Canadian skylines of the past

[hipster duck]

Windsor, ON, 1941 (foreground of course):




Colborne St., Brantford, ON, 1963:



Same view today.

[Chadillaccc]

1974...



https://calgary.skyrisecities.com/fo...y.30034/page-3

[Coldrsx]

Maybe my favourite shot of Calgary ever.

[B.ike]

Edmonton 1951-1952 or so:



Completely unrecognizable compared to today (literally everything in that photo has been demolished...including that building being put up):


couldn't find a source for that photo; reverse image search net me nothing. seems to be a screenshot of a photo and was posted on FB

[Kilgore Trout]

Wow, that's incredible. There's an interesting texture and depth to the old scene, something almost big-city about it, but the present day one looks like Mississauga.

[Architype]

A view of downtown Vancouver from the West End 1912


Source, Mole Hill

The houses in the foreground right are on the 1100 block of Haro street, the building on the right is the back of Le Guernesey apartments (built 1912) on Thurlow Street:

https://goo.gl/maps/XXceB3NHW3YHN5wX7

The early 20th century apartment building, prominent in the photo just left of center is The Manhattan, 784 Thurlow Street (built 1908), still existing at Robson and Thurlow:

https://goo.gl/maps/GgH2CdyM9cTvBkhy8 - https://goo.gl/maps/hGxtQB8kEL77s2P5A

The large Gothic tower structure to the left is the old Wesley Methodist church (1901) now gone, on the corner of Burrard and Georgia.
Just beyond in the distance you can see the Dominion Building, which was 2 years old in 1912.
Church towers were still prominent in the skyline at that time.

[J.OT13]

Rideau Street in 1896 before Union Station (now Senate of Canada Building), the Château Laurier, Plaza and Transportation office buildings.


https://twitter.com/CapHistOttawa/st...31687034691588

Similar view in 2006.



For the 2020 view, with resorted Senate of Canada Building, demolished skywalk between HBC and the Rideau Centre, a modernized skywalk between HBC and the Rideau Centre (for about 30 years, there were two) and new towers along Rideau Street, see the Google Street View.

https://www.google.ca/maps/@45.42446...7i16384!8i8192

[niwell]

Originally Posted by Kilgore Trout

Wow, that's incredible. There's an interesting texture and depth to the old scene, something almost big-city about it, but the present day one looks like Mississauga.

There have been some aerial shots of Edmonton pre-WWII that have made me think the same thing. The city really lost a LOT of its old grandeur - which at the risk of starting an unfortunate tangent did appear to be on a different level than Calgary.

[J.OT13]

Ottawa's CBD in 1938. All taken from atop the Hunter Building. Today the site is occupied by the Sun Life Financial Centre Tower 2 at the corner of Queen and O'Connor.

Looking east down Queen (Confederation Line runs under Queen today). On this first pic, the four tallest structures on the left side of the street remain. Next to nothing is otherwise left on Queen, but Sparks remains more or less intact.



Queen looking west. On this image, the first block of buildings to the right are still around, with one building centre, left with the turret (Bank Street Chambers) altered beyond recognition today. Bank of Canada on the upper, right today encased by the 1979 Arthur Erikson designed BoC office complex. Little else if left in the CBD or one block further west.



Best preserved collection of buildings, with nearly all of them still around in one form or another with the exception of the one on the lower, right corner and the three storey structure across the street to the right of the BMO banking hall. The lower portion of the building with only the roof visible has been replaced by an office tower (Heritage Place), part of a project which restored the top portion on Sparks (Poulin Department store, later Zellers and now Winners).

[SignalHillHiker]

Great Ottawa pictures. Excluding Parliament in the background, it looks so Wild Western. I wouldn't be surprised at all if told they were pictures of Calgary or Wichita.

[MolsonExport]

Originally Posted by Kilgore Trout

Wow, that's incredible. There's an interesting texture and depth to the old scene, something almost big-city about it, but the present day one looks like Mississauga.

word. It is terrible how it transitioned from vibrant to soul-sucking.

any city planner that allows non-descript walls lacking storefronts/doors in downtown districts should be hanged, drawn and quartered.

[hipster duck]

Originally Posted by J.OT13

In another thread, someone was lamenting how Ottawa didn't go the route of Washington DC where Parliament's spires and the other neo-gothic landmarks like the Chateau Laurier would dominate over a midrise landscape of 6 storey office buildings.

It was suggested that this was the fault of postwar planning, but it's clear that Ottawa was always going to have a skyline of highrises blocking the view of Parliament, with buildings from the early 1900s already crowding out the view of the Peace Tower. The postwar developers were just following 50+ years of precedent

[Black Star]

Originally Posted by B.ike

Edmonton 1951-1952 or so:



Completely unrecognizable compared to today (literally everything in that photo has been demolished...including that building being put up):


couldn't find a source for that photo; reverse image search net me nothing. seems to be a screenshot of a photo and was posted on FB

First photo has so much soul and life.
Second pic....not soooo much.

[J.OT13]

That could be the most depressing before and after I've ever see.

[shappy]

Wow what a shame. First one gives me a Toronto vibe with the streetcar wires and architecture - like a more compact Queen and Spadina

[J.OT13]

Oh, the building u/c on that first Edmonton pick is the Hotel Macdonald expansion. It had a mini Queen E. Montreal Hotel vibe.


https://cac.mcgill.ca/bland/Building...ype=commercial

[someone123]

Originally Posted by hipster duck

It was suggested that this was the fault of postwar planning, but it's clear that Ottawa was always going to have a skyline of highrises blocking the view of Parliament, with buildings from the early 1900s already crowding out the view of the Peace Tower. The postwar developers were just following 50+ years of precedent

I think the street layout and arrangement of the big old federal buildings is just as important as the height restrictions if not more important. Even Metcalfe Street is not lined up with anything in particular.

But overall I am in the camp of people who believe Ottawa and its architecture are underrated. On SSP in particular I think people tend to over-weight grand vistas and tall buildings (understandably) and the subtler appeal of larger and more broken up areas explored on foot is harder to convey through this medium. The ideal arrangement for visual monumental impressiveness is something like Cleveland's central square but in person it's more complicated.

[SignalHillHiker]

Originally Posted by hipster duck

In another thread, someone was lamenting how Ottawa didn't go the route of Washington DC where Parliament's spires and the other neo-gothic landmarks like the Chateau Laurier would dominate over a midrise landscape of 6 storey office buildings.

It was suggested that this was the fault of postwar planning, but it's clear that Ottawa was always going to have a skyline of highrises blocking the view of Parliament, with buildings from the early 1900s already crowding out the view of the Peace Tower. The postwar developers were just following 50+ years of precedent

Ottawa is much better as is, I think. Washington is so... boring. You'd have to go to places like Brasilia or Nur-Sultan to find something that feels similarly, and at least they have more interesting architecture.

Of all the capitals, to be envious of the urban form of Washington? Yikes.

[J.OT13]

Post Office u/c on the corner of Sparks and Elgin, with the War Memorial u/c at Confederation Square in the foreground. 1938


https://twitter.com/NCC_CCN/status/1367550792945778701


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confederation_Square

[Rico Rommheim]

Originally Posted by J.OT13

Oh, the building u/c on that first Edmonton pick is the Hotel Macdonald expansion. It had a mini Queen E. Montreal Hotel vibe.


https://cac.mcgill.ca/bland/Building...ype=commercial

The Queen E and the Macdonald expansion were both designed by George Drummond. the chief architect of the CNR at the time.

Over the years I've come to like the old Macdonald expansion. It was a solid piece of mid-century architecture. I'm not crying about it's loss though.