French starchitect Paul Andreu is creating a new iconic building for Montreal, but writer Joseph Baker posits that one splashy building does not a beautiful city make. Baker calls for a grand vision of city form on the scale of Barecelona's plan.
"Admirable cities do not achieve that status by the landing in their midst of one iconic building, but rather by the continuous integration of each addition to the existing fabric. It needs more than the occasional flourish to outdo Barcelona, a city that has reinvented itself following an overall plan that envisaged, in detail, countless measures that placed human activity at the centre.
We might try to match Bordeaux that conserves the beauty of its streets, improves its public gathering places and is threaded by a tramway system that is precise to the minute, all of which add more to the enjoyment of the citizenry than does the repute of its somewhat startling courthouse by Britain's star architect Lord Richard Rogers.
Copenhagen's seemingly endless pedestrianized shopping area, the Stroeget, doesn't boast a single remarkable building but would certainly evoke grateful praise if it were part of Montreal's landscape."
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