Before & After - St John the Divine Anglican church - Verdun

Here's an extensive series of Before & After photos of one of my favorite churches. It's situated on Moffat street in Verdun, close to Bannantyne. I like this church so much that I did a series of paintings inspired by it. These paintings were made years before it was bought out of financial difficulty and converted into a 18 units condo complex. You can view them at my online portfolio. Obviously, I prefer the Before. It looks cluttered now. They changed the side of the rooftop by adding another level and several windows were either removed completely or lost their original design. My first blog posts were about this church. You can find the links at the blog archive on the left.

Quote:

"The St John the Divine church was built in 1929 and enlarged in 1937. The neo-gothic church is the work of Ross and MacDonald, the premier architectural firm in Canada at the time. Their magnificent work includes the Chateau Laurier, Dominion Square building, le Chateau apartments and Holt Renfrew building, among others."

I created a new blog page dedicated to the church. There are many photos of the beautiful interior posted at that page as well.

All the Before photos were taken with a 35mm camera with different film stock.

Reader's input: Sanimax recycling complex - HOMA

Denis Heraud already contributed some photos of the Medley/Vieux Munich after it was demolished (link). He wrote to me again, while I was on vacation, that the Sanimax recycling plant, in the Hochelaga-Maisonneuve district, was being dismantled. Here are 2 of the 6 photos he sent to me. Thanks so much. Really appreciate it. Big plant making way for big real estate space. Denis wrote this: "It is set to become affordable housing for the elderly I believe, in the form of Les Terrasses de l’Hibiscus." Cool.

  (image above and below: google streeview/maps)

Reader's input: Medley/ Vieux Munich

An anonymous reader send me some youtube links to videos showing the Vieux Munich/Medley getting demolished. Amazing stuff. Thank you so much for this whoever you are.

Building on the corner of Peel & Wellington - Griffintown

This photo is a bit out of focus as I took it from a moving bus 4 years ago. I never bothered taking a direct photo of this building because I assumed that they would never touch this one. Well, I guess I was wrong. Promoter Luc Poirier got the permit to build a 20-storey high building there. The only condition set by the city for the demolition: they have to keep and integrate the facades on Peel and Wellington with the new building. Wow. This is enough to realize that Montreal has really lost it. These small unassuming buildings are what gives this city, or any city for that matter, character. Erecting another huge bland condo/office/whatever project there is truly sad, and sad for Griffintown.

Link via Montréalités urbaines

Additional link

Liguori condo project/Eglise St-Alphonse-d'Youville - Villeray

The construction site for the Liguori condo project, which doesn't interest me. What interests me though is the fact that this stunning view of the church will soon disappear behind the bland 8-storey high condo project. What a shame. Also, the effect of the hole they dug out combined with the grey brickwork is simply amazing. A great subject for photography. The monastery (the last photo) will be converted into affordable residences (how affordable?). An extension to the monastery was demolished. You can view a photo when it was intact here. The future of the impressive church itself is mentioned here.

Ecole St-Bernardin - Saint-Michel

Something you don't see a lot these days: an abandoned school (in this case, an annex of the school) in a neighborhood far from the downtown area that hasn't been converted into condos. Schools were one of the first old structures that were converted into condominiums/lofts decades ago. When I came across this (quite by accident), my heart skipped a beat. Beautiful.