Old vs. new in Montreal

By DAVID BRUSSAT
Tuesday, October 31, 2006
Over dinner in the tony Anglo suburb of Montreal called Westmount _ where the stop signs actually say "Stop" instead of the Francophone "Arret" _ our host, a friend of the family, wondered what most impressed me about Montreal.

The eloquence of its shades of gray, I replied.

The stone buildings of the Rue Saint-Jacques, the Rue Notre-Dame, the Rue Saint-Paul and the Rue de la Commune (facing the St. Lawrence River) display the full polyglot of gray. Only rarely does a building of brick punctuate the granite spoken here, in both the French and British vernaculars. Vigorous sculptural embellishment elaborates the old styles that make the grays play, dancing and singing up and down the parade of centuries.

This, I added by way of clarification, was true of the Old but not the New Montreal. Although the concept of a distinct "Vieux Montreal" originated in the late 19th century, the district was not designated historic by law until 1964. Not just individual structures of historic importance but whole blocks and streetscapes have been preserved. The district was expanded in 1995 to embrace a long stretch of banks and other financial buildings on and near the Rue Saint-Jacques, known as the Wall Street of the North. The district's expansion halted an assault by modern architecture that had been chipping away at Montreal's most beautiful civic spaces. The Banque Canadienne Nationale's 30 stories of faceless black glass and steel, and the low-rise, high-bludgeon Palais de Justice, were the worst offenders.

Founded in 1642, Montreal erected fortifications from 1717 to 1744. It was captured by American troops early in the Revolution, but held only for weeks. The ramparts were demolished from 1804 to1810. Ever since, New Montreal has spread beyond Old Montreal toward Mont Royal.

Today, much gray inhabits the New Montreal, a gray more of spirit than of color _ an architecture of dullness that, in spite of its height, languishes flatly beside the exuberant architecture of Montreal's past. As in many U.S. downtowns, beautiful old buildings survive on most blocks, but they are suffocating. They serve as reminders that almost all of modern architecture has been not only an assassination of beauty but a vandalization of history _ a sort of legalized visual and spiritual torture.

From Mont Royal, New Montreal's skyscrapers block out Old Montreal's domes, towers, cupolas and steeples. New Montreal's skyline is more impressive than attractive. Its bland but steroidal modernism features many pinnacles but reaches no crescendo. New Montreal ought to have been built underground. Indeed, much of it was built underground _ famously so. Just not enough of it!

David Brussat is a member of The Providence Journal's editorial board. His e-mail is:dbrussat(at)projo.com