A glimpse of the Queen Elizabeth Hotel
The Journal’s weekend history piece is about the Queen Elizabeth Hotel although it veers off quite fast onto how and why Dorchester Boulevard was renamed.
What I find more interesting is the history, as it’s put here, of how the hotel and Central Station were designed to “masquer les infrastructures ferroviaires du centre-ville.” I’m not old enough to remember when the train went through an open trench into the Mount Royal tunnel, but there are photos on this page showing a few views. Can’t deny that it was a terrific idea to cover that over.
denpanosekai 09:44 on 2021-11-08 Permalink
They conveniently left out that Montreal-Est also kept the Dorchester name… twice
https://journalmetro.com/local/pointe-aux-trembles-montreal-est/2434537/montreal-est-la-rue-dorchester-garde-son-nom/
Max 11:45 on 2021-11-08 Permalink
The Journal of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada wrote up the design of Central Station shortly after it opened in 1943. Interesting reading for anyone interested in history and/or infrastructure. It’s a 7MB pdf.
https://dalspace.library.dal.ca/bitstream/handle/10222/74513/RAIC_vol20_no11_access.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y
As nice as it is that the trench was eventually covered over, that came about as part of a massive real-estate play rather than for any aesthetic reasons.
Orr 15:04 on 2021-11-09 Permalink
@Max … and also resulted in Place Ville Marie, still to-this-day Montreal’s classiest skyscraper.
max 18:58 on 2021-11-10 Permalink
PVM got the RAIC Journal treatment in 1963. 22 MB pdf.
https://dalspace.library.dal.ca/bitstream/handle/10222/74746/RAIC_vol40_no02_access.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y