Old, New or Both

Haley Clare Johnson and Sarah Élise Trudel-Bray

While visiting ‘Complexe Desjardins’, with the rest of the campers from CCA, we interviewed people and asked for their opinion about architecture in Montreal.
From the people that were willing to answer the questions of three teen campers, we got some pretty diverse answers. There are many conflicting opinions about architecture in Montreal, but the majority of people we asked seem to prefer older buildings over modern ones. However, when visiting the office of architect Eric Gauthier, he told us that he prefers creating new buildings rather than restoring old ones.

It is clear that the interviewees preferred old architecture whereas the creators, the architects, have a very different opinion. This brings us to question how Montreal can adapt to the era we are in, while still preserving the history in the older structures. No matter which type of architecture someone may prefer, new or old, both sides have pretty good arguments behind them. Some people prefer the saying ‘you can’t understand the future if you don’t know the past’ whereas other believe ‘you cannot live in the past’. We must ask ourselves what is more worth it: investing money in restoring old structures to preserve the history, or investing money to adjust to the 21st century by building modern structures.

The following picture is a landmark in Montreal that we think is important to mention. The rest of the photos are places the people we interviewed chose as the architecture they prefer.

We collected people’s opinions regarding architecture in Montreal, but we also have our own. We believe that modern and old architecture are both beautiful, but that they should remain separate. For example, the ‘Michael Lee-Chin Crystal’ addition to the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto is a perfect example that new and old architectural styles should not be mixed unless they are well blended. To be well blended, the addition should have similar characteristics as the original building, such as the brick work, or similar colour, style, height, width, etc. A good example of this would be Whitman College, because the new addition does not contrast with the old.  It is also imperative that we find a middle ground between preservation and construction. Everything has its rightful place and we can find it if we put more effort and money into the art that is an essential part of our life: architecture.