Ritz-Carlton
1228 Sherbrooke Street West
Montreal Hunt Ball
Annual event



Montreal Hunt Ball, 1950
Photo by Geraldine Carpenter, Ritz-Carlton Collection

“The Montreal Hunt Ball, an annual Ritz event. The decorating arrangements were invariably lavish. This one had life-sized papier maché horses polka-dotted in various Hunt colours and festooned with ropes of flowers, an abundance of flags protruding from the Grand Ball Room balconies, a fox’s head sculpted in ice for the buffet table centerpiece, and the sounding of hunting horns to announce dinner.” Adrian Waller, No Ordinary Hotel, 1989.

Leisure posts Montreal parties (06)

By Suresh Perera



Click on the links below for complete images
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Captured decaying and overgrown in July 2003 and on its deathbed in December 2005, a spaghetti of vehicular and pedestrian routes cross at avenue des Pins and avenue du Parc.

Once fuelled by the desires and dreams of modernity – an arrogant image of the ever-expanding city of tomorrow – the spaghetti, ruled by efficiency and economy since its birth in 1961, is to be replaced by a simple crossing, all at the same grade.

In an apparent gesture of dismissal, not so different than the one given 45 years ago, the existing sense of place is to be, once again, simply erased and replaced.

An occasional architect, Alec Suresh Perera brings to his work the memories and experiences of living in Sub-Saharan Africa, Southeast Asia, and North America. He completed a post-professional program in history and theory of architecture at McGill University (2004) and a professional architecture degree at Texas Technical University (1997). He lives in Montréal (http://www.studioperera.com).

By David Hammonds

The first installment in a periodic adventure series for urban sleuths.

Part 1: A Lost River and an Island

Many of us are familiar with the elongated mound, Coteau Saint Louis, on which the settlers of New France built the original fortified town of Montreal in the 1600s. If you are not, then take a stroll down the southern end of Blvd Saint Laurent. When you cross the Ville Marie expressway you also cross the line of one of the courses of the “lost” Rivière St. Pierre. From rue St Antoine, the old Craig Street, ascend the marked north slope passing rue St. Jacques with the modern Place de la Justice on your left. At rue Notre Dame you reach the plateau or spine of the old town. You then descend on a gentler slope, past rue Royer and rue St. Paul to rue de la Commune, which was the quayside of the early harbours.

Except in summer, the Riviere St Pierre, which had to be traversed by small bridges or boardwalks was, at best, swampy ground. It was subject to serious flooding at the time of the spring break up, after ice “shoves” as well as periodic (...read more...)

By Alexandra McIntosh


Image: Montreal: The Commercial Metropolis of Canada and the History of the Gazette 1778-1907

In 1854, Canada Sugar Refining Co., later renamed Redpath Sugar, is established on the banks of the Lachine Canal.



Several complicated procedures later:



Gradual economic decline. The refinary closes in 1979 and remains empty for several years.


Image: Alexandra McIntosh, 2000

Considered one of the best spots for graffiti in town, and a source of illicit joy to urban infiltrators, the person-size hole in the fence is sealed and redevelopment begins. In 2005 the Redpath Lofts condo development is nominated for an Award of Excellence for architectural conversion by the Quebec Order of Architects.


Image: Société de développement de Montréal

By Pierre Gendron



Silts and clays tend to swell and shrink with change of moisture content. They are called expansive soil. When moisture content increases, these soils exert a high upward force on foundations and floor slabs. When moisture content decreases, these soils subside allowing foundations and floor slabs to sink. Such up and down movement may cause serious structural damage.

Soils are classified by grain size and as either organic or inorganic:
-Gravel: particles over 2mm diameter
-Sands: particles from .05 to 2 mm diameter; finest grain just visible to the eye
-Silt: grains are invisible but can be felt as smooth
-Clay: under .002 mm diameter; smooth and floury when dry, plastic and sticky when wet

Some soils are unsuitable for certain uses, and layers of different soils may be useless for development as they might cause planes of slippage.



Pierre Gendron est diplomé de l'Université McGill (M.Arch II, 2003) et de l'Université de Montréal (B.Arch, 1997). Au cours des huit dernières années, il a collaboré avec les architectes George Yu et Jason King à Los Angeles et Tokyo, de même qu’avec l’Atelier Big City, à Montréal. Il est membre de Planneur (http://www.planneur.com), groupe qu'il a fondé en 2004 (...read more...)

Par François Dion


Place Saint-Henri, 26 mars 1948 © Société historique de Saint-Henri

http://www.fse.uqam.ca/milieuxdefavorises/st_henri.html

http://collections.ic.gc.ca/sthenri/

Ils proposent aux visiteurs du site et du quartier de suivre un trajet qui creuse au cœur d'un coin méconnu de la Ville. Ils sont comme un échappatoire aux horreurs de la rue Saint-Ambroise qui tournent le dos avec arrogance aux modestes maisons des rues Sainte-Émilie et Butternut. Ils abordent avec respect l'histoire et le présent de Saint-Henri.

François Dion est Directeur d'Artexte, un centre d'information en art contemporain (http://www.artexte.ca).

By Doug Scholes

Click on the links for panoramic images
Lachine Canal Panorama: 2001
Lachine Canal Panorama: 2005

We moved into this area in 2001 at the time when the neighbourhood of St-Henri was beginning a process of revitalization. Our house faced the “bombed out” buildings of the once vibrant Stelco plant. The buildings were abandoned in the late 70's and had, by 2001, fallen into an irreparable state of use. Existing now only in memory, they were razed in 2003 to make way for a four-phase, 450 unit condo/loft complex complete with 10' ceilings, concrete construction, and large factory-like windows overlooking the Lachine Canal to the south and Mount Royal to the north. These are beautiful buildings and have provided a desirable aesthetic to a neighbourhood that was in a state of visual dysfunction. Their effect on the dynamics of the neighbourhood is easily observed in comparing the cost of the condo/lofts to the rent of the long-term tenants in St-Henri. It is always sad to see an era end and difficult to understand how the changes will be accepted, if at all. In the two panoramic photos, I see the things lost and those gained. With things changing and (...read more...)

By Emily Raine


Images from Clarke Street before the buff. Photograph by Emily Raine

For as long as I’ve lived in Montreal, there has been a long line of complex, multi-colour murals spiked by smaller stencils running down Rue Clarke between Rachel and Duluth. That is, until one day late last summer, when I biked along the street and the whole stretch of wall was blue-grey, flat, uniform: the mark of the buff. “Buffing” is a graffiti term, meaning the painting over or chemical removal of images, so named for the lovely beige “buff” colour selected by early practitioners to enhance and beautify their cities. You’ll know the buff when you see it: a big blotch of flat colour in the middle of a wall, sometimes matching its background, sometimes not.

Montreal’s graffiti writers and street artists have traditionally enjoyed a rather special status, where the ubiquitous brick walls—which are difficult to paint over without spoiling the visual effect—have gone a long way to protect images from widespread buffing. This gives individual pieces a much longer shelf life than in cities where buffing is widespread, a condition that also breeds a greater attention to detail and investment of energy on the (...read more...)