ville-marie Place de la Cité Internationale, phase 2 (2007)

[internationalx]

I was reading an article today about this very thing... in New York for example, developers, particularly in this last boom have moved away from hiring hack commerical architects for their projects. They have moved to starchitects for the cachet it gives their not only their proposals but also themselves. It raises their profile. Total hubris. Moreover, they are using celebrity architects in order to get their projects passed easier and faster with city planners and community groups. Who wants to argue with David Childs, Jean Nouvel, or Rem Koolhaus?? This trend certaintly hasn't made its way to MTL. Furthermore, as a developer I certainly would not want to put up an albatross so that 20 years later people want it to implode. The legacy factor.

[mtlurb]

exactly, corporate offices would want to move in a building being an icon, everything has a price.

[Laurent]

^ there seems to be a pretty excellent point there.

 

first example that comes to mind is the Seagram Building. talk about getting free press! oh, and I even forgot . . . the Chrysler Building!! I mean, when your company's name appears FOR FREE on postcards, tourist guides, books, maps, etc. that's a pretty good ROI for your advertising dollars (i.e. at worst, the expediture/investment in architecture can be perceived as advertisement . . . (now, how many company's actually have the vision to see things this way, that's another story, but the same can be said about all groups behind real estate projects, whether they be residential, institutional, etc.).

 

Let's just look at the most beautiful and glorious buildings in Montreal, for example: they're mostly corporate buildings - except for the churches and a few institutional bldgs (city hall, Royal Vic . .). Whether we're talking about the Sun Life, Royal Bank (the one on St-Jacques or the Place Ville Marie), Bank of Montreal, etc., they were all built as corporate head offices. Actually, correct me if I'm wrong, but the vast majority of Old Montreal is composed of corporate office buildings of yore.

[Ornello Mastrocola]

^ there seems to be a pretty excellent point there.

 

first example that comes to mind is the Seagram Building. talk about getting free press! oh, and I even forgot . . . the Chrysler Building!! I mean, when your company's name appears FOR FREE on postcards, tourist guides, books, maps, etc. that's a pretty good ROI for your advertising dollars (i.e. at worst, the expediture/investment in architecture can be perceived as advertisement . . . (now, how many company's actually have the vision to see things this way, that's another story, but the same can be said about all groups behind real estate projects, whether they be residential, institutional, etc.).

 

Let's just look at the most beautiful and glorious buildings in Montreal, for example: they're mostly corporate buildings - except for the churches and a few institutional bldgs (city hall, Royal Vic . .). Whether we're talking about the Sun Life, Royal Bank (the one on St-Jacques or the Place Ville Marie), Bank of Montreal, etc., they were all built as corporate head offices. Actually, correct me if I'm wrong, but the vast majority of Old Montreal is composed of corporate office buildings of yore.

 

If I'm not mistaken old Montreal used to be considered in its' day the "Financial district".

[Habsfan]

If I'm not mistaken old Montreal used to be considered in its' day the "Financial district".

 

Yes it's true. It was pretty uch located on St-James street(St-Jacques today)!

[Laurent]

^ for sure, it was the business and financial heart of Canada for centuries, and one of the financial centres of the Americas (ranking in the top 4 with NYC, Chicago, and Boston I believe) during that time.

 

It's funny, a few years ago I was walking around Old Montreal and I thought about how that neighbourhood used to be the only downtown of the city - and what's really cool is that it actually really feels like a downtown area, the buildings are pretty tall and the area is extremely dense.

[Atze]

L'an dernier ce projet semblait prometteur.... aucune nouvelle depuis décembre.. il y a de quoi s'inquiéter ?

[mtlurb]

L'an dernier ce projet semblait prometteur.... aucune nouvelle depuis décembre.. il y a de quoi s'inquiéter ?

 

Si c'était pas de cjb qui nous donnait des infos, on entenderait pas plus parler du 701.

 

Même chose pour le 900 : si il n'y avait pas le projet de sidev, on n'en parlerait pas non plus.

 

Quant à moi, on a pas vraiment à s'inquiéter du manque de nouvelles sur ce projet.

[Hercule]

 

Quant à moi, on a pas vraiment à s'inquiéter du manque de nouvelles sur ce projet.

 

Aurais-tu un secret dans ta manche?

[mtlurb]

Aurais-tu un secret dans ta manche?

 

Héhé! Non, aucunement. Désolé de te décevoir.