Michael Powell's Blog, page 43
June 21, 2016
The McCord Museum of Canadian History
Established in 1921 on the grounds of McGill University, the McCord Museum of Canadian History boasts a collection of over a million historical documents, photographs and archaeological finds. The permanent exhibition is dedicated to Montreal’s history, but what makes the McCord Museum worthwhile is its examination of the clothing and custom of Canada’s native people.
If there’s one thing Montreal has plenty of, it’s museums dedicated to the city’s history. There’s the Pointe-à-Calliére, the...
June 20, 2016
St. Henri – A Gentrification in Progress
We showed up in Saint-Henri with the intention of visiting the Emile Berliner Musée des Ondes, a museum dedicated to the world of audio. But since the museum was closed, we instead spent the day wandering around the neighborhood. Working-class Saint-Henri hasn’t traditionally been the kind of place which draws tourists, but it’s recently come into fashion, and gentrification is well underway.
It’s the gypsy curse of the hipster. You want to live in the coolest neighborhood, but once too many...
Mont Royal’s Lac aux Castors and Maison Smith
After visiting the Kondiaronk Belvedere and taking in the view of downtown Montreal, you can continue your exploration of the mountain by heading west toward the Lac du Castors. On the way, you’ll pass a sculpture park and the Maison Smith, which was built in 1858 and today is home to a small exhibition about the park.
Because it’s spread across the dips and ascents of a mountain, it’s easy to forget that Mont Royal is also a carefully considered park. The design is the work of Connecticut-b...
The Montreal Botanical Garden
Comprising an area of almost 200 acres next to the Olympic Park, Montreal’s Botanical Garden opened in 1931, and is considered to be among the most important in the world. The garden is separated into over twenty thematic zones along with ten greenhouses, dozens of kilometers of trails, and over 22,000 plant species. In other words, you better get started.
There’s no way you could see everything in the Botanic Garden during a single visit. So perhaps the best course of action is to ask one o...
June 19, 2016
The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts
Since arriving in Montreal, we had been planning to check out the Museum of Fine Arts, but kept finding reasons to postpone our visit. “It’s too sunny out for a museum,” or “it’s Sunday, and will be too crowded,” or “it’s already too late, and we won’t be able to see everything.” But if we’re being honest, the museum just intimidated us. Spread across four buildings in the Golden Square Mile, with over 40,000 pieces in its permanent collection, this the largest and most important museum in Mo...
June 18, 2016
Walking Across the Jacques-Cartier Bridge
Built in 1930, the Jacques Cartier Bridge connects the Island of Montreal to both the Île Sainte-Hélène and the mainland shore of Longueuil. It’s one of Canada’s busiest bridges, on which traffic comes to a standstill during rush-hour, but there’s a separate lane for pedestrians and bikes that gives you an incredible view of the city’s skyline.
Plenty of bikers use the Jacques Cartier Bridge, but we were the only walkers when we crossed on a Friday morning. It wasn’t really a surprise: cross...
June 17, 2016
Montreal’s Biosphère
Built as the American Pavilion for the 1967 World Expo, the Biosphère on Île Sainte-Hélène has become one of the defining landmarks of Montreal. Today, this geodesic dome is home to a museum about the state of our planet’s environment.
The Biosphère is one of the most recognizable buildings in Montreal, and is at its most impressive when you’re standing inside it. The geometric pattern used to create the dome (a Class 1, Frequency 16 icosahedron, since you asked) is mesmerizing, and it’s eas...
June 15, 2016
Habitat 67
Perhaps the most iconic piece of architecture in Montreal is Habitat 67, designed by Israeli/Canadian architect Moshe Safdie for the city’s World Expo. The brutalist interlocking system of identical concrete living cubes still seems as outlandish and visionary as it must have in 1967.
Habitat 67 is what might happen if you were to give 354 identical blocks to a six-year-old, and ask them to create a building. I’ve chosen the age “six” deliberately. A five-year-old would make a mess of it, wh...
Patriots’ Day on Mont Saint-Hilaire
Jürgen and I are really clever guys. Check this out: while planning our hike on Mont Saint-Hilaire, we decided to go not on a weekend, but on a Monday. When the mountain would be less busy! Boy oh boy, now that’s clever! But as it turns out, Quebec was celebrating Patriots’ Day on this particular Monday. Turns out, we’re not so clever after all.
Across Canada, Victoria Day is celebrated in honor of Queen Victoria’s birthday… but not in Quebec. In 1837, while Victoria was being anointed Queen...
June 14, 2016
The Parc La Fontaine
Located in the neighborhood of Plateau Mont-Royal, the Parc La Fontaine is a popular place for picnics, strolls, and laying out in the sun. This is among the city’s largest parks, at 84 acres, and on summer weekends, you’ll find nearly every square inch of it occupied.
During the course of a normal year, Montrealers don’t get to enjoy a lot of warm weekends. So when that rare trifecta of Sunny + Summer + Weekend hits, it’s not like they’ll be content to spend the day chilling the couch and b...
