What to do with abandoned buildings?
Metro looks at an abandoned residential building, a handsome gray stone row in the Plateau, and asks what should be done about it. Neighbours would like to see it renovated and inhabited, the owner wanted to demolish but was refused because the borough says it’s too nice to destroy, so it’s being allowed to deteriorate till it’s too far gone to fix – a phenomenon we’ve seen repeatedly here before.
This is a good piece on the standoff that can happen when a landlord is stubborn and the city has run out of options.
shawn 10:15 on 2023-05-20 Permalink
What a lovely little building. So depressing. Ok, here’s a bit of better housing news, a “mega” deal on social housing, from the east end: https://ici.radio-canada.ca/nouvelle/1980957/mega-transaction-logement-abordable-montreal
Ephraim 12:54 on 2023-05-20 Permalink
You know, it’s a put up or shut up situation. If the city wants to declare it “interesting” and keep them from demolishing it, it should buy it and make it into social housing.
Michael 20:40 on 2023-05-20 Permalink
I blame the city.
Instead of being progressive and allowing for new architecture, new building materials that are more environmentally friendly…
It forces the owner to keep a 100 year old structure that is falling apart.
Kate 12:58 on 2023-05-21 Permalink
I’d have to know more about the state of that building before deciding. It’s unified in style and scale with the surrounding buildings on Bienville and St‑André – see the setting – and nobody would pay to put up a new building in that form factor these days. It would only be profitable to put up something with more floors in the same space, which would be out of sync with the neighbourhood. That bit of the Plateau around Bienville is a quiet backwater with a certain low‑key charm.
Ephraim 20:13 on 2023-05-21 Permalink
It’s built without a basement, and you are allowed 40% of a phantom level above. Plus a new building would be much more energy efficient. You might even be able to put in geothermal, which would make that worth a lot more money