For obvious reasons, I did not take this photograph. I found it on Flickr in the “Vanished Montreal” group, something I highly recommend you check out. It was mis-labeled as being from the 1930s, but this is impossible given the presence of the Queen Elizabeth Hotel, among other buildings. It’d put it somewhere between 1958 and 1960. The tallest building in this photograph is the Art Deco Royal Bank Tower, at 22 floors. Building heights in the urban core largely range between 10 and 20 floors, though the Sun Life Building, just out of frame to the right, would have dominated the skyline large to due to its impressive massing. Within two to four years of when this photograph was taken, the immense form of Place Ville-Marie would dominate the centre of this space, rising to more than twice the previous norm. Within ten years about half a dozen buildings of similar height and prominence would come to dominate the skyline. In addition, much of the centre of this photograph was heavily densified in the 1970s and 1980s, with many new office buildings rising to between 15 and 25 floors, particularly in this area.

It looks so quaint.