Thank you to those who offered  sage suggestions of camping stools from Canadian Tire for under ten dollars. I will resort to that when I am sick of the camping chair that I found in the garbage this week! Ah, Montreal. Mysteriously benevolent Montreal. How is it that you can provide me with such bounties of free food, cheap coffee, and arts and crafts? You provide me with almost anything for free - all I need is patience and a sharp eye. Currently, said eye is peeled for chairs. Any seating implement ...

Readying to replace the winding staircase in front of a triplex on de la Roche. Montreal’s heritage protection policy requires homeowners to restore staircases according to their original characteristics, even if it sometimes means twisting the building code a little. I wrote more about Montreal's iconic staircases here.

Welcome to the inaugural episode of The Sunday Building Project! Every Sunday, I will post my favourite drawing of the past week. If you care to keep more up-to-date, a link to the Project's blog is provided thorough the image. I draw a building every day, and simultaneously offer to do drawings and paintings on commission. I've been invited to share on this blog the occasional piece. This is the project - Once a day, I take a point of meandering in the city until I find an attractive seating opportunity ...

Spacing Montreal has never thought of holding a Halloween costume contest but if we did, I'm betting Ian Langohr would take home the prize with "Factory Face," a reproduction of the Canada Malting Plant in mask form. "I have been fascinated by the old maltage plant since moving to St. Henri in 2009. I find it surrealistic in itself, as it sort of resembles a bizarre collage of industrial buildings. The holes, rust, graffiti and ...

[caption id="attachment_12212" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="L\'église néo-gothique Saint-Alphonse-D\'Youville (1932) s\'apprête à être convertie en condos. État du chantier le 19 septembre."][/caption] Elles ne peuvent pas toutes survivre, mais j'ai l'impression que la perte est plus lourde qu'à l'habitude: l'église Saint-Alphonse-D'Youville de la rue Crémazie est sur le point d'être avalée par les condos Liguori. Au moins l'imposant site de construction vaudra le détour quelques mois! Construite en 1932, la belle bâtisse néo-gothique allait désormais voir sa paroisse coupée en deux et sa façade donner sur l'autoroute métropolitaine à partir des années 1960. ...