North America » Canada » Montreal
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Montreal: Ville Étendard |
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| Montreal is strategically located. Last maritime access before the Saint Laurent Rapids. The natural port of the Great Lakes. Not all the year round though due to long winter freezing. Overcome however by New York in 1832 with the opening of the Eire Canal.
Hybrid culture. France was too continental, entangled on its geostrategic position in Europe, unlike peripheral England or Spain, the colonies were not its priority. The fall to the British was just a matter of time. The strong sense of identity, cherished and promoted, articulates the charm and strength of Montreal. An intelligent city that takes pride on showing a muscular architecture representing the pride of that identity among its Anglo-Saxon neighbors: ‘Je me souviens’. As topography rules, Montreal is a reticular metropolis. The linearity of the St. Laurent transport backbone is coupled with the perpendicular land access to the river front. It has been so since the foundation. It is still. Montreal must understand it’s DNA to develop the metropolis accordingly. The new dimension must take advantage of the huge rail-track asset heritage and expand an integrated Green/Gray network into a polycentric metropolitan region. |
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