THE CREATIVE DESTRUCTION OF MONTREAL: STREET WIDENINGS AND URBAN (RE)DEVELOPMENT IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY

Rapid industrialization of North American cities during the 19th century was associated with periodic innovations in transport and massive growth in traffic, leading to perennial problems of congestion in ill-adapted urban cores. During the latter half of the 19th century, the municipal government of Montreal (Canada) expropriated and destroyed thousands of properties to widen scores of existing streets. This paper argues that the key to these acts of "creative destruction" was the removal of barriers to circulation through a periodic redimensioning of the urban network and hence, a speed up in the rate of urban growth. A detailed investigation of the planning and execution of major street widening projects from 1862-1900 reveals how the built environment of Montreal was periodically destroyed and recreated by a local growth coalition committed to increasing aggregate rents, property values, and municipal revenues through the intensification of land use. Examination of a sample of properties before and after street widening suggests that redevelopment was most intense during economic boom times and in central areas, when and where competition for space was greatest, and there existed the most pressure to remodel the built landscape to fit the needs of a changed economic environment.

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  • Corporate Authors:

    Becker Associates

    Box 507, Station Q
    Toronto, Ontario M4T 2M5,   Canada 
  • Authors:
    • Gilliland, J
  • Publication Date: 2002

Language

  • English

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Filing Info

  • Accession Number: 00963175
  • Record Type: Publication
  • Files: TRIS
  • Created Date: Sep 9 2003 12:00AM