Quartier des Spectacles- Montreal’s exciting Arts-based District

While Downtown encompasses the Quartier des Spectacles I didn’t include it in my Downtown review and kept it as  its own distinctive neighborhood. For the Downtown review I’m including everything south of City Councilors St. to Guy Street along with the Golden Square Mile neighborhood, considered by most standards to be part of Dwtn but also a bit autonomous . This stretches west to Mount Royal Park. The main spine of Downtown runs down Sherbrooke St. This formed the historic heart of Golden Square Mile where Montreal’s turn of the 19th century millionaires settled. Eventually all of the mansions on the northern stretch of Sherbrooke were replaced with post WWII skyscrapers creating a pretty bland and soulless American urban environment. But many mansions and historic structures were preserved in the southern half of Sherbrooke between Stanley and Guy street.

Saint-Catherine St is the great historic shopping district of Dwtn Montreal akin to Chicago’s Miracle Mile. It remains at a very human scaled with mostly historic commercial buildings remaining. Recent improvements have improved the urban form expanding the sidewalks and make the street even more human scaled. In the southern half of Dwtn Bishop, Rue de la Montagne, and especially Crescent, are three narrow east to west streets that preserve some of Montreal’s best late 19th century grand townhouse architecture. The northern half of Dwtn is mostly post WWII high-rises with the main exception of many historic buildings surrounding Phillips Square. West of Sherbrooke is a mostly residential neighborhood mixing historic and modern residences and institutional uses from McGill University.

Parts of Downtown are not the most exciting because of a large amount of bland high-rises, plenty of wide blocks, and a lack of premier park spaces. But because of its density, good urban planning, smart urban design decisions, good pedestrian activity and great remaining shopping  Downtown Montreal has been able to largely overcome these downsides. When adding the exciting Quartier des Spectacles I would still likely include Downtown Montreal as a top 10 Dwtn in North America. The height restriction creates an interesting uniformity to the highest skyscrapers in Montreal as none can exceed the height of Mount Royal (232 Meters). Overall I like this especially when viewed Dwtn from Mount Royal or from afar but it does create some blandness on the ground. Fortunately the new skyscrapers being  built are a lot more unique and creative.

Click to view my Quartier des Spectacles and Quartier de Latin Albums on Flickr

URBAN STRENGTHS:

• Really nice mix of modern and historic architecture. Even some of the ugly brutalist buildings in the heart of the Quartier des Spectacles is soften by good urban design.
• Great concentration of parks, plazas and theaters & cinemas. Quartier des Spectacles certainly does well in other cultural amenities.
• Strong student presence with the University of Quebec in Montreal spread throughout in multiple places.
• Two great urban pedestrian districts; St. Catherine’s that cuts through the heart of the district and Rue Denis also considered the Latin Quartier and biz heart of the University.
• Good vibrancy and few surface parking lots.
• Excellent bike infrastructure and access to several metro stations.
• While not quite as great as Dwtn still great retail options including the Complexes Desjardins (Shopping Mall), several department stores, plenty of clothing stores, several supermarkets & drug stores, and plenty of other retails.”

URBAN WEAKNESSES:

• Some grit in points especially along Ontario and some northern blocks of St. Catherine’s.
• Plenty of cold 1960s and 1970 architecture but urban designers have done a great job at softening the building with quality streetscaping and plaza spaces in the heart of the district.”