12 Friday Feb 2016
Posted in montreal, photography, photowalk, photowalking, random, trains, Trains & Transit, Travel, urban
11 Thursday Feb 2016
Posted in montreal, photography, photowalk, photowalking, random, Travel, urban
Montreal’s old Empress Theatre, also knows as Cinema V, is the last-remaining Egyptian-revival theatre building in Canada. (A WikiPedia entry for this building suggests it might have been the only one ever built.)
It’s been closed for years, but its exterior gives clues to its colourful past, first as a silent movie house, a repertory cinema and a first-run theatre. A fire in 1992 forced it to close for good.
After decades of decay and many failed efforts to revive the place, the local government recently tried for a new push to renovate and re-open the institution in time for Montreal’s 375th birthday in 2017.
09 Tuesday Feb 2016
Posted in architecture, montreal, photography, photowalk, photowalking, random, Travel
Tags
architecture, canada, iPhoneography, montreal, photography, photowalk, quebec, random, Travel, urban
Once upon a time, taking a photo at this location would not have produced the same result. This now-aluminum/glass-shell building, part of the Place Ville Marie complex in downtown Montreal, had its exterior replaced several years ago to remove its deteriorating pre-fabricated concrete components.
06 Saturday Feb 2016
Posted in montreal, photography, photowalk, photowalking, random, Travel
05 Friday Feb 2016
Posted in montreal, photography, photowalk, photowalking, random, Travel
Tags
art, canada, design, iPhonegraphy, montreal, photography, photowalk, quebec, random, Travel, urban
This is one of the innumerable corridors making up Montreal’s so-called underground city. Whether it’s to avoid bone-chilling cold in the winter or face-melting heat in the summer, this maze of connections allows one to walk all over the city’s downtown in sheltered comfort.
With its judicious use of building materials and accent lighting, this specimen definitely falls into the art world, in my opinion, while others are a tad more utilitarian or commercial in nature.
03 Wednesday Feb 2016
Posted in montreal, photography, photowalk, photowalking, random, trains, Trains & Transit, Travel, urban
Tags
Art Nouveau, canada, métro, montreal, Paris, photowalk, quebec, rail, railroad, railway, random, RATP, signage, station, train, trains, Travel, typography, urban
When Montreal was planning its métro system some half a century ago, it decided to go with Parisian-style trains fitted with tires in addition to steel wheels.
Consequently, experts from the RATP, the Parisian public transportation authority, acted as consultants throughout the planning and construction stages.
That cross-Atlantic connection is symbolized in one of the entrances to Square Victoria station, which has authentic Art Nouveau signage as you’d find in the French capital, a gift from the RATP first installed in 1967.
02 Tuesday Feb 2016
Here’s some creative editing on a sign that originally asks people not to leave their garbage lying around because the area isn’t a dump. The sign now (predictably) invites people to place their trash here because it is a dump. Of course.
From Montreal’s Plateau Mont-Royal neighbourhood over the weekend.
01 Monday Feb 2016
This is a larger-than-life, two-dimensional astronaut drawn into in a huge space travel dreamscape on a wall along Mont-Royal Avenue E. in Montreal, as seen last week.
How much larger than life is it? The photo below gives you a hint.
31 Sunday Jan 2016
So if you didn’t already know, I’m a real sucker for sunset shots … and Calgary seems particularly pretty at that hour. Here’s the downtown skyline as seen from my employer’s temporary office space, just a short drive from our usual workplace. Snapped at the beginning of January.
30 Saturday Jan 2016
Posted in Netherlands, photography, photowalk, photowalking, random, Rotterdam, trains, Trains & Transit, Travel, urban
Tags
Netherlands, photography, photowalk, rail, railroad, railway, random, Rotterdam, station, train, trains, Travel, urban
This building doesn’t look like much from this angle but to borrow from a popular science-fiction TV series … Rotterdam’s central train station is way bigger from the inside. Its modest facades definitely belie the structure’s cavernous interior.
Ricky Leong 