Ottawa was once a beautiful city, streets were all lined with small picturesque brick houses, and surrounded by vast parklands. But at some point, during the 70's something went really REALLY wrong here. Did the Soviets perhaps took momentarily over, or did the city just try to save money and consult Eric Honecker instead of real architects, one can only speculate. But as a result the city got and is now permanently littered with buildings that are... beyond hideous.
Room for these new era buildings was simply made by bulldozing bunch of beautifully crafted, late 1800's houses, and these new buildings were just planted there. Obviously there wasn't even attempt to blend these towers somehow with the surroundings. Instead it appears each of these 'minimalism-modernist' buildings were purpose-designed to be as much of an eyesore as possible. Below are some examples of typical Ottawa downdown cityscape, with few remaining old brick houses that are completely overshadowed by these monstrous apartment buildings.
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Below another fine example of the city's architecture. The "Queen Elizabeth" apartment towers, right in the core of DT Ottawa. I've been once inside one of them and I can tell they are equally hideous from the inside as from the outside. The interior atmosphere reminded me of the movie "Shining".
This one is little bit further away from town. Since it is surrounded by low rise buildings only, it is even more prominent. By the looks of it, the concrete walls are at least 50" thick and the building can take an indirect hit of a nuclear weapon no problem;
The government office buildings follow the same recipe. Open up a piece of land by bulldozing the century old brick houses, and stick the square-shaped tower right in the middle. Take all the colors of a rainbow, mix'em up to form a dull grey or dirt-brown shade to apply for the exterior, and there you have it; another masterpiece to be proud of.
National Defense headquarters, in the heart of DT Ottawa;
Another government building little bit further away. Not sure of its function but does it matter? It's f-ugly;
Once the office job is done it is time to go shopping, right? In Ottawa even the shopping mall complexes are modelled after the finest designs East Germany had to offer. Below few pictures outside the St. Laurent shopping mall, one of the largest in Ottawa.
All the others malls also look pretty much the same; every one of them consists of huge, massive waste of concrete and pavement. No point of consuming bandwidth to show pictures of those too.
And now on to THE ULTIMATE EYESORE.
At first viewed over a great distance from the capital hill. This is what the world leaders see when the pay a visit to Canada;
Never mind the fall colors, they last only for 2 weeks. But the two massive complexes looming on the horizon are forever. Situated on the Quebec side of the river, in Gatineau, they belong to the Government of Canada too. They are indeed to Ottawa what North Shore mountains are to Vancouver. The red one is the Ministry of Interrogation and the one on the right side is the Ministry of Torture, perhaps?
When I first heard the name Gatineau, first thing that came to mind was French elegance and the streets of Paris. But when I actually entered the Gatineau the first time, the red complex was the first thing what I saw and what you will see;
Oh la la! Bienvenue a Quebec! NOT. Somebody please bring me a piece of rope. Screw the French elegance, f*ck the aesthetics. This is what I saw and what's gonna face you.
This complex is elegantly called "Terrasses de la Chaudière". The name is in French and means something in lines of "The big brother is omnipresent and is watcing you".
If you watch the opposite direction the town actually looks quite idyllic.
But the big monster towering behind the shoulders is impossible to ignore.
The other complex "Place du Portage", just few blocks away from the first one isn't any more aesthetically pleasing.
Same complex close up. This really looks more like a tomb rather than a place to work. Only a small portion can be fit to the picture. To get a complete view of this massif one would have to use a special equipment or view it from space.
Thanks to the erection of these two monstruous complexes, visible from absolutely everywhere, Gatineau is beyond salvation. There is no hope. A 50 MT hydrogen bomb wouldn't make a dent to these buildings. They are built to outlast the pyramids. Ottawa has tons of mightily hideous buildings, but nevertheless nothing there quite compares to these ones in the Gatineau side. To the unfortunate tourists who happen to wander to this direction from the west, I can only advice to floor it, if you driving, and don't stop until you reach Montreal. If you are a pedestrian, turn around or for lack of better option, jump off the bridge into the river.
