Vieux Munich/Medley update

Denis Heraud, a regular reader of Vanishing Montreal, sent me these photos of the site where the Vieux Munich/Medley used to be. I've already posted about this recently here. I included some photos I took last February to compare it with the empty space in Denis' photos. When I saw the photos I went "wow!" I mentioned what happened to the VM to friends and family members and everyone wondered why there wasn't any media coverage about this. Sad.

Thanks a million, Denis.

I'll visit the site again to see it with my own eyes.

If anyone has any photos or tips, you can always email me and I'll post them and give full credit.

Seracon building - Pointe-St-Charles

 

The Seracon building/plant is situated on St-Patrick st. in PSC. The sprawling building has been abandoned for some time. It was set for demolition back in 2009 where new condos would have been built but the plans have been stopped and it was (still is?) in legal limbo. 2009 article here and 2011 article here. If you ever rode on the Lachine canal bike path, you definitely passed by it.

 

The Seracon building/plant is highlighted in orange, including the parking lot. Plans for new condos have been put on hold when locals complained that they'd preferred replacing the plant with green space. In a compromise, the deal would have half of the area, from the bridge to rue d’Argenson, become green space while the rest, including the parking lot, be used for the new condo project.

Old red brick building on Bridge St. - Pointe-St-Charles

This old red brick building has been abandoned since forever on rue Bridge, the main access to Victoria bridge. Traffic in the general area during peak hours is horrible. I once got stuck on a bus for 45 minutes as streets in the area were congested with drivers heading back home to the Southshore via Victoria. Straddled between the super busy Bridge St. and the huge Costco store and its parking lot, this solid-looking building is literally in the middle of nowhere.

The old building, highlighted in red, is situated in the middle of one of the oddest places in Montreal (and there are a lot of odd spots in Montreal). Delineated by the curved train track, the Lachine canal and Bonaventure autoroute, the area feels totally isolated from the rest of the city. I've walked there several times and the area is now mostly new buildings (Loto-Quebec and a huge Costco store) with a few old buildings near the autoroute. I didn't see any restaurants or coffee shops. The rue Bridge connects to the Victoria bridge. When you walk there you hardly see anyone and it seems deserted and yet there's tons of traffic with cars heading to or coming from the bridge, or shoppers going to Costco. I feel for the abandoned building. It doesn't match with any of the newer surroundings. On the far left, highlighted in orange, there's another red brick building, this one, and it's also surrounded by a sea of big box warehouses and traffic jams for the bridge.

Baron Sport building - Griffintown

The "Baron Sport" building just on the edge of Griffintown on Notre Dame Ouest. The building is abandoned. What will happened to it? I heard that they were planning to cut the building in two, by just keeping the front facade. I don't know if it's going to happened but with all the activity going on in Griffintown, this building shouldn't remain empty for too long.

The rear of the building. I love this photo! If it weren't for the two new cars, the meter sign and the plastered ads, it would be a perfect timeless snapshot.

This is how it looked like several decades ago. Notice the two buildings on the left.

Le Devoir article on the St Remi lofts - St-Henri

Le Devoir has an interesting article and multimedia page on the people expropriated from their lofts because of the destruction and rebuilding of the Turcot interchange. I posted an article about this back in May. The article puts a human face to the whole situation. Bravo!

Dow Brewery: Looking for R&D renters - Griffintown

 

The renovated Dow Brewery building on Peel st and William (already posted a few weeks ago) and its owners are looking for R&D renters (R & D: research & development). Hmm, this sorta answers my question that I've been wondering for a while:  when will the building be completed/occupied. This billboard is sorta new as I was in the area in late June/early July and there was nothing there. The billboard says occupation spring 2011 but we are well past spring so the billboard is a tad late. It also says that they will give priority to partners of the ETS school. If they're already partners, this billboard is certainly not directed at them.

District Griffin sales office - Griffintown

The swanky District Griffin sales office on Peel street for condo projects, including the St Ann one posted below. Pretty cool for a sales office. I like the ironwork design for the lamps. Notice that they call it Griffin and not Griffintown. The last photo shows how it used to look like.

 

(image: google streetview)

Lofts on Square Gallery st. - Griffintown

A sprawling building that used to have several businesses, such as La Cache, will be converted into lofts. The building itself was renovated a few years ago and it's already in great condition so the conversion won't take long as they've already announced that they will be available in October. I'm glad they're keeping the building as is. Those lofts will have a great view of the canal.

Red brick building(s) to be demolished - Griffintown

Another big condominium complex will rise where a sprawling red brick building(s) currently housing several various businesses in Griffintown. Only the small vintage store, Ludovik boutique (facebook) on the corner of De La Montagne and Ottawa will remain intact (thank god!).  I don't know if the Hovig gallery next to the Ludovik store will survive.

I was actually there last week to take photos of the building (or buildings) as my source told me they will be eventually demolished. When I visited the place again today, big ads have been plastered around it, displaying the future condo project. One of the businesses there is a garage for mini coopers called Miniac.

This condo project is just next to the humongous Bassin du Havre project. The sales office is on Peel street. I love old red brick buildings so I'm not too keen about this.

I took the photo above today and the photo below last week. The big ads weren't there last week.

The building(s) in question and set to be demolished is in green and named St Ann condos. As you can see there's a lot of activity in Griffintown right now. Every project (except for the one in orange, the ETS/Dow Brewery on Peel street and the Sales Office) are new constructions, either replacing old buildings and businesses or parking lots. The building for the lofts, as mentioned in the post above, will remain intact.

Crane plant - Pointe-Saint-Charles

The Crane plant on Pitt and Dunn in the isolated section of Pointe-St-Charles is completely gone. It's just one BIG empty space. Like many structures in the area, it wasn't high but very long, stretching out for half a block. You can see how it looked like with the screengrabs from google streetview below.

Aside from the people who used to work there and graffiti artists, did anyone noticed its disappearance?

 

(the next images: google streetview)

The Recycling Paper Plant article is posted below

Paper recycling plant on Saint-Patrick st. - Pointe-Saint-Charles

The plant is the building on the right. I'm often in that sector but never 

took a photo of the plant but mainly of the older building on the left.

A paper recycling plant on St-Patrick street in Pointe-Saint-Charles was recently gutted in a fire that needed 125 firefighters to contain it. There are some dramatic photos of the fire at this link. Here's are articles from The Gazette and La Presse about it. I took photos of what's left of the plant. For some odd reason, a trailer was part of the debris.

(image: google streetview)

New Condos on Richmond & Grand Trunk - Pointe-St-Charles

New condo projects just a few blocks away from where the Mac Clinic (next post below) was in Pointe-St-Charles. There used to be a garage/business there (photo below or view google streetview). The last photo shows a completed condo building that was built in the yard next of said garage/business.

(image: google streetview)