Commie-block (slabsville) capital of Canada

[MolsonExport]

Originally Posted by Wharn

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



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:

Soul-sucking Slabsville Supreme.

I bow my head.

But London is almost exclusively slabsville. which is why it still wins my vote. But St. James Town deserves a poll option all of its own.

[MolsonExport]

Boulevard de Maisonneuve between the eight or so blocks of Atwater to Guy-Concordia, in Montreal, is also the King of Commieblocks.

[niwell]

Because we're talking proportionally, I'd have to give this dubious honour to London. Certainly the outer boroughs of Toronto win in sheer numbers, but there are plenty of newer highrises to offset them. Granted, plenty of these new suburban highrises are pretty ugly, but most are quite a bit better than those London residences posted above.

Hamilton and Ottawa rank pretty high on this scale too. Not sure where the Edmonton votes are coming from... plenty of older apartment towers but not exactly the same as an Ontario slab.

Parkdale (neighbourhood in Toronto) was mentioned above which I would disagree with. While there are a few slab buildings, the majority (along Jameson) predate the proliferation of this type. They have much smaller footprints and a bit more architectural diversity. Quite similar to the towers in the Annex area, though the Parkdale ones are falling apart and are in visibly worse shape.

[ST1]

There seems to be commie blocks in every city, but the places that stick out in my mind the most for me are Toronto (North York, Scarborough), Ottawa and Edmonton.

[240glt]

Edmonton has lots of older high rises but I wouldn't consider most 'commie blocks', any moreso than say, the west end of Vancouver or the beltline in Calgary

[MrOilers]

Originally Posted by Wharn

Wow.

Edmonton has a few clusters of commie-blocks, but nothing like that.

[Stephen Ave]

Ottawa has quite a few commie blocks, but I always thought Toronto and Montreal had more.

[Stephen Ave]

Originally Posted by 240glt

Edmonton has lots of older high rises but I wouldn't consider most 'commie blocks', any moreso than say, the west end of Vancouver or the beltline in Calgary

I wouldn't say there are alot of commie blocks on Edmonton's west end, if any, but spread out around the city there are a few - nothing like you see in Eastern Canadian cities - but alot compared to say Calgary or Vancouver.

It depends what you call a commie block I guess. I tend to think of them as groups of apartment towers that are developed by the same people...for example in Ottawa, Minto owned blocks and blocks is similar looking high rises.

In the Beltline there are some drab apartment blocks, but nothing I would call a commie block...at least by my definition.

[Innsertnamehere]

commie blocks are buildings that have stucco, brick, or siding, have the same floor plate all the way up, and have a useless, usually abandoned "front lawn" at the bottom.

oh, and ugly as sin balconies covering it.

[240glt]

^^ Vancouvers' west end has a lot of drab apartment buildings. What makes the area nice is the proximity to town, the park and the ocean. Edmonton's drab apartment blocks are mostly downtown and west in oliver, with a few in the west and south. Calgary's drabness is in the beltline and areas south like around chinook. But very few of these buildings would I categorize as 'commie block', at least aas they relate to a 'real commie block in, say, suburban Moscow.

I don;t think there's anything particularly wrong with either the style or especially the construction method.... my building in Calgary was drab and ugly but it was very soundproof and had lots of ammenities close by. I don't care about alpolic panels and curtain glass..... plenty of ugly examples of buildings built in that style as well.

[vid]

London, for sure. Every building is a commie block and they keep building more. Thunder Bay hasn't built a commie block since the early 1980s.

In Northern Ontario, Sudbury is the Commie Block King:


Paris Street looking south


Lockerby



I would guess that about half of Northern Ontario's highrises are located in Sudbury's South End, along Paris and Regent west of Nepahwin Lake.

Thunder Bay built a horrid commieblock on a cliff overlooking downtown (it's roof is over 80m above the city, but its only 45m tall) so we have a fear of tall buildings. Even Kenora has a better skyline than us.

[MolsonExport]

Originally Posted by Wharn

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.

You are right. But it was the Dark Sorceress Auburn.

Bubble, bubble, toil and trouble...

timothyworst.com


She sure ain't Galadriel.

Originally Posted by vid

In Northern Ontario, Sudbury is the Commie Block King:


Paris Street looking south


Lockerby



I would guess that about half of Northern Ontario's highrises are located in Sudbury's South End, along Paris and Regent west of Nepahwin Lake.

I remember that area!

[Xelebes]

Edmonton has commieblocks with cornices of stucco.

[MonkeyRonin]

The GTA in general, there are thousands of them housing about 1 million people. Though North York & Scarborough definitely have the most.



Photo by Niwell

[MonkeyRonin]

Originally Posted by Cambridgite

I will say this... ALL Ontario cities are horrible for the profileration of commie blocks.

Horrible? Better than the shit suburban houses the rest of the continent was exclusively building in the 50s-80s, at least.

[Simpseatles]

Originally Posted by MonkeyRonin

Photo by Niwell

Wow! We may have a lot of commie blocks in "the Forest City" and continue to build more, however we definately don't have the scale of those in the GTA. I also can't think of many St. James Town style 60's apartments here. Ours are at least a little more inviting.

[MonkeyRonin]

Well I've never been to London so I can't say for sure, but I doubt there is anything there more "inviting" than Jamestown. It at least maintains some degree of urbanity (buildings right up against the narrow, tree-lined streets - and then surrounded by the older building stock) as opposed to the slabs surrounded by decrepit fields and massive arterial roads typical of the suburban towers.


http://www.flickr.com/photos/phylg/

[BretttheRiderFan]

Originally Posted by MonkeyRonin

Horrible? Better than the shit suburban houses the rest of the continent was exclusively building in the 50s-80s, at least.

Oh the GTA had their fair share of that too

[MonkeyRonin]

Originally Posted by BretttheRiderFan

Oh the GTA had their fair share of that too

"Exclusively building".

The rest of the continent was almost only building low-density housing, which was not the case in Ontario. And if it weren't for those "commieblocks", there'd have been a hell of a lot more of that nasty sprawl here (as unattractive as slabs are, at least they're better than unending single family houses).

Also, your pic is clearly from Vegas or Phoenix or something...our 'burbs in the GTA aren't built in the desert.