The city of Montreal cuts an impressive skyline when entering from the southeast, particularly while crossing the Champlain bridge. The sight of downtown rising up from the flat plain of the St. Lawrence Seaway, framed from behind by Mount Royal is truly beautiful, especially at night. There are several differences between Montreal’s skyline and that of a typical metropolis however, and these differences are largely related to the geography and history of the region.
A City At The Foot Of A Mountain
Montreal is constructed around a small ‘mountain’ known as Mount Royal. The mountain itself is largely undeveloped, with most of it existing as a park for residents to enjoy in both the wintertime and the summer. The mountain plays a significant role in the city’s architecture due to a bylaw which prohibits any building from obstructing the view of Mount Royal by being taller than 223 meters about sea level – the elevation of the mountain itself. The result is that in comparison to other cities it’s size, the downtown core displays a conspicuous lack of extravagantly tall skyscrapers.
Impressive In Their Class
That is not to say that within this 223 meter height restriction there are not some creative architects designing intriguing buildings. The tallest building in Montreal is 1000 de la Gauchetière. At 205 meters, this building was completed in 1992 and also holds the title of tallest building in the province of Quebec. The postmodern design houses the usual amounts of office space on its 51 floors, but it also plays host to a skating rink, a metro and bus station and is adjacent to the Windsor train station.
Coming in at number two on the list, the 47 story 1250 René-Lévesque building measures 199 meters tall. Located not far from 1000 de la Gauchetière, it is visually quite different than it’s sister skyscraper. With a striking glass fin riding over the top of one side and an impressive spire on the other, the slab-sided building is an interesting combination of traditional and postmodern styles.
Rounding out the top three is La Tour de la Bourse, which is an imposing, rectangular tower that predates the two taller Montreal buildings by almost 30 years. Built in 1964, La Tour de la Bourse, or the Stock Exchange Tower as it is known in English has 47 floors stretched over 190 meters and is home to the Montreal Stock Exchange. It’s original concrete façade was improved in 1995 by the addition of a bronze-colored aluminum cladding on each of the 4 faces, which reflects an impressive amount of light during the day and looks quite regal at night.
Not Quite A Building, Not Quite A Tower
One of the more controversial structures on the list of Montreal’s tallest buildings is the Olympic Stadium. Built for the 1976 Summer Olympics, the Stadium has since become something of a white elephant for the city. It was too far from downtown to serve as a viable venue for the now-departed Montreal Expos baseball team, and questions regarding its safety and structural integrity have increased in recent years due to a series of high-profile incidents involving crumbling and cracking. Probably the only part of the building to still have a somewhat positive image is the tower portion, called La tour de Montreal. It is the fifth tallest structure in the city, coming in at 175 meters tall, and is in fact the tallest inclined tower in the world. The tower originally served to hold the Stadium’s retractable roof, but since that feature was phased out many years ago it continues to function primarily as a tourist destination, with an observatory and restaurant inside.
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