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Maisonneuve

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Tout ce qui a été posté par Maisonneuve

  1. Maisonneuve
    Thanks for sharing, ScarletCoral. For the past few years, studies have come out concluding that Vancouver is the most unhappy city in Canada. See this article from Van City Buzz. Think about it. Vancouver, which looks like the perfect city, filled with modern, glass towers, surrounded by beautiful marinas and enjoyable bike/walkways, and their computer operated SkyTrain, all set in a picturesque natural setting, is the most depressed city in Canada. Strange? Not really. Life is not perfect. Life is messy and complicated. Humans are adjusted to flaws. Remember in The Matrix when Smith was explaining to Morpheus how the first matrix failed because it was too perfect, so the humans rejected it? In a similar way, humans are uninspired by perfection, which is what a lot of boring architecture tries to do. Variety in a cityscape is more interesting than the same type of building repeated over 18 acres. For example, look at Trump Place on the Upper West Side. As Robert Venturi said, you need a "messy vitality" in a city for it to be an interesting place. In the case of Vancouver, people are surrounded by what looks like the perfect city, and yet because life is what it is, they can't get any satisfaction. Plus, they're paying a lot to trap themselves in that paradoxical city. New York now is not what it use to be, at least Lower and Midtown are not. Even downtown Brooklyn is starting to be like Manhattan. In these areas, too many blocks have the same chains you can find anywhere. The messy vitality exists in other areas of Brooklyn, in Queens, The Bronx and Uptown Manhattan. I find the towers being built in New York now aren't even as good as what is built in Vancouver or Toronto, and only now do I think both those city are figuring out that the same types of buildings over and over ruin the urban landscape. Use different materials, different colours, different forms. A skyline of blue and green glass with steel makes a city look very grey, particularly during the winter.
  2. Maisonneuve
    crosbyshow, this is exactly where I think a new Expos stadium should be. Right at the southeast corner of Bridge and Wellington Streets, where the train tracks go over the Lachine canal. Earlier this year just out of curiousity, I took the space allocated for the proposed stadium south of the core, and put it at the Peel basin. It more than fits, not in the same configuration, but you can definitely put an MLB baseball stadium there, with a small terminal for buses, a parking complex and a couple condos for good measure. Right there, you could have the stadium with the outfield seats close to the water and home plate pointing northeast towards Old Montreal, with a very nice view of the Skyline in left field, and Habitat 67 & the JC Bridge in the background in left field. In my proposal, I would incorporate the adjacent AMT line into the stadium. Paddlers in boats in the Lachine canal could catch homeruns, just like at the San Francisco Giants games. Right now between the AMT line and that Loto Quebec building, there's nothing but a mechanic shop and a storage facility (I think). Those two things can easily be demolished. How MLB might feel having a stadium next to a Loto-Quebec office, I don't know. But the site works, and as Griffintown develops, and the Bonaventure urban parkway gets finished, it will become increasing obvious that the site will be perfect for a baseball stadium. Build a tram from the core right to the stadium. Easy access by highway too. Ding dong, merci bon soir! The Children's Hospital location is too small. It should just become condos with a architectural significant parts preserved and included as part of the project. It's too small for an MLB stadium. crosbyshow's and my idea is much better.
  3. Maisonneuve

    Kubik Condos - 7 étages

    Maisonneuve a répondu à un sujet de GDS dans Complétés

    I don't know who the contractor is, but the interior designer is Andres Escobar & Associates.
  4. Maisonneuve
    Leur siège social à Westmount se trouve sur la rue Dorchester, en face de La GRC.
  5. Maisonneuve
    Absolument, Gbx. Chaque fois que je suis sur la rue McGill je crois que je suis à Chicago.
  6. Maisonneuve
    MontréalYul, je suis un détenteur de billets de saison. J'ai l'écharpe et tout le kit...vraiment, ils t'envoient un kit! J'été à tout les matchs, sauf ceux contre Kansas City et Houston. C'est très amussant comme spectacle sportif. Les spectateurs connaissent toutes les chansons du club. C'est dommage qu'il y a des sièges vides pour les matchs parce que les gens manquent une bonne équipe d'expansion. J'abonnerais encore pour la saison prochaine. Selon moi, la raison pour laquelle il y a moins de gens qui vont au Stade Saputo qu'au Stade Olympique c'est parce qu'au "Big O", les match commencaient dans l'après-midi où plusieurs familles assistaient. Depuis que l'Impact a déménagé au Stade Saputo, les matches commencent entre 19h et 20h. Les trois derniers matchs de la saisons débuteront en après-midi. Peut-être ça aidera.
  7. Maisonneuve

    Expos de Montréal

    Maisonneuve a répondu à un sujet de mtlurb dans L'actualité

    Baseball is a tough sport to get people to watch. Soccer, hockey, football and basketball -yes. Unfortunately, not baseball. I love baseball, but the young kids are gravitating to the other sports. There was a time when the best African American players went into basketball, football and baseball. Now, baseball is seeing less and less African Americans choosing the sport and the better black athletes are going into football and basketball. They can be a big college star on ESPN, get on Sportcenter before they even turn pro, whereas who watches NCAA baseball? One of my friends said that since Jackie Robinson played in Montreal, that should mean something (in terms about rebuilding a baseball culture in this town).
  8. Maisonneuve
    Je trouve la proposition de René Therrien déplorable. Nous avons besoin de construire un nouveau point, et suite à son construction, on devrait transformer le pont existant en « High Line St. Laurent » avec des sentiers pour des bicyclettes, et des marcheurs. On pourrait planter des belles fleurs, des arbustes et d'autre plantes. Un High Line St. Laurent deviendrait un espace plaisant pour les Montréalaises et Montréalais, ainsi que les gens de Brossard et de St. Lambert. Les touristes le trouveraient comme une des choses il faut faire en vacances à Montréal. N'oublie pas aussi, la belle vue de Montréal avec le Mont-Royal et le skyline de centre-ville en 2025.
  9. Maisonneuve
    Montreal to host conference on reducing growth BY MICHELLE LALONDE, GAZETTE ENVIRONMENT REPORTER http://www.montrealgazette.com/business/Montreal+host+conference+degrowth/6600947/story.html MONTREAL - Just as events are forcing Quebecers to debate some fundamental questions about our economy and our future, five Montreal universities happen to be hosting a weeklong conference on “degrowth” – a movement that questions whether economic growth should be our society’s primary goal. “Degrowth is an attempt to force us out of this lock-step way of thinking that growth is always good,” said Peter Brown, a professor at McGill University’s School of Environment and one of the conference’s organizers. Brown said the conference – which starts Sunday and ends Saturday, May 19 – has been in the works for years and is modelled on similar conferences in Paris in 2008 and Barcelona in 2010, and is leading up to a global conference on the issue next fall in Venice. But he admits the timing is serendipitous. The Occupy movement, the recent record-breaking Earth Day march in Montreal, concerns over the push to develop northern Quebec and the continuing student strikes are all signs that many Quebecers are questioning the “business-as-usual” approach to economic development. Brown says all of these movements may find common ground in the notion that a narrow focus on growing the economy at any cost, while discounting effects on the environment and human well-being have led mankind to commit some catastrophic errors. Gross domestic product should not be used as the key measure of a country’s well being, because it ignores the cost of creating wealth (for some), such as environmental degradation and human suffering, say proponents of degrowth. Errors like runaway global warming, habitat destruction and a widening wage gap between rich and poor will lead to calamity for future generations, and a forced, unplanned “degrowth” period that will be painful, they warn. “Any healthy civilization looks after future generations ... we just don’t do that,” Brown told The Gazette on Thursday. The conference will feature panels and lectures by academics and activists prominent in the North American degrowth movement. The big draw will be a public lecture by ecologist David Suzuki called Humanity in Collision with the Biosphere: Is it Too Late? on Friday at 11 a.m. at UQÀM. (Admission to Suzuki’s talk is free, but registration is required). The conference, titled Less is More; Degrowth in the Americas, runs from May 13 to 19. Registration costs $200 per day, or $390 for all seven days, with reduced fees offered to students or members of “grassroots Montreal-based organizations.” Talks will be recorded and posted on the conference website (montreal.degrowth.org). mlalonde@montrealgazette.com Twitter: @mrlalonde © Copyright © The Montreal Gazette ********************************************************************************************************************* Québec - Forward Never, Backwards Ever
  10. Maisonneuve
    Wow, there's still Montrealers like this?
  11. Maisonneuve
    marc_ac, I agree with you. As a result of the 24/7/365 meticulous work of the MTLURB community, most of the projects there were already know to me. I breezed through the whole exposition in less than 30 minutes. Anyone who comes on the forum daily, or at least once a week, didn't really get many surprises, except for maybe renderings of known projects that we already know. Still, in general, all this development news is still encouraging.
  12. Maisonneuve
    I like Henry Aubin. He can be overly critical at times, but he is The Gazette's regional affairs critic, so he's not paid to spin for Tremblay. I agree with Aubin 9 times out of 10. This would be one of those times when I don't.
  13. Maisonneuve
    When I said ''community'', that's exactly what I meant.
  14. Maisonneuve
    Je suis en désaccord. Beaucoup de gens aiment le basketball dans ce marché. http://www.youtube.com/Jet7basket Je ne pense pas vous donner le crédit au amateurs de sports de Montréal. Il y'a plus d'amateurs de basketball que vous pensez dans cette ville. Beaucoup de gens de couleur et les francophones hip (yes sir, men) sont fans de basketball. Je manque rarement un match de Melo, A'mare, Chandler, Lin, Novak (pour 3!) et le reste de mes Knicks de New York. But to get back to the topic, creating a small community of around the Bell Centre is not a bad idea. That arena is quite busy with events as it is, even without an NBA team. If that is the concept CF will help create I am all for that.
  15. Maisonneuve
    The Charlotte Bobcats.
  16. Maisonneuve
    I bought seasons tickets. I can't wait for the season to start.
  17. Maisonneuve
    This is a good point peekay, The lot(s) that Place Ville Marie is on sat vacant for almost three decades until proper financing was found. That lot was a hole, with the train tracks leading to the station, for decades. Back then, people had similar pessimism and joked about it with the same mockery we joke about projects today. Throughout those years there were over a half dozen proposals for that space, until the Place Ville Marie project got going. However, even in those days, local financing was hard to find. If not for Zeckendorf getting funds from insititutions in New York and London, there might never have been a Place Ville Marie. Or at least not the Place Ville Marie we have today. It was tough for Zeckendorf to find tenants, even in 1940s, 1950s Montreal. Businesses were happy being on and around St.James Street and didn't see why they should move into a new project in a location that was being billed as the new central business district of Montreal. Eventually, people figured out the vision. First came PVM and its underground promenades, then Place Victoria , then Place Bonaventure, then the metro and the underground city, then more buildings connected to all of that, etc... It took time before the vision made sense, it's just too bad it took a developer from New York City to get the ball rolling and not someone from Montreal. And Mark_ac, That is very true. It's not just Toronto, but Calgary and Vancouver too. When you go to those cities, they have a lot of cash to build the type of projects that their hearts desire, whereas here... Notice how big developers like Concord Adex focus on Vancouver, Toronto and Calgary, but not Montreal? It's interesting to read people on this forum use Toronto developments as an example. In Toronto, they look at the majority of buildings they have recently built and see them as uninspiring, with several exceptions most of us on this forum are familiar with. Canderel built the College Park Residences in Toronto and is also building the Aura at Yonge and Gerrard on the same block. In my opinion, the College Park Residences are the type of project more suitable to Montreal, than Toronto. It has a style that is not as modern as most of the condos going up in Toronto right now. Peekay: I am one that is optimistic. I think Montreal developers will start to build some inspiring projects in the coming years. I just hope that they don't try to 'Vancouverize' the city with too much 'Concord CityPlacing'
  18. Maisonneuve
    To me, Mississauga is all a suburb can aspire to be. That is one of the reasons why my long term thesis on suburbia is negative. Want to know the future of Mercier; look at Brossard. Want to know the future of Brossard; look at Longueuil. Want to know the future of Longueuil; look at Laval. Want to know the future of Laval; look at Mississauga. Now, should those suburbs not want to turn into those other suburbs, they should note carefully their failings and not repeat them. Mississauga's failings: it would have been great if the GO Train stopped at Burhamthorpe and Hurontario instead of 2 kms to the south and 3 kms to the west. And why is the TTC extending the subway to Vaughan and not to Mississauga? Extending the Bloor-Danforth line to Square One seems like a no brainer. Brossard's failings: Dix30 would work even better if the one storey commercial spaces had two or three storeys of condos above them. Then it could have become a real "quartier". Too many parking spaces, above ground and below. Longueuil's failings: the parking lots around the metro take up more space than the high density buildings. Too many parking lots, not enough high density buildings. Laval's failings: I don't know what Laval is. It's an obscure amalgam of Longueuil and other suburbs.
  19. Maisonneuve
    As a former South Shore resident, that makes me very happy. Someone will build that bridge, whether they mean to build it or not.
  20. Maisonneuve
    Really? Tell me what it's like if you stay there. I went down just after Christmas and heard that there was this new hotel in Harlem, but we chose other arrangements.
  21. Maisonneuve
    It's a good sign when entities from outside of Quebec are looking to invest in buildings in Montreal. In the late 1950's, some of the financing for Place Ville Marie was provided by Chase Manhattan Bank, Metropolitan Life Insurance Company and other American, British and of course Canada.
  22. Maisonneuve
    In New York, Columbia University keeps buying land in Harlem to expand their campus. This begs the question whether universities are institutions of higher learning or are they just becoming mega corporations in themselves - with customers (undergraduates students), slave workers (graduate students and non-tenured profs) and high priced slave masters (tenured profs, deans, university board). Harlem group helps Montreal neighbourhood http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/story/2011/03/30/gentrification-montreal-harlem.html Some people living in Parc Extension worry houses and apartments in the Montreal neighbourhood are on their way to becoming unaffordable thanks to a new university campus that will be built nearby. 'I'm not sure gentrification can be stopped, in some ways it's like gravity.'—Sasha Dyck, community organizer The University of Montreal plans to build the student campus in the neighbouring city of Outremont, with the first phase of construction slated to begin this spring at a cost of $120 million. Sasha Dyck, who works for a citizens' group in Parc Extension, said the influx of students could lead to higher housing costs. "We worry that the roughly 10,000 students who come ... will be intrigued by the cheap rents in the area and drive out the families who can't afford to live anywhere else," he said. "I'm not sure gentrification can be stopped; in some ways it's like gravity." So Dyck, who's lived in the neighbourhood for several years, invited community organizers from East Harlem, N.Y., to help them fight gentrification. Housing advocate Juan Haro is a member of Movement for Justice in El Barrio, a non-profit group from New York, made up of mainly immigrants, which fights community displacement in East Harlem. "What landlords do all over the world is find a way to jack up the rent," said Haro in Montreal on Tuesday. "They find ways to push us out and bring in people with more money who can afford higher rent," he added. Haro will meet with local community organizers and merchants in Parc Extension in an effort to raise awareness about the impact the new campus could have, and find ways to mobilize people to fight rent and housing price increases in the neighbourhood. "It's a very large project but they have yet to come and speak to anyone in the community about it," added Dyck. Fears unfounded Montreal Coun. Mary Deros welcomes the idea of a large student population next door and insists rental laws will protect lower income families in her district. "These people with limited means presently ... live in apartments and there are laws that protect them," she said. "They cannot be ousted, they cannot be evicted." Deros, who represents the ethnically diverse and largely working-class constituents of Parc Extension also said she expects the new university campus will lead to job creation. "We will help our local people prepare their CVs and if they qualify for the jobs, they will be hired," she said. University officials are remaining tight-lipped about the project, saying it's too soon to say what, if any, jobs will be created.
  23. Maisonneuve
    What's interesting about Maple Leaf Square is that there's pedestrian bridge connecting the condo to the Air Canada Centre. Which means for those fans who live in one of those condos towers, during the intermission of a Leaf game or half-time of a Raptors game, instead of waiting in line to use the filthy arena washrooms they can head to the comfort of their condo units to do their business in clean privacy...provided they have their ticket stubs and re-entry is allowed.
  24. Maisonneuve
    Now that we're in an election, maybe we can get a new Champlain Bridge out of this. I for one will be writing the MP for Brossard-La Prairie, where I use to reside, where my relatives still reside and cross that Bridge everyday, to press the Federal government to invest in a new Champlain Bridge. I'm encouraged that the South Shore mayors feel it's important. I'm encouraged that most of the mayors in the Montreal area feel it's important. And I'm encouraged that the Minister of Transport, Infrastructure and Communities, Chuck Strahl, understands the importance of that bridge to the economy of Montreal, Quebec and Canada. However, lets zoom out for a second. Champlain Bridge needs replacing, which means a new Bridge will have to reach the island by a different trajectory. Turcot will be under reconstruction. Mercier - should probably end up being a new bridge, but I can't see that happening (but if it does, build it down river so it can't be tampered with). Pont Jacques Cartier has its own issues. Bonaventure Expressway to be demolished and repositioned. Looks like the next 20 years will be a traffic nightmare like we've never seen in Montreal. As for the St. Lawrence crossings: I wouldn't mind seeing them build small ports on either side and cut passages through the seaway wall and have ferries take you back and forth. Works in Vancouver, with the Seabus to North Vancouver which is almost the same distance across the St. Lawrence in the vicinity of the Champlain Bridge. Works in Toronto, though the Toronto Island ferry is short and only lasts about 30 seconds. They should look into a ferry system, but of course during the winter and early Spring it would be impassable because of the ice. And then there's the architectural appeal of all these structures which I hope will be up to the standards of the Pont Jacques Cartier at least.
  25. Maisonneuve
    This is very concerning. It's life and death and politics prevails. Why?
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