Commie-block (slabsville) capital of Canada

[MolsonExport]

Nominate contenders. According to urban dictionary, a commieblock (aka concrete slab) are

Serial hi-rise public housing, usually tall concrete building that has identical buildings around it built in a cluster. Invented by socialist governments to provide fast and cheap housing for its citizens. Most of them are in countries like Russia and China and provide the bulk of public housing. Rare in Western countries, but some of American "projects" are in fact commieblocks. Modern commieblocks are very clean, comfortable and prove to be excellent housing type with many advantages over urban sprawl

That last sentence is up for debate, but I digress.

Gimme your best shots. Nominate your contenders. Size is not everything here; proportion matters more! e.g., London Ontario's highrises are almost all commieblocks. Longueuil is commieblock paradise.

Where is Slabsville, Canada? What is the commieblock capital of the land?

My nomination: London, Ontario. Behold:

Originally Posted by Wharn

I vote the entire Oxford/Wonderland intersection in London, Ontario.
Looking north on Wonderland Road:


Wonderland and Oxford, looking north by rising_sun_19, on Flickr

And to the south:


Wonderland and Oxford, looking south by rising_sun_19, on Flickr

http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/newr...eply&p=5127657

[Highinthesky]

I think some of the neighbourhoods in the north end of Toronto will take this one. Not only are they large concrete monsters but they are run down with many having visiable fire damage.

[BretttheRiderFan]

I'd say pretty much every big city has those

That picture definitely wasn't enough to convince me that London is the capital of commieblocks

[MolsonExport]

Forgot Winnipeg. There are lots of slabs in Winnipeg.

[Highinthesky]

This stretch of Dixon comes to mind off the top of my head

[flar]

I added Winnipeg to the poll and voted for London.

London has commie blocks spread all over the city, I would guess more per capita than any other largish city, and they continue to build them.

Check out the area around Cherryhill Mall for another magnificent cluster.




Ottawa has a lot, too. Hamilton has a bunch downtown, but relatively few in otherparts of the city (probably fewer overall than London).

[BretttheRiderFan]

Mid-rises but they get my vote

[flar]

Regent Park is gone



http://wvs.topleftpixel.com/10/07/21/

[Highinthesky]

Beautiful Regent Park, location location location couldn't save that neighbourhood

Regent Park's residential dwellings are entirely social housing

Should add some Regent Park news clippings, someone might pick up on a theme

I voted North York. It's hard to beat that place in sheer number and density of commieblocks. Scarborough is the next runner up, IMO.

I will say this... ALL Ontario cities are horrible for the profileration of commie blocks. Even smaller cities like Kingston and Belleville have their fair share.

What's most troubling about the London case is that they're still building them en masse, and the city is not really building anything aesthetically pleasing in the core. For the proportion of new developments that are commieblocks, I'd have to nominate London as the winner, with KW in second place (horrid stucco student housing developments).

Not sure about western cities... Don't most western cities have most of their highrises in or near downtown? I know Vancouver has lots of highrise clusters around the metro area, but they're mostly condos.

[Highinthesky]

It will always relate back to property values and they aren't high enough in most of Ontario'a communities to support development of anything other than stucco or Concrete monsters.

We could go flash-back and bring back the red brick monsters haha

[The_Architect]

St James Town for sure.. home of the Commie Block/Towers in the Park ridiculousness.

[Highinthesky]

Looks like you took a vacation to Moscow

[Wharn]

Originally Posted by flar

Regent Park is gone

Thank God, that piece of shit was bad enough to make Kipps Lane in London look like the next Rosedale. Speaking of London...

Originally Posted by Cambridgite

I will say this... ALL Ontario cities are horrible for the profileration of commie blocks. Even smaller cities like Kingston and Belleville have their fair share.

What's most troubling about the London case is that they're still building them en masse, and the city is not really building anything aesthetically pleasing in the core. For the proportion of new developments that are commieblocks, I'd have to nominate London as the winner, with KW in second place (horrid stucco student housing developments).

I'd agree with Cambridgite that London is bad for its continued construction of commie blocks, but when it comes to being the ugly slab capital Toronto takes the cake no problem. Blunderland and Oxford may be ugly as sin, but there is no way that we can compete with the likes of:

-St. Jamestown
-Parkdale
-Eglinton Avenue West
-Scarberia
-Eglinton & Don Mills
-Jane & Finch

Case in point:

[Wharn]

Originally Posted by The_Architect

St James Town for sure.. home of the Commie Block/Towers in the Park ridiculousness.

Oh lol just realized we basically posted the same pic at the same time. St. Jamestown it is.

[flar]

No city can beat Toronto in sheer numbers, but consider the number of commie blocks as a proportion of all buildings, and on a per captia basis.

London only has a few non-concrete highrises, and there are tons of them for a city of just 350,000. I'm pretty sure London has about the same (or slightly more) number of buildings over 12 storeys as Hamilton (505,000 city pop).

Thank you for contributions to the tri-cities, Auburn (London developer).

Behind the Cambridge Centre (crane is for building #3).



Older pic



560 Queen Street South, Kitchener



These are just the ones I have pictures of. There are many more existing, under construction, or proposed.

[Highinthesky]

I was very dissappointed by 180 Mill St in London. I figured being in the same area as 695 and 675 Richmond it would be at least that tall but nope it is shorter.

Examples of stucco commie block beasts being built in the University of Waterloo student ghetto.


Source: http://waterloo-student-housing.com/...-construction/


Source: http://www.studenthouses.ca/student-housing.aspx


Source: http://www.schembripm.com/web2/schem...a%20Street%20W


Source: http://www.schembripm.com/web2/schem...a%20Street%20W

[Wharn]

Originally Posted by Cambridgite

Thank you for contributions to the tri-cities, Auburn (London developer).

In the City of London, in the dive that was the Downtown core, the Dark Lord Auburn forged in secret a master Design, to get rid of all others. And into this Design he poured his cruelty, his malice and his will to dominate all skylines. One Commie Block to rule them all.