Regional differences in urban form/typology

[Docere]

So Pointe-Claire is more like Port Credit.

[Docere]

Montreal's pre-war suburbs, 1941 population:

Verdun 67,349
Outremont 30,751
Westmount 26,047
Lachine 20,051
Town of Mount Royal 4,888
Montreal Ouest 3,474
Hampstead 1,974

All had at least 25% of their current or peak population in 1941.

[Kilgore Trout]

Plexes are one of the most fascinating things about Quebec's urban typology. They're very deeply rooted and you can find them all over the place, including in small towns and villages, whatever their ethnic origins. Here's a duplex with an outdoor staircase in Ste-Marie in the Beauce — as old-stock French-Canadian as you can get — and here's a couple of outdoor-staircase duplexes in Ormstown, Montérégie, which was settled by Scots and was historically very anglophone.

However most of these are nestled amidst detached cottages and other types of dwellings in a kind of ad hoc and haphazard way.There are very few plex neighbourhoods outside of Montreal. What I mean by that is entire neighbourhoods that consist mainly of plexes, especially attached plexes. Beyond Montreal, here's what exists:

Ste-Cécile, Trois-Rivières
https://maps.app.goo.gl/vZoFXkiLG9zVgCdG7
https://maps.app.goo.gl/YW3Hss1DtBXDw66E8

St-Phillippe, Trois-Rivières
https://maps.app.goo.gl/WjTJTR5FVErdFwbY9
https://maps.app.goo.gl/R3Q8r9FvBoWpsnSW6

La Pointe, Shawinigan
https://maps.app.goo.gl/K4E9j67X1dazEmNc7
https://maps.app.goo.gl/wLgb83PU3RQMeVjv8

??? Shawinigan (not sure what this neighbourhood is called)
https://maps.app.goo.gl/AcM6uLiBzmysvLi88
https://maps.app.goo.gl/3jjfg8AjgXDF8An18

Limoilou, Quebec
https://maps.app.goo.gl/iT1rPJwSQYzUzY6F6
https://maps.app.goo.gl/RnkvtryQEs9CFEbB6

Montcalm, Quebec
https://maps.app.goo.gl/VQM6S1rV9ry9r5Do9
https://maps.app.goo.gl/ojWUfdtn27PKsDXS9


There are also some marginal examples where it might be a stretch to say it's an entire neighbourhood of plexes, but there are at least several blocks that are (mostly) plexes, albeit detached.

Downtown Drummondville
https://maps.app.goo.gl/4TQStbCV5n8ji2ba6

Downtown Granby
https://maps.app.goo.gl/mT9bEG8b5mLnS8H46

[Kilgore Trout]

Originally Posted by Docere

Montreal's pre-war suburbs, 1941 population:

Verdun 67,349
Outremont 30,751
Westmount 26,047
Lachine 20,051
Town of Mount Royal 4,888
Montreal Ouest 3,474
Hampstead 1,974

All had at least 25% of their current or peak population in 1941.

Interestingly, Verdun's population is only slightly higher today than in 1941, even though it now includes Nun's Island. And both Westmount and Outremont have fewer residents today. The demographic impact of smaller households no doubt.

[Docere]

There's arguably three typologies of post-war suburban development:

The interwar suburb that was partially developed and continued to fill in after the war (example: TMR and Hampstead in Montreal)

The rural township that basically exploded after the war (North York, Scarborough and Etobicoke are the best examples)

The small village that became a residential suburb (examples: Pointe Claire and Port Credit)

[Kilgore Trout]

The difference between Pointe-Claire and Port Credit is that, whereas there is some continuity between the older lakeshore part of Port Credit and the inland postwar developments, there is very little relationship between postwar Pointe-Claire and the old village.

[MolsonExport]

Originally Posted by Kilgore Trout

The difference between Pointe-Claire and Port Credit is that, whereas there is some continuity between the older lakeshore part of Port Credit and the inland postwar developments, there is very little relationship between postwar Pointe-Claire and the old village.

Indeed. The old village did not expand to create the rest of Pointe Claire; rather it was freeway access to Montreal (the 40 and the 20, although the 20 had some lights in Pointe Claire until the late 80s, at Cartier) that created most of Pointe-Claire (and Kirkland, Beaconsfield, Pierrefonds, Dollard-des-Ormeaux), most of which was built out between 1960-1980. The old village was predominately francophone until the 1960s, whereas the rest of Pointe Claire was largely anglophone, up until the mid 90s.

[Coldrsx]

Edmonton's newest neighbourhood, built-form and density in Blatchford (old muni airport).

Slow as it might be, it is starting to look pretty cool.




https://blatchfordedmonton.ca/commun...summer-update/

[MolsonExport]

Will the airport tower be retained? And if so, as what?

[Nouvellecosse]

It's not bad. Kind of Toronto-ish with the rear laneway garages. Hopefully there's enough quality top-soil to support some decently-sized trees as a neighbourhood will never look inviting or compete to my eye with such sparse landscaping.

[Coldrsx]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

Will the airport tower be retained? And if so, as what?

That's the plan. Community amenity, lookout, potential coffee shop.

[Docere]

The transition from rural township to giant suburb in North York was pretty remarkable. North York was incorporated in 1922 with the support of the United Farmers of Ontario. They wanted to separate from York Township which had urbanized (it was Canada's largest interwar suburb even though it never incorporated as a city).

The closest thing to a village or town was Lansing/Willowdale (postal villages) but it never incorporated. And the area is of course now North York's high-rise downtown so it's hard to get any sense of history in spite of Gibson House and the York cemetery.

[Docere]

It's interesting that Toronto's early 20th century annexations more closely tailed development than Montreal's did - i.e. most post-1920 development took place outside city limits in Toronto (which stopped annexing in 1912). Toronto actually had a larger population outside of city limits in 1941 (242,000) than Montreal (214,000).

If one looked only at city proper populations, you wouldn't see that Toronto's gaining on Montreal was evident - Toronto proper was 78% the size of Montreal in 1901 and 74% the size of Montreal in 1941. But if you looked at Montreal Island and what would become Metro Toronto, the gain was evident: 66% in 1901, 81% in 1941.