internationalx

A much better option would be a tall and skinny tower; it would play off of Sun Life much better. Big and bulky but short rarely works when protecting the prominence of an historic building. Look what happened to Bell Telephone on Beaver Hall: boxed-in and overshadowed by massive but short buildings. This scenario isn't as bad but the zoning is informed by the same concerns.

I like it. Looks quite nice and dare I say, somewhat elegant. True, it could have been 30-35 stories.

My god, there are some really crummy buildings that line this block and surrounding this lot...

Prefer the older lighting... much warmer. Le 1000 in colours? I'm a little scared.

As we run out of empty lots, we are starting to see the infill replace older, smaller, obsolete buildings that no longer are the best and highest use of the land beneath them. Looks like a decent project. Yes, a tall sliver would be nice but in Montreal with the restrictive zoning? 🙄

It would be great to make it an office tower part of CCE: Tour 3. A cylindrical-shaped tower. CCE is such a coveted office complex that adding a tower would have made sense.

That sure is a waste of land having 2 alleys on other side of the Baton Rouge building. I'm surprised by the driveway on the south side.

Thanks for sharing. Looks great.

Isn't there a historic facade that lines rue Gauvin that is going to be put back together?

You know, Le Drummond 1 and 2 don't look so bad from the view at HRO.

Luxury brands would want to stay in the Golden Square mile north of R-L; it's a squandered lot IMHO. Though one exception would be Square Victoria with Old Montreal at the doorstep. Plus that area is not getting sexier with the BNC HQ, VslP, 628 St Jacques. Not to mention the area already home to int'l organizations.

In a lot of ways, New York was/has been much better at declaring entire neighborhoods as historic districts. They are also acutely aware of the fact that outside those areas, not every old building is deemed worthy of preservation and that is some areas, densification comes first. It's a different balance. In Montreal it sometimes seems like every old building must be preserved even when there may be little worth of it. IMHO: An entire row of greystone townhouses yes, but a single, badly mangled one left over that wasn't even that good quality to begin with architecturally - no.

There is hardly, if anything left of the original townhouses on the inside. They have been so altered over the decades that by now only the facades are worthy of preservation. A couple of fireplaces here and there or some crown moulding is not enough to landmark interiors. These long ago became commercial buildings, as rooming houses with chopped-up floorpans, modernized, ground floors turned into retail units.... they were gutted long before these developers took control. Not to mention, from the backside they look like slums.

Love it. This block of Bishop is going look quite good.

It's going to be massive. A 200m office building at the max density is going to be impressive. Interesting how the ceiling heights for office towers are so much higher than the old days... Place Victoria is 47 floors at 190m.