré jeudi, une épinette de Norvège, est composé d’un arbre repéré grâce à une recherche en hélicoptère. Il a ensuite été transporté à New York et « enrichi » de plusieurs autres sapins, il est décoré de 45 000 ampoules DEL et son sommet est orné d’une étoile composée de 25 000 cristaux créés par la maison Swarovski. On évalue les coûts de cette opération à environ 100 000 $. Notre sapin est un baumier du Québec entièrement naturel qui a coûté nettement moins cher (son prix n’a pas été dévoilé). Les coûts de son achat et des lumières ont été couverts par Canadian Tire qui s’offre du coup une commandite très visible (les ornements publicitaires en guise de décoration sont un peu trop criards à mon goût, surtout le jour). Je ne suis pas le seul à aimer le vilain sapin de Montréal. Mathieu, Alex, Adèle et Alexandra, tous étudiants dans la vingtaine, regardaient l’arbre d’un air attendri hier lorsque je les ai accostés. « On le trouve funky, cet arbre », a dit Alex. « On va faire partie des 50 % des gens qui aiment ce sapin », a ajouté Mathieu. Au pied du sapin, Henri Lamarre tient un petit kiosque de jouets. « J’entends plein de commentaires négatifs, mais je le trouve cool, cet arbre. » Non loin de nous, Cecilia tentait de se prendre en égoportrait devant le sapin. La femme s’était déplacée spécialement pour voir l’arbre. « Il n’est pas beau, mais, je ne sais pas pourquoi, je l’aime quand même. » Ce débat autour de l’apparence de ce sapin en dit long sur notre rapport à l’apparence esthétique. Dans un monde qui n’aime que le côté lisse et reluisant des choses, un sapin entièrement naturel, avec ses défauts, sa forme imparfaite, ses branches inégales et son sommet trapu, nous apparaît comme quelque chose de grotesque, de répulsif. Pire, il inspire la défaite et un certain côté « loser ». Alors, on fait avec ce sapin comme on fait avec tous les marginaux qui vivent dans nos sociétés, on le rejette, on rit de lui, on le méprise. Si on veut un beau sapin « botoxé » et « lifté », qu’on fasse comme les New-Yorkais : inventons-en un qui n’existe que dans nos fantasmes et les décors de Casse-Noisette. Demandons à Birks de fournir les décorations, aux étalagistes de Holt Renfrew de le parer et à Michèle Richard de venir chanter Petit papa Noël lors de la soirée d’inauguration. Je comprends ce désir de vivre à tout prix la fameuse « magie de Noël », mais je trouve que notre obsession de la perfection et de la beauté nous fait parfois perdre le contrôle. Lors de ma conversation avec les quatre étudiants, Mathieu a dit quelque chose d’important. Il a dit que ce sapin était à l’image des Montréalais, car il symbolise la diversité. Il a totalement raison, je trouve. Ce sapin nous représente parfaitement bien. Il est un amalgame de plein de choses. Il est imposant, majestueux, mais il est aussi un peu déglingué (n’ayons pas peur des mots), rebelle et échevelé. Il est surtout unique et authentique. Peut-être que ce vilain sapin est en train de fournir aux Montréalais un symbole. Et si, chaque année, au lieu de se créer un arbre de catalogue Sears, on s’évertuait à trouver celui qui est le plus vrai, le plus naturel, le plus authentique ? Ça nous rapprocherait de la sincérité. Une denrée rare de nos jours. Et en plus, ça nous ferait un bon sujet de discussion le 24 au soir autour de la dinde. « Non mais y est-tu assez laitte le sapin cette année ! — Oui, ils l’ont vraiment bien choisi ! »
  7. Le plus grand sapin de Noël d’Amérique recherché Montréal le veut pour le Quartier des spectacles Montréal n’a plus que deux semaines pour trouver le sapin de Noël d’une hauteur de huit étages qu’elle compte installer pour la première fois au cœur du Quartier des spectacles. «On avait trouvé plusieurs candidats potentiels de 26 mètres, dans les Cantons-de-l’Est. On ne s’attendait pas à ce que New York fasse mieux», raconte le cofondateur de Sapin MTL, Philippe Pelletier. À deux semaines de la cérémonie d’illumination, prévue pour le 30 novembre à l’angle des rues Sainte-Catherine et Jeanne-Mance, les organisateurs ont appris que le traditionnel sapin new-yorkais atteindrait cette année 28 mètres, soit le deuxième plus grand en 85 ans. «On veut trouver le plus beau, le plus gros et le plus grand conifère pour le 375e anniversaire de Montréal. Et on espère détrôner New York et son sapin du Rockefeller Center», admet M. Pelletier. Aide du public Le Grand marché de Noël de Montréal et Sapin MTL, qui chapeautent le projet, demandent donc l’aide du public pour trouver un «monstre vert» d’au moins 28 mètres. Selon M. Pelletier, les épinettes de Norvège, très concentrées dans les Cantons-de-l’Est, sont d’excellents candidats. Il recommande aux Québécois de garder l’œil ouvert, car le sapin recherché pourrait bien se trouver chez votre voisin. «On risque de le trouver sur un terrain privé où il n’y a pas trop de grands arbres autour et beaucoup de soleil. C’est de cette façon qu’ils peuvent atteindre cette hauteur sans être dégarnis à la base», dit-il. «Et comme ce sont généralement des arbres en fin de vie, il est parfois plus sécuritaire de les couper avant qu’ils ne tombent», ajoute-t-il. 26 mètres Cependant, s’ils ne trouvent pas mieux que le candidat actuel de 26 mètres, les Montréalais pourront au moins se targuer d’avoir «le plus grand sapin du Cana*da», rigole M. Pelletier. Une grande équipe devra se mettre en branle pour couper le mastodonte et le transporter jusqu’à Montréal. Il faut une grue pour garder l’arbre en place pendant la coupe. Il sera ensuite emballé branche par branche et transporté, avec des véhicules d’escorte, sur une remorque télescopique qui peut déplacer des arbres allant jusqu’à 35 mètres. Le plus grand sapin de Noel d’Amerique recherche | JDM
  8. [video=youtube;WH-3FsmU6KQ] At Amtrak we know the future of the Northeast Corridor (NEC) depends on the investments we make today, which is why we are excited to announce the upcoming arrival of the next-generation of high-speed rail. The new trainsets will replace the current Acela Express equipment and begin service in 2021. As part of this multi-faceted modernization program, Amtrak is also investing in the infrastructure needed to improve your customer experience onboard the train and in major NEC stations including Washington Union Station and Moynihan Station New York. This investment will expand and modernize the Acela Express service you’ve come to expect, while adding the amenities and ride quality of international high-speed train services. This next-generation of Acela Express will give you a more comfortable and productive travel experience throughout your entire journey. Just a few of the new amenities include: Approximately one-third more passenger seating, while preserving the spacious, high-end comfort found onboard today Modern interior design Improved Wi-Fi access and quality Personal outlets, USB ports and adjustable reading lights at every seat Enhanced food service options Exceed the ADA minimum accessibility requirements By adding 40-percent more trainsets than the current Acela Express fleet, we are providing you with more travel options. Upon delivery of the new trainsets, Acela Express service will be offered every half-hour between Washington, D.C. and New York City during peak times, and every hour between New York City and Boston throughout the day. This expanded fleet will give you more departure options during peak travel times. The new trainsets are among the safest, most reliable and energy efficient in the world. They have a 35-year track record of transporting billions of customers to their destinations safely. In reliability, we anticipate the new trainsets will be at least eight times more reliable than the equipment it replaces, ensuring that we will get you where you need to go on time, every time. Finally, the new trainsets will reduce operating energy consumption by at least 20 percent, through a combination of minimal aerodynamic drag and lightweight design. This is the most significant investment Amtrak has made in its infrastructure and technology in the 45 years of providing passenger rail service to the American public and it was important to us that these trainsets be “Made in America” as much as possible. For this project, we are pleased to be partnering with Alstom, a leading global provider of innovative systems and equipment in the railway sector. Alstom will be building these new trainsets in New York State, with 95 percent of the trainset’s components being made in America, and parts coming from more than 350 suppliers in over 30 U.S. states. We look forward to having you join us on this journey as we work to revolutionize high-speed passenger rail in the country, support the American economy and continue to provide you with a reliable, smooth and efficient ride as you travel throughout the Northeast. Continue to check back here for more details on the progress of next-generation high-speed rail on the Northeast Corridor. Amtrak’s Next-Generation of High-Speed Trains - blog.amtrak.com
  9. Revitalizing Calgary's core: Some possibilities for rebirth 'Calgary has reinvented itself before ... from a ranching/agriculture-based economy to oil and gas' By Richard White, CBC News Posted: Jun 17, 2016 While it is shocking that Calgary's downtown skyscraper vacancy rate skyrocketed to 20 per cent at the end of March, and that it could soon surpass the vacancy record of 22 per cent set in 1983 (twice what it was a year ago), we should keep some perspective. These numbers are not unheard of in major corporate headquarter cities. Back in the 1970s, New York City was in decline. By the mid-70s, the city came close to bankruptcy and its office vacancy rate hit 20 per cent. In 1993, Toronto's downtown office vacancy rate hit 20.4 per cent. Vancouver's rose to 17.4 per cent in 2004. And these may not even be records, as data only goes back to 1990 for those cities. Today, New York City, Toronto and Vancouver's downtowns are booming. All downtowns go through periods of growth, decline and rebirth. Montreal's decline and rebirth In the '60s, the case could still be made Montreal was Canada's business capital. Its downtown was a major office headquarters for Quebec's natural resource industry as well as a thriving financial industry, including the head offices of the Bank of Montreal, Royal Bank of Canada and insurance giant Sun Life. In 1962, when the Place Ville Marie office designed by iconic architects I.M. Pei and Henry N. Cobb opened, it symbolized Montreal's arrival as a world-class city. This was further reinforced with the hosting of Expo '67, the arrival of Montreal Expos baseball team in 1969, and the 1976 Olympics. However, the '70s brought the threat of separation, which prompted many corporate headquarters and their executives to move to Toronto. By 1971, Toronto's population surpassed Montreal's. The 1976 Montreal Olympics, the most expensive in history, plunged the city into a legacy of debt and decline for decades. Today, Montreal has reinvented itself as an international tourist destination and a major player in the gaming and music industries. New York's return from the brink In 1975, New York City was on the brink of bankruptcy. The gradual economic and social decay set in during the '60s. The city's subway system was regarded as unsafe due to crime and frequent mechanical breakdowns. Central Park was the site of numerous muggings and rapes; homeless persons and drug dealers occupied boarded-up and abandoned buildings. Times Square became an ugly, seedy place dominated by crime, drugs and prostitution. Today, New York City is back as one of the world's most successful cities, economically and culturally, and Times Square is again one of the world's most popular urban tourist attractions. Calgary's future Perhaps Calgary has already begun to reinvent itself. Despite the growing vacancy rate downtown, the CBRE's First Quarter 2016 Report says, "Not all commercial real estate in the city has been affected, though. Suburban office space held steady from the last quarter, and the industrial real estate market is still robust because it's not tied to oil and gas." Indeed, Calgary has become one of North America's largest inland port cities, including two state-of-the art intermodal rail operations. Calgary is now the distribution headquarters for Western Canada, a position once held by Winnipeg. And so Calgary's industrial sectors employ more people than the energy sector. Calgary Economic Development is working with the real estate community to implement a "Head Office/Downtown Office Plan" with three action items. One idea is the repurposing of smaller older office spaces as incubators and innovation hubs to attract millennials and/or entrepreneurs. A good example of this is in West Hillhurst, where Arlene Dickenson has converted an old office building at the corner of Memorial Drive and Kensington Road that was once home to an engineering firm into District Ventures, home to several startup packaged goods companies. Another repurposing idea would be to convert some older office buildings into residential uses. In the U.S., programs like Vacant Places Into Vibrant Spaces have been successful but mostly for office to residential conversions of older buildings with smaller floor plates. They don't work for offices buildings with floor plates over 7,500 square feet (which is the case for most of Calgary's empty high-rise office space), as it is expensive and difficult to meet residential building codes, which are very different from commercial ones, making it tough to compete with new residential construction. In an ideal world, Calgary could become a global talent hub, where skilled workers who have been displaced from the energy and related industries continue to live in Calgary but become a remote workforce for energy projects around the world. Temporary and permanent satellite offices could be established in Calgary with teams of engineers, geologists, accountants, bankers etc. working on projects around the world. The obvious strategy would be to woo international companies in the finance, insurance, transportation, agriculture, digital media and renewable resources to set up a Canadian or North American office in Calgary, maybe even relocate here. With cities like San Francisco, Seattle and Boston facing major affordable housing crises for millennial workers, Calgary could become a very attractive place for a satellite office for companies in those cities. One "off the wall" idea postulated by George Brookman, CEO of West Canadian Industries, would be to promote Calgary as an "International Centre for Energy Dispute Resolution," similar to the Netherland's TAMARA (Transportation And Maritime Arbitration Rotterdam-Amsterdam), which offers an extrajudicial platform for conducting professional arbitration for settling disputes. However, one wonders: Could Calgary compete with London and New York, which are already leaders in the international arbitration business? Incentivize rebirth Calgary has reinvented itself before, evolving from a ranching/agriculture-based economy to oil and gas in the middle of the 20th century. Indeed, the downtown core, which is an office ghetto today, would benefit immensely if incentives could be made to convert a dozen or so office buildings into condos, apartments or hotels to foster a rebirth of the core as a place to live. Calgary at a Crossroads is CBC Calgary's special focus on life in our city during the downturn. A look at Calgary's culture, identity and what it means to be Calgarian. Read more stories from the series at Calgary at a Crossroads. http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/calgary-core-kickstart-richard-white-1.3638276
  10. Montréal Art déco Jean-Christophe Laurence La Presse Publié le 20 mai 2009 à 07h44 | Mis à jour le 20 mai 2009 à 07h52 Le cinéma Snowdon, boulevard Décarie. Photo fournie par Art Déco Montréal Bien peu de gens le savent, mais Montréal compte parmi les plus importantes villes d'architecture Art déco de la planète. Le problème, c'est que ce patrimoine bâti est trop souvent négligé, quand il n'est pas carrément démoli, comme ce fut le cas l'an dernier du mythique Ben's Delicatessen. C'est un peu, beaucoup dans l'espoir de sensibiliser nos élus à cette richesse mal exploitée, que Sandra et Colin Cohen-Rose, fondateurs de l'organisme Art déco Montréal, ont décidé d'accueillir le 10e Congrès international d'Art déco le week-end prochain, avec des visiteurs venus d'aussi loin que la Nouvelle-Zélande. «Les gens ne réalisent pas l'importance de cet héritage, souligne Sandra Cohen-Rose, auteure du livre Northern Deco: Art Deco Architecture in Montreal. Au delà de sa valeur historique, c'est une richesse qui pourrait rapporter beaucoup d'argent au plan touristique. À New York, le bâtiment le plus populaire est encore le Chrysler Building. Ça en dit beaucoup sur l'attrait de ce style.» Selon Mme Rose, d'autres villes dans le monde exploitent déjà avec succès leur patrimoine Art déco. C'est le cas de South Beach en Floride, de Napier en Nouvelle-Zélande et de Saint-Quentin en France, qui l'ont mis au centre de leurs programmes touristiques. Avec des lieux aussi connus que le cabaret du Lion d'or, la Casa d'Italia, le Cinéma Empress, le théâtre Le Château, l'église Saint-Esprit, l'Université de Montréal ou le mythique 9e étage de chez Eaton, Montréal a tout ce qu'il faut pour jouer dans les mêmes ligues, croient M. et Mme Cohen-Rose. Mais encore faut-il que le politique s'en soucie, ajoutent-ils. Si certains de ces édifices sont aujourd'hui protégés (Eaton's, le Château), la plupart ne bénéficient d'aucun statut, ce qui les rend encore vulnérables. Le cas de Ben's, détruit il y a peu, est encore frais dans les mémoires. Mais on pourrait aussi mentionner le théâtre York, le théâtre Snowdon, l'ancien Woolworth. l'ancien Kresge ou l'hôtel Laurentien, que Sandra et Colin ont vu disparaître, en tout ou en partie, pendant le dernier quart de siècle. Un Art déco typiquement canadien? Consacré à Paris en 1925, l'Art déco (pour Art décoratif) a connu son heure de gloire jusqu'au milieu des années 50. Fait intéressant, Montréal a adopté très tôt ce style architectural en vogue, parce que plusieurs architectes allaient étudier en France. C'est le cas d'Ernest Cormier, à qui l'on doit certains des plus prestigieux édifices du genre, à commencer par le pavillon central de l'Université de Montréal, son grand oeuvre, dont la construction dura plus de 12 ans. Autre fait intéressant: l'Art déco canadien avait aussi sa propre couleur, ou plutôt son absence de couleur! Moins flamboyants qu'en Floride et moins mégalo qu'à New York, les constructions montréalaises se caractérisent généralement par leurs dimensions modestes (l'édifice Aldred, sommet du genre, ne fait que 24 étages) et leur côté «pierreux» un peu gris. Ironiquement, ce sont nos églises qui ont été les plus excentriques. Les créations du moine français Dom Bellot, surnommé le «poète de la brique» sont, à ce chapitre, très impressionnantes, notamment l'abbaye Saint-Benoît-du-Lac avec ses mosaïques de briques colorées. «L'architecture Art déco reflète le contexte social et économique d'une certaine période, souligne Sandra Cohen-Rose. Les églises voyaient gros et cherchaient à se moderniser. On remarque aussi des bas-reliefs très éloquents sur les édifices publics, qui représentent souvent l'époque ou un certain folklore propre à l'histoire du Québec.» C'est pourquoi il est vital de préserver ces bâtiments, conclut-elle. «Ils sont attirants pour les visiteurs, mais aussi importants pour les générations futures qui voudront comprendre d'où l'on vient...» En savoir plus Dixième Congrès international d'Art déco, du 24 au 30 mai. Informations sur le programme: http://artdecomontreal.com/fr/ La maison Cormier, avenue des Pins. Photo fournie par Art Déco Montréal Montréal Art déco 10 adresses 1. Pavillon principal de l'Université de Montréal. 2. Oratoire Saint-Joseph. 3. Théâtre Snowdon. 4. Cinéma Empress. 5. Neuvième étage de chez Eaton 6. Pavillon central du Jardin botanique 7. Cabaret le Lion d'or (rue Ontario, angle Papineau) 8. Théâtre Le Château (angle Saint-Denis et Bélanger) 9. Casa d'Italia (angle Berri et Jean-Talon) 10. Église Saint-Esprit (angle Rosemont et 8e Avenue)
  11. http://www.smart-magazine.com/en/jan-gehl-architect-interview/ Jan_Gehl_Portrait The city whisperer Portrait 3 minutes read - Oliver Herwig on November 3rd, 2015 Jan Gehl champions something that few architects have mastered: cities for people. The Dane favors compact neighborhoods over grand master plans. The 79-year-old city planner values the wishes of residents over architecture. And his resounding success proves him right. Ssssshhhhhrrrrr. In the background, a cordless screwdriver buzzes away. Jan Gehl apologizes for the distraction; “Excuse me, they’re doing some work in the kitchen.” Life is quite busy for the professor emeritus and city planner. As a city planner, Gehl‘s detail orientation and screw-tightening skills come in handy wherever mayors or councilors realize that something needs to change. Over the past few years, they have been beating a path to his door: Gehl is considered a top global expert on humane cities. “I’m an idealist,” states the 79-year-old. “And the projects I’m working on are all about creating better environments for pedestrians and public life.” To Gehl, both of these are intrinsically linked – people should be able to experience their city on foot. He goes on to scoff that we know more about the perfect habitat for Siberian tigers than a good environment for people. His wife Ingrid and he started out studying life in the cities – and then traveled to Italy on a grant in 1965. In 1971, “Livet mellem husene,” life between buildings, was the first result of their studies between streets and squares – and turned out to be quite a flop. Yet Gehl labored on and continued to hone and develop his methods over the years, by then a professor at the Royal Danish Academy of Arts. Jan Gehl Brighton “My projects are all about creating better environments for pedestrians”. Photo: Gehl Architects Gehl’s foremost success is Copenhagen Today, his successes prove him right. And the standout example is Copenhagen – the city of Gehl’s alma mater, teaching career, and a company he co-founded. In a way, it serves as an open-air lab for his ideas: All the way back in 1965, the city – advised by Gehl – created Europe’s longest pedestrian zone, the Strøget. Copenhagen has become a template for the fundamental shift from post war car-centric cities to more pedestrian-friendly 21st century metropolises. “In order to reclaim a human dimension, city planners need to re-evaluate the many capacity-friendly ideas,” he states in the recently released “Cities for People”. This means: Our cities are filled with too many traffic lights, narrow sidewalks, and multi-lane highways that squeeze in pedestrians and force them to cross streets in a rush. According to Gehl, that’s not a given: “There is a good, pedestrian-friendly solution for any traffic planning issue.” And he adds that “it is high time to revisit our priorities.” To this end, Gehl has introduced a check list of small changes that – taken together – produce great results. He favors “polite reminders” (as in Copenhagen) over flashing traffic lights that “encourage hasty crossings” (as in New York City). Gloomy pedestrian underpasses (like the one near Zurich’s train station) should be replaced by sunlit “zebra crossings at street level.” Copenhagen stroget Jan Gehl Advised by Gehl, Copenhagen installed Europe’s longest pedestrian zone, the Strøget. Photo: Yadid Levy / Getty Images From New York City to Shanghai: a globally sought-after urban consultant Gehl knows cities better than most. Paraphrasing a well-known analogy, some people are good with horses and become horse whisperers, while others are good with people. The latter usually become doctors, nurses, or priests. As a city planner, Jan Gehl is a little bit of all. First and foremost, however, he is a self-professed “missionary.” He preaches human scale development and has been consulting for cities around the world for years, helping them to redesign entire neighborhoods to benefit their residents. The formula is simple: go to the city, observe, and listen. And then join together to effect change. A fun video on his website tells the story behind it all. It took the love of developmental psychologist Ingrid to open the builder’s eyes: Architecture should serve people. In this spirit, Jan Gehl draws on insights by sociologists and psychologists to turn ivory tower planning into bona fide collaborations. The Herald Square before Jan Gehl The Herald Square in New York City before … Photo: DOT The Herald Square after Jan Gehl … and after Gehl Architects. Photo: DOT Gehl’s top priority: the human scale His drive really picked up in 2000 when Gehl and Helle Søholt, a former student, joined forces to found the company Gehl Architects. Maybe, it’s all just a question of scale. Modernism delighted in completely redesigning metropolises or conjuring up abstract plans on the drawing board. Builders like Le Corbusier, who considered rented dwellings “housing units” or “living machines,” liked to subdivide cities by function. This is a kind of thinking Gehl would like to leave behind. The architect is less interested in models and buildings than in their residents. Over the years, Gehl came up with a range of basic principles that support and define thriving communities around the world. One of these rules might be not to build skyscrapers since six or more levels up residents lose touch with the street and feel removed from it all. Or: consider the ground floor. It shouldn’t be uniform or forbidding, but varied and full of surprises. MarDelPlata Jan Gehl Gehl’s formula is simple: … Photo: Municipality of Mar del Plata Mar Del Plata Jan Gehl … go to the city, observe, and listen. Photo: Municipality of Mar del Plata “Better city spaces, more city life“ Nowadays, Gehl provides coaching for cities like New York City, Shanghai, Singapore, St. Petersburg, or Almaty. And his insights sound so simple, matter of fact, and even trivial that it can be hard to fathom how our modern cities, divided by functions, could ever have forgotten these wisdoms. “Better city spaces, more city life,” one of his premises states. High quality spaces encourage leisure activities and interactions. “It’s so obvious, we have simply overlooked it.” P.S. The interview was conducted over an old telephone on the fifth floor of a building in the center of Munich. Sao Paulo Jan Gehl “Better city spaces, more city life.“ Phpto: Luis E. S. Brettas Header image: Sandra Henningsson / Rights Gehl Architects sent via Tapatalk
  12. Montréal est 20ieme dans la liste de 20 villes. Challengers to Silicon Valley include New York, L.A., Boston, Tel Aviv, and London. RICHARD FLORIDA @Richard_Florida http://www.citylab.com/tech/2015/07/the-worlds-leading-startup-cities/399623/?utm_source=SFFB sent via Tapatalk
  13. Credit : Le Point.fr À plus de 380 mètres de haut, les visiteurs pourront admirer, dès le 29 mai, tous les monuments et célèbres parcs de New York. Terminé en 2013, le plus haut gratte-ciel de la ville a accueilli ses premiers occupants à l'automne. Pour les New-Yorkais, il s'agit d'écrire une nouvelle page après le traumatisme des attentats, il y a presque 14 ans. Une fois les portiques de sécurité passés, les visiteurs embarquent dans un ascenseur aux parois animées. Toute l'histoire de New York y défile sous leurs yeux. Sur des écrans LED, on découvre la mégalopole se construisant à toute allure, depuis les pâturages jusqu'à la ville actuelle et ses gratte-ciel. Les anciennes tours du World Trade Center y apparaissent très brièvement.Le voyage dure 47 secondes, le temps d'accéder au 100e étage de la tour et à la clé un panorama à couper le souffle. Trois à quatre millions de visiteurs sont attendus au cours de la première année. L'entrée coûte 32 dollars pour les adultes et 26 dollars pour les enfants.
  14. New York City at top of the list for this year according to Economist's FDI magazine. Toronto at no.5, Montréal at no 9 for major American cities. Source: http://www.fdiintelligence.com
  15. Qui l’eût cru ? De toutes les villes américaines, c’est New York, et sa grande région de 20 millions d’habitants, qui a le plus faible taux d’émission de gaz à effet de serre (GES) par habitant. Son secret ? Un large système de transport collectif, constamment repensé par l’équipe de Projjal Dutta, l’homme derrière la « stratégie verte » de l’autorité new-yorkaise des transports. http://www.ledevoir.com/environnement/actualites-sur-l-environnement/435194/sur-la-route-ges-les-secrets-de-la-grosse-pomme
  16. http://www.citylab.com/navigator/2015/02/play-god-with-this-customizable-miniature-city/385054/?utm_source=SFFB NAVIGATOR Play God With This Customizable Miniature City The 3D-printed buildings are based on architecture in New York, Chicago, and elsewhere, and can glow at night. JOHN METCALFE @citycalfe 7:00 AM ET Comments Image Ittyblox Ittyblox Perfect for the urban-planning wonk who wants to build a personal city—or the destructive child who'd like to stomp one to bits—are these tiny, customizable dioramas, which include skyscrapers that can be hacked to glow in the dark. The adult toys, called Ittyblox, are 3D-printed by the New York/Netherlands company Shapeways, and include a variety of constituent pieces. There's this glassy, jet-black Chicago office tower, for instance, and also a cute clump of New York townhouses. Each one has a different footprint, so arranging them to fit the baseplate might require a bit of "Tetris" skill. But don't worry about troublesome zoning issues—you're the god of this Twilight Zone civilization. At least some pieces, like the 1:1000-scale Guggenheim Museum and Tudor City building, are based on real-life structures. And all are cut with fantastic detail. Here's the product description for that Chicago tower: "Because some offices have their sun shades down, there is a variation in window color. The rooftop is detailed with a few air conditioning units." The blocks range from $6 to $93, with multibuilding sets accounting for the more expensive prices; add in $20 for the baseplate plus shipping. Making the buildings glow requires work, though it's probably worth it to the hardcore model fan; some of the windows are cut out and will become illuminated if underlit with an LED. Check out this guide for detailed instructions. sent via Tapatalk
  17. Montréal doesn't seem so bad when you compare to the project management of the NYC Port Authority..WOW http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/03/nyregion/the-4-billion-train-station-at-the-world-trade-center.html?ref=nyregion&_r=2 How Cost of Train Station at World Trade Center Swelled to $4 Billion With its long steel wings poised sinuously above the National September 11 Memorial in Lower Manhattan, the World Trade Center Transportation Hub has finally assumed its full astonishing form, more than a decade after it was conceived. Its colossal avian presence may yet guarantee the hub a place in the pantheon of civic design in New York. But it cannot escape another, more ignominious distinction as one of the most expensive and most delayed train stations ever built. The price tag is approaching $4 billion, almost twice the estimate when plans were unveiled in 2004. Administrative costs alone — construction management, supervision, inspection, monitoring and documentation, among other items — exceed $655 million. Even the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which is developing and building the hub, conceded that it would have made other choices had it known 10 years ago what it knows now. “It looks like a bird carcass picked clean. Not the intended symbolism, I'm sure.” “We would not today prioritize spending $3.7 billion on the transit hub over other significant infrastructure needs,” Patrick J. Foye, the authority’s executive director, said in October. The current, temporary trade center station serves an average of 46,000 commuters riding PATH trains to and from New Jersey every weekday, only 10,000 more than use the unassuming 33rd Street PATH terminal in Midtown Manhattan. By contrast, 208,000 Metro-North Railroad commuters stream through Grand Central Terminal daily. In fact, the hub, or at least its winged “Oculus” pavilion, could turn out to be more of a high-priced mall than a transportation nexus, attracting more shoppers than commuters. The company operating the mall, Westfield Corporation, promises in a promotional video that it will be “the most alluring retail landmark in the world.” But whatever its ultimate renown, the hub has been a money-chewing project plagued by problems far beyond an exotic and expensive design by its exacting architect, Santiago Calatrava, according to an examination based on two dozen interviews and a review of hundreds of pages of documents. The soaring price tag has also been fueled by the demands of powerful politicians whose priorities outweighed worries about the bottom line, as well as the Port Authority’s questionable management and oversight of private contractors. George E. Pataki, a Republican who was then the governor of New York, was considering a run for president and knew his reputation would be burnished by a train terminal he said would claim a “rightful place among New York City’s most inspiring architectural icons.” He likened the transportation hub to Grand Central and promised — unrealistically — that it would be operating in 2009. But the governor fully supported the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s desire to keep the newly rebuilt No. 1 subway line running through the trade center site, instead of allowing the Port Authority to temporarily close part of the line and shave months and hundreds of millions of dollars off the hub’s construction. That, however, would have cut an important transit link and angered commuters from Staten Island, a Republican stronghold, who use the No. 1 line after getting off the ferry. The authority was forced to build under, around and over the subway line, at a cost of at least $355 million.
  18. La Presse Le mardi 01 mai 2007 Non, ce n'est pas une impression. Il y a beaucoup de graffitis à Montréal. En fait, la métropole québécoise est devenue un royaume pour les graffiteurs et les taggeurs. Elle surpasse même New York. Alors que le beau temps marque le retour des graffiteurs, réflexion sur ce moyen d'expression perçu comme une véritable tare par une majorité de citoyens. Depuis quelques jours, les graffiteurs ont repris du service. Les murs de la ville sont «enrichis» de nouveaux tags. Tout cela au grand dam des autorités et de nombreux Montréalais. «Montréal est maintenant une ville reconnue pour ses graffitis, dit le cinéaste Pablo Aravena. Elle côtoie Berlin et São Paulo.» Celui qui donne ce nouveau titre à la métropole québécoise a visité 10 grandes villes pour réaliser Next : À Primer on Urban Painting, un documentaire sur le phénomène des graffitis. «Les jeunes ont besoin d'un espace pour s'exprimer, reprend-il. S'ils ne l'ont pas, ils s'arrangent pour le trouver. Cette recherche de l'espace public est intimement liée à la démarche du taggeur.» À la lumière de ces propos, difficile de voir comment les autorités arriveront un jour à freiner la multiplication des graffitis, considérés par plusieurs comme une véritable pollution visuelle. Pourtant, la Ville de Montréal ne lâche pas prise. L'an dernier, l'enlèvement des graffitis a coûté pas moins de 10 millions de dollars. «À elle seule, la Ville a dépensé 6,5 millions de dollars pour nettoyer les propriétés publiques, explique Marcel Tremblay, responsable de la propreté au Comité exécutif de la Ville de Montréal. Le reste est assumé par le secteur public. Ça représente 140 000 mètres carrés, c'est-à-dire l'équivalent de 26 terrains de football. C'est scandaleux», ajoute-t-il, visiblement ulcéré par cette situation. Marcel Tremblay n'en démord pas, les graffitis ne doivent pas être tolérés. «On n'est plus capables de contrôler les choses, dit-il. On est en train de détruire les équipements. On a un sérieux problème. Et quelle est la solution? Je ne sais plus.» Selon Pablo Aravena, les efforts de la Ville ne servent à rien. «Il y a un climat répressif très fort ici, mais il est inutile. Tout le monde donne l'exemple de New York et du maire Rudolph Giuliani pour parler d'un cas de réussite. Mais à New York, il y avait des escouades anti-graffitis. Ils sont allés très loin.» Le courant ne passe plus entre la Ville de Montréal et les adeptes du graffiti. Les tentatives des élus pour se rapprocher des jeunes graffiteurs ne semblent pas porter leurs fruits. «M. Tremblay ne connaît rien là-dedans, dit Sterling Downey, l'un des responsables de l'événement Under Pressure, qui rassemble chaque année à Montréal des centaines de graffiteurs. Il va chercher son information sur l'Internet.» Sous la pression des citoyens qui souhaitent voir les graffitis disparaître du décor urbain, les élus se font plus sévères. «Un responsable de la Ville m'a téléphoné pour me dire que le nettoyage des graffitis sur le site de notre événement avait coûté l'an dernier 10 000 $, raconte Sterling Downey. Je lui ai demandé de me dire combien coûtait l'opération de nettoyage après le Festival de jazz de Montréal.» Sterling Downey reconnaît que pendant quelques années, la Ville a démontré une certaine volonté à vouloir comprendre la démarche des graffiteurs. Mais ce dialogue n'existe plus. «Pour la Ville, comprendre veut dire être de notre bord. Donc, ils ont remplacé quelqu'un qui était ouvert à notre démarche pour le remplacer par un fonctionnaire qui ne comprend rien aux graffitis.» «Je suis d'accord pour qu'on donne aux gens des moyens pour s'exprimer, réplique Marcel Tremblay, mais pas sur les propriétés privées. C'est du vandalisme, un point c'est tout.» Parmi les nombreuses mesures proposées par la Ville pour combattre les graffitis, il y a celle de contrôler la vente de peintures en aérosol dans les magasins. Cette idée, empruntée à la Ville de Chicago, qui a adopté un règlement dans ce sens, a été mise en veilleuse l'automne dernier. En attendant, la présence des graffitis à Montréal continue d'enrager une majorité de citoyens. «Ceux qui disent que c'est beau n'en n'ont jamais eu chez eux», dit Philippe Raymond, un propriétaire du Plateau. Quatre fois l'été dernier, ce résidant a dû faire nettoyer sa propriété pour la débarrasser de graffitis indésirables. «Chaque fois, j'ai été insulté, dit-il. C'est une agression visuelle. Le problème, c'est que tu as beau nettoyer ta maison, les autres propriétaires endurent les leurs. Donc, ça encourage les graffiteurs à revenir.» Même découragé, Marcel Tremblay ne baisse pas les bras. Selon lui, il faut que la Ville exerce un partage de répression et d'éducation. «Il faudrait que les parents des graffiteurs pris en défaut payent les frais de nettoyage, dit-il. Quant aux graffiteurs, quelques heures de travaux communautaires ne leur feraient pas de tort.»
  19. http://www.lapresse.ca/international/dossiers/virus-ebola/201410/23/01-4812090-un-patient-atteint-debola-a-new-york.php Publié le 23 octobre 2014 à 20h48 | Mis à jour le 23 octobre 2014 à 23h14 Un patient atteint d'Ebola à New York Agence France-Presse Un médecin de New York récemment revenu d'Afrique de l'Ouest a contracté le virus Ebola, a annoncé jeudi soir le maire de la ville, Bill de Blasio. Ce médecin de 33 ans qui avait travaillé en Guinée pour Médecins sans Frontières avec des malades d'Ebola est le premier cas avéré d'Ebola dans la plus grande ville américaine et le quatrième aux États-Unis. «Il n'y a pas de raison pour les New-Yorkais de s'inquiéter», a déclaré M. de Blasio lors d'une conférence de presse, insistant sur le fait que la ville de 8,4 millions d'habitants s'était préparée à cette éventualité. Le médecin, Craig Spencer, avait été hospitalisé plus tôt dans la journée avec plus de 39 de fièvre et des douleurs abdominales. Des examens approfondis avaient été décidés au regard de «ses récents voyages, des symptômes et de son travail passé», avaient expliqué les autorités sanitaires new-yorkaises. Il a été immédiatement placé en quarantaine à l'hôpital Bellevue de Manhattan. L'hôpital Bellevue est l'un des établissements spécialement préparés pour gérer les éventuels cas d'Ebola à New York. Les autorités new-yorkaises, sur le pied de guerre face à la menace depuis plusieurs semaines, ont également lancé une enquête pour savoir quelles personnes le jeune médecin pourrait avoir rencontrées à New York et potentiellement mis en danger depuis son retour d'Afrique il y a dix jours. Sa petite amie a été placée en isolation, et l'appartement du médecin à Harlem scellé. Médecins sans Frontières (MSF) a confirmé qu'un personnel médical ayant travaillé pour l'organisation «dans un des pays d'Afrique de l'Ouest affectés par Ebola, l'avait informé jeudi qu'il avait de la fièvre. Dans le cadre des consignes strictes données à son personnel de retour d'une mission Ebola, cette personne surveillait régulièrement sa santé, et a fait part de ce développement immédiatement», a ajouté MSF USA. MSF a alors prévenu les services de santé de New York, là encore dans le cadre des protocoles en place. Le médecin a alors été transporté par ambulance de son domicile de Harlem à l'hôpital Bellevue, par une équipe spécialement formée et portant des tenues de protection. Les résultats de ses examens médicaux établissant que Craig Spencer a contracté le virus Ebola sont préliminaires, et devront encore être confirmés par les Centres américains de contrôle et de prévention des maladies (CDC). Le Liberia, la Guinée et la Sierra Leone sont les trois pays les plus touchés par la fièvre hémorragique virale qui a fait 4877 morts sur 9936 cas, selon le dernier bilan de l'Organisation mondiale de la santé (OMS).
  20. Montréal: Canada’s innovation epicenter Posted on November 21st, 2007 by Mitch Brisebois Where do Canada’s innovators live? Mostly Montréal. Followed by Ottawa. A quick database search of The US Patent and Trademark Office reveals that 4,931 granted patents are held by inventors living in Montreal. Ottawa-based inventors offer up 3,402 patents. Here’s a coast to coast breakdown of the top 10 major centers: Montréal - 4,931 Ottawa - 3,402 Toronto - 3,187 Vancouver - 2,407 Calgary - 1,598 Edmonton - 1,293 Quebec City - 702 Winnipeg - 696 Saskatoon - 470 St. John’s - 117 These are respectable enough numbers. But… consider New York City: 22,571 patents.
  21. Read more: http://www.journaldequebec.com/2014/10/01/un-chef-quebecois-etoile
  22. GFCI 16 provides profiles, rating and rankings for 83 financial centres, drawing on two separate sources of data - instrumental factors (external indices) and responses to an online survey. 105 factors have been used in GFCI 16, of which 42 have been updated since GFCI 15 and 4 are new. New York, London, Hong Kong and Singapore remain the top four centres. All fourt centres lose.points in the GFCI ratings but retain their relative ranks. New York remains the top centre but by only one point on a scale of 1,000. Following GFCI 15, London remains just behind New York due to uncertainty over the UK’s position in Europe, regulatory creep and the UK appearing to be less welcoming to foreigners all being contributing factors. ... Montreal went from 16th to 18th but still is in the top 20 !! http://www.zyen.com
  23. Une journaliste du Toronto Star, Katie Doubs, s'en prend à un commentateur d'un quotidien de Chicago, Neil Steinberg, qui ridiculise la prétention de Toronto d'être la quatrième ville en importance en Amérique du Nord. Évidemment, Mme Doubs ne peut résister au passage de se montrer mesquine à l'endroit du Québec. Someone in Chicago has finally noticed Toronto has surpassed it in population, and he’s wryly congratulating us on the extra people. Neil Steinberg, Chicago Sun-Times columnist, notes that to even parse the comparison to Chicago is “an insult to our city.” He has been to Toronto and doesn’t want to “give the impression that people who live there are anonymous ciphers grinding through joyless lives devoid of charm or significance.” So he recalls some Toronto highlights: the Tim Hortons’ outlets, the monument to multiculturalism, the “nondescript skyline whose only noteworthy element is a TV antenna.” In the tradition of stories in which we report the different ways Americans notice us and defend our beloved TV antenna, doesn’t anyone in the Chicago media get the press releases about the CN Tower light show? Since amalgamation, Toronto has billed itself as North America’s fifth largest city behind Mexico City, New York, Los Angeles and Chicago. But according to census data from Statistics Canada, as of last July 1, Toronto’s population was 2,791,140, about 84,000 more than Chicago’s 2,707,120. While the numbers are estimates, Toronto economic development staffers have already declared the city is “the fourth largest municipality in North America. Steinberg’s story was an assignment. He says he’s a humorist. He never would have heard of our alleged population victory otherwise. Somehow, that stings even more. He laughs. He knows that. “To me this is just jovial all good fun that journalists do to sell their papers. I don’t want to be the Ann Coulter of Canada,” he said from his office, where he’s checking out the reaction on Twitter, where people aren’t taking it in good fun. Steinberg says he is being called uneducated, bitter and even a “Nazi” for his effort. He said most people were upset by the bit he wrote about Americans never thinking or caring about Canada. “I’m sorry to be the one to tell you, if you ask people who the Prime Minister of Canada is — God is it Stephen Harper? Tell me it is — you could put a gun to most Americans heads, they would be dead, they wouldn’t come up with that,” he said. He noted that comparing cities is a classic trope. “Chicagoans, to the degree, if we did think about it, that we’re superior to Toronto, it’s to soften the sting of looking longingly towards New York City and wanting to be them,” he said. “Everyone is looking somewhere else for validation. There is nothing wrong with that. I don’t think we should be ashamed of that, we speak the same language, we’re all bound together in the mutual joy of not being Quebec.” Steinberg was last in Toronto in 2008, He stayed at the Fairmont Royal York, went to the Taste of the Danforth, checked out the CN tower. He really loved African Lion Safari, although that’s admittedly outside the population boundaries. “I was tempted to say I’ve been to the great cultural spots in Canada, I’ve been to Potato World. I actually did stop at Potato World. Do you know where that is? It’s on the way to Nova Scotia, it’s in some huge potato processing company there that runs a theme world about potatoes.”[/b]
  24. <header style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; line-height: 16px;">http://www.ledevoir.com/art-de-vivre/voyage/401202/tourismeurbain-le-charme-apres-la-conquete TOURISME URBAINPasser «Go» et réclamer la ville Des tours de vélo à New York, à Chicago et à Montréal. Zéro auto. Les mains sur le guidon. </header>1 mars 2014 | Émilie Folie-Boivin | Voyage <figure class="photo_portrait left" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; float: left; width: 224px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; line-height: 16px;"><figcaption style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 0.846em; line-height: 1.2em; padding: 2px 0px 15px;">Photo : Émilie Folie-Boivin Le DevoirLe tour Bike the Drive de Chicago se déroule dans une boucle de presque 50 kilomètres.</figcaption></figure>La meilleure manière de découvrir les plus beaux profils d’une ville ? Les deux mains sur le guidon, pendant les grands événements de vélo urbain. Petit tour de piste. Dans une grande ville, il vaut mieux se lever de bonne heure pour pédaler sans avoir à jouer du coude avec les voitures. Une fois par année, à l’occasion des tours urbains de New York (Five Boro Bike Tour), Chicago (Bike the Drive) et Montréal (La Féria, rebaptisée Go Vélo Montréal), c’est jour de fête. Pendant quelques heures, les voitures sont interdites sur les routes et les bicyclettes ont le champ libre. Pour en profiter, il faut aussi se lever à l’aube, mais l’expérience est plus sublime que bien des grasses matinées. C’est encore tout récent que les rues des grouillantes New York et Chicago célèbrent la gloire du vélo comme transport alternatif, et leurs efforts fulgurants leur ont permis de se tailler une place enviable parmi les villes nord-américaines où il fait bon rouler. Les activistes de ce mode de transport aux États-Unis s’inspirent d’ailleurs ouvertement du réseau cyclable de Montréal et de son Bixi dans leur développement urbain. Le vélo se porte bien, et ça se sent. Les tours Five Boro Bike Tour, Bike the Drive et ceux de Go Vélo Montréal sont tout sauf des courses. Qu’on roule en CCM ou en Argon, ils sont une célébration de la ville et de la bicyclette. En un avant-midi, on aboutit dans des quartiers que jamais on aurait l’occasion d’explorer autrement ; on rencontre des gens créatifs qui scotchent la bière de la victoire sur leur porte-bagages avec du duct tape gris ; on lève notre casque à ces mamans admirables qui roulent 64 kilomètres avec deux petits copilotes dans la remorque. On engloutit des bananes sur le bras dans les stations de ravitaillement (yé !), reçoit des échantillons de yogourt gratuits (re-yé !). Y a pas que l’avenir qui appartienne à ceux qui se lèvent tôt !
Y a la route aussi. Five Boro Bike Tour - Le charme après la conquête Avec leurs cris de joie sur la ligne de départ, les cyclistes en liesse enterraient le dernier tube de Beyoncé. L’humeur générale était aussi radieuse que la météo au point de départ, près du complexe du World Trade Center à Manhattan. En mai de chaque année, ils sont plus de 30 000 à pédaler les 64 kilomètres du Five Boro Bike Tour (5BBT), l’un des circuits urbains à vélo les plus courus en Amérique du Nord. Les dossards s’envolent presque aussi vite que les billets d’un spectacle d’Arcade Fire. New York a fait du chemin depuis la première édition de l’événement en 1977, auquel ont pris part 250 motivés : en moins de cinq ans, grâce à l’ancienne administration Bloomberg et à la détermination de la chef des transports, Janette Sadik-Khan, la mégalopole s’est métamorphosée. Celle-ci voulait une ville animée aux trottoirs bondés de gens et de mobilier élégant, des places publiques où flâner et des pistes cyclables sur lesquelles les enfants se sentiraient en sécurité. «C’est ce qui définit la qualité de vie dans une ville», disait-elle en entrevue au magazine New York. Mais ce matin-là, ensoleillé, le réseau cyclable était bien le dernier endroit où les participants voulaient rouler. Jusqu’à ce que les voitures reprennent leur dû, les montures auront cinq ponts à se mettre sous le pneumatique, des rues commerciales et résidentielles et des autoroutes (dont la fameuse Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, un interminable quatre-voies dont le seul charme réside dans cette troublante impression que si la fin du monde arrivait et que tout le monde essayait de décamper à vélo, ça ressemblerait à ça). Il y a peu d’occasions de visiter autant d’arrondissements en un week-end à New York. Et dans une journée comme celle-là, avec les résidants qui envoient la main aux cyclistes, on se sent comme de la visite attendue. Après avoir passé un Lower Manhattan saharaesque et bouleversé le jogging dominical dans Central Park, Harlem nous accueillait les bras ouverts avec une chorale gospel. Le genre de spectacles semés un peu partout sur le parcours pour motiver les troupes. À moins de faire un pèlerinage en l’honneur d’Un prince à New York ou d’avoir de la famille dans le coin, peu de visiteurs se rendent dans Queens, mais les cyclistes auront enfin une raison de rencontrer les habitants du coin, suivant un saut de puce dans le Bronx. Après avoir pédalé derrière les entrepôts sur la rue Kent à Brooklyn, le tour débouche sur une rue commerciale. Fait étonnant : au lieu de bouder contre la commotion causée par la fermeture des rues, les commerçants embrassent la parade et en profitent pour faire une vente-trottoir pendant que des cyclistes s’arrêtent pour prendre une bière. Le circuit du 5BBT reste le même chaque année. Et comme chaque fois, la hantise des habitués se dresse dans les tout derniers miles de l’épreuve, à la porte de Staten Island. Avec ses interminables quatre-kilomètres inclinés et venteux, le pont Verrazano-Narrows donne envie de balancer son vélo dans la baie de New York et de rentrer en autostop sans demander son reste. Les participants font presque du surplace à cause des bourrasques. Un père poussant son fils handicapé persiste ; c’est triomphant et le visage écarlate qu’il franchit la ligne d’arrivée à Fort Hamilton, tout de suite à la sortie du pont. «Ça y est… Nous en sommes venus à bout!», dit-il en faisant un clin d’oeil fatigué à fiston. Pas de remise de médailles, pas de temps au chrono. Nous avons vaincu la bête, mais 64 kilomètres plus tard, c’est plutôt elle qui nous a conquis. Le Five Boro Bike Tour, c'est 64 kilomètres à travers cinq arrondissements : Manhattan, Bronx, Queens, Brooklyn, Staten Island. Quand: le premier dimanche de mai, soit le 4 mai 2014. Le circuit, plutôt plat et accessible, s’adresse aux gens de tous les âges en bonne forme physique. Il y a plusieurs stations de ravitaillement en chemin, l’organisation est impeccable et les responsables de la sécurité sont nombreux, autant au bord de la route que sur deux roues. Les billets à prix régulier se sont rapidement envolés en janvier, mais il reste des places VIP (à 325 $ par tête) pour le tour de 2014. *** Bike the Drive - Le pouls de l'artère Drive, comme dans Lake Shore Drive, l’autoroute devant le bord de mer de la ville de Chicago. Cette artère est le terrain de jeu sur lequel 20 000 cyclistes ont la chance de s’amuser cette unique fois chaque année. Dans le rayon des tours urbains, le Bike the Drive de Chicago se distingue par son circuit en « 8 » d’environ 50 kilomètres (deux boucles de 24 kilomètres au sud et au nord de Grant Park). Les huit voies rapides sont ouvertes dès 5 h 30 pour un avant-midi de balade à vélo. Puisqu’il n’y a pas de coup d’envoi comme à Montréal et à New York, on embarque dans le flot de vélos en sachant qu’on a jusqu’à 10 h 15 pour terminer le parcours. Comme le circuit est balisé et que la chaussée de cette route achalandée est plutôt en bon état, ce tour comporte une note plus sportive et c’est à coeur joie que les cyclistes peuvent mettre à l’épreuve leur monture de course dans les corridors. Ils s’y prennent à l’aube, avant que les promeneurs joignent le mouvement ; ils sont nombreux à se déplacer en groupe et à rouler avec leur bichon maltais ou leur chihuahua attaché dans le panier à bagage. Rencontré dans l’une des deux stations de ravitaillement, Paul est venu du Michigan voisin avec sa fille de 12 ans. «Nous l’essayons pour une deuxième fois. L’an dernier, nous n’avons fait que la boucle nord, mais là, nous nous lançons pour le grand tour avec le sud. Le panorama est complètement différent!», dit le natif de Vancouver, en croquant dans un biscuit au beurre d’arachide. Bike The Drive montre en effet deux profils très distincts de Chicago. La portion sud, allant jusqu’à l’avenue Bryn Mawr, est plus campagnarde et nous donne vite l’impression d’être catapulté dans une banlieue tranquille préservée de l’agitation de la métropole. La boucle nord, elle, met à jour les gratte-ciel et la prestance de cette ville qui a le vent en poupe. C’est là aussi que la vue est des plus splendides et que, derrière le muret de béton de l’autoroute, se distingue le bord de l’eau, la plage et les grands parcs. Ça sent le béton réchauffé par le soleil printanier, et quand on ne roule pas au bruit des changements de vitesse, on a le bonheur — ou le malheur, quand il est impossible de les semer — de rouler dans la bulle d’enthousiastes participants équipés de puissantes radios crachant du Foreigner et du vieux Daft Punk. La virée culmine par un grand festival au Grant Park, en guise de remerciement aux participants pour avoir contribué à l’amélioration du réseau cyclable dans la ville des vents. Le financement de ses installations est d’ailleurs la raison d’être de ce tour lancé en 2002. L’initiative a porté ses fruits : Chicago a tissé une belle amitié avec les cyclistes. Pour le voir, il faut sortir du Lake Shore Drive et plonger dans la ville. Le maire Rahm Emanuel s’est mis au défi de faire en sorte que les Chicagoans résident à moins de 0,5 kilomètre d’une piste cyclable ; pour l’instant, le réseau compte plus de 300 kilomètres. Ses nouveaux Divvy, inspirés du Bixi montréalais, sont en fonction depuis l’été dernier et remportent un vif succès. De passage à Chicago, les visiteurs peuvent en tout temps goûter au paysage qu’offre le Bike the Drive puisqu’une grande piste cyclable de près de 30 kilomètres, le Lakefront Trail, longe le lac Michigan. Par contre, seul l’événement procure l’effet grisant de se laisser porter par l’euphorie d’une masse critique. Le Bike the Drive, c’est près de 50 kilomètres en deux boucles sur l’autoroute Lake Shore Drive, fermée aux automobiles entre 5 h 30 et 10 h 15. Quand: le dernier dimanche de mai, soit le 25 mai 2014. Parfait pour les cyclistes plus sportifs puisque les voies sont larges et bien entretenues. Les familles et les cyclistes contemplatifs y trouveront leur compte puisque le parcours, qu’on peut faire à moitié, est relativement plat. Billets: à partir de 46 $ (41 $ jusqu’au 2 mars). *** Go vélo Montréal - La métropole a un je-ne-sais-quoi...On avait beau être trempé jusqu’à la moelle avant même le signal de départ du Tour de l’île de Montréal, l’été dernier, l’averse n’a pas réussi à enlever une once du charme de l’expérience. Faut le faire. Le festival Go Vélo Montréal, qui regroupe tous les circuits du Tour de l’île et qui célèbre ses 30 ans en 2014, a ce je-ne-sais-quoi de très spécial. Il est sans conteste le plus enivrant des tours urbains abordés ici, et ce n’est pas parce qu’il se passe dans notre cour ; très sincèrement, il rassemble ce que le Québec a de mieux. Contrairement aux parcours toujours identiques du Bike the Drive et du Five Boro Bike Tour, Vélo Québec se fait un devoir de modifier les siens tous les ans. Combinée à l’enthousiasme des bénévoles et à la générosité des spectateurs, l’expérience en terre québécoise est animée, humaine, vivante. Sorte de fièvre du vendredi soir, les 20 kilomètres du Tour la nuit rassemblent les familles, les gangs d’amis, les amoureux et les geeks qui parent leur monture de lumières de Noël branchées sur dynamo et les libèrent dans les quartiers résidentiels autant que dans les carrières éclairées. Cette fête du vélo et de l’activité physique devient une fête des voisins : les spectateurs veillent sur le perron pour encourager les participants et certains dépoussièrent accordéon et crécelle. «Le Tour la nuit, c’est la Montréal nightlife à son meilleur, décrivait Joëlle Sévigny, la directrice générale de Vélo Québec, quelques jours avant l’activité. S’il y avait un événement à nommer pour témoigner de la solidarité d’une ville, je dirais que le Tour de l’île en est une belle incarnation.» Pour les visiteurs du Québec et de l’étranger, l’expérience du Tour de l’île le dimanche est une occasion unique de constater que Montréal est plus qu’un immense et égocentrique centre-ville. La vie (et la vue) des riverains de LaSalle a conquis les Rosemontois pur jus avec qui j’ai roulé les 50 kilomètres, en juin dernier. C’est un peu le beau risque des tours urbains. En explorant de nouveaux territoires dans ces rues exemptes de toute circulation automobile, on réalise à quel point elle peut être belle, la ville. Le Festival Go Vélo Montréal, c’est une semaine de festivités et un vaste programme pour tous les goûts. Au total, 11 circuits sont proposés pour le Tour la nuit, le Défi métropolitain et le Tour de l’île réunis, s’adressant aux cyclistes contemplatifs autant qu’aux sportifs, afin de permettre à un maximum de personnes de prendre part à la fête. Pour le 30e anniversaire, les cyclistes auront une chance unique d’entreprendre le « vrai » Tour de l’île de 130 kilomètres. Quand: du 25 mai au 1er juin 2014. Gratuit pour les enfants de moins de 12 ans. *** Aux tours de Vélos Québec Voyages Il y a plusieurs façons de prendre part aux tours urbains de New York et Chicago. Vélo Québec Voyages propose chaque année de longs week-ends pour profiter de la ville lors de ces célébrations du vélo. Le séjour comprend le transport, et l’hô- tel est toujours très bien situé au cœur du centre-ville. L’an dernier, ils étaient 137 Québécois à partir en autobus pour le Five Boro Bike Tour, munis de leur vélo transporté quant à lui dans un camion de marchandise. Le jour J, les accompagnateurs outillés s’occupent de tout. Ils font toutes les mises au point des montures avant le départ et l’autobus attend les participants à Staten Island. Un beau luxe, très, très bien organisé. Pour voir s’il reste des dossards et pour réserver sa place à bord. Notre journaliste s’est rendue à Chicago et à New York à l’invitation de Vélo Québec Voyages.
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