The buildings they built there are way too high and blocks the view of Montreal from the Canal, blocks sunlight, and makes the neighborhood feel claustrophobic. The buildings are also very ugly when you compare to the historical architectural heritage of Montreal. I feel there was no real effort made to make these buildings appealing with a timeless design. It’s all built cheap and quick. There are virtually no services there to accomodate the huge influx of people who moved there either. Finally the local infrastructure is struggling to keep up. Not just in terms of roads (the traffic is INTENSE around that area), but also for the aqueducts, sewers, and electricity.

It should have been made shorter as some commented, but also other neighborhoods should have been developed more. up to 10 storeys is ok, but the high rise ones are blocking the whole view of the skyline of the city, especially from the Canal area.

And one last argument against the high rise apartment buildings is that it’s such a fucking pain to manage on so many levels. It’s hard to get a quorum when doing general assemblies to make important decisions because the majority of the owners aren’t even here. They’re mostly from other provinces or even other countries. There are also a LOT of problems with the plumbing. Due to the high pressure required to push the water up these towers, every unit has a regulator. These things fail very frequently and often before their intended end of life. When you have a leak that spans several levels in a building, it’s so difficult to manage and orchestrate the repairs and compensation for affected residents. They’re a nightmare to manage.

Meanwhile you have the rich people living in Westmount in their single family town homes in prime real estate areas that could be densified to accomodate more people, but hey… They’re rich. They have influence. It’s easier to kick out the poor from their old apartment buildings and rebuild therea and destroy whatever architectural heritage there might have been.