How do Australia and Canada compare with the USA in an architectural sense? (car rental, rental)
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The US is a massive hodgepodge of differing architectural styles and layouts across its suburbs and urban areas, but I found it to be the best country of the three for architecture. Looking at population size throughout history, I guess maybe this isn’t a surprise, but there’s a consistency of significant architectural movements that you can see in cities and towns of all sizes throughout the US. It’s true that the sprawling sunbelt modernity of cities like Houston leave a lot to be desired, but I think it’s unfair to characterize that as typical of America’s built form when it’s much newer than a lot of America, in terms of population trends. It has colonial historical areas that give it depth on top of more significant participation in (and in some cases, the spearheading of) the design, art, and architecture movements of the 19th and 20th centuries. It sometimes has a shockingly messy way of developing public spaces, but I find it much better at this overall than Canada. It has the best monuments, sculpture, and statuary of the three by far.
These are my perspectives. Thoughts?
I cannot speak for Australia but regarding US vs. Canada, it isn’t a fair contest. Given that the US had a larger population in 1830 than Canada in 1940, it is not surprising that all of the architecturally interesting styles that developed between the mid-19th century and WWII left a bigger mark on American cities.
But more generally, like many things the US has a lot of the best and quite a bit of the worst. So if you like architecture and are a tourist, you can concentrate on the best and find a lot of amazing stuff in the US, including a lot of variety in residential architecture (American vernacular, Prairie style, etc), and of course the early skyscrapers, courthouses, etc. Older parts of some of our inner cities (Toronto, Hamilton, some of the older Ontario cities like Belleville) have a similar feel to parts of US cities in the Rust Belt but one would need to be a heck of a Canada booster (or not be interested in architecture at all, or have a huge bias in favor of Toronto/Vancouver modern glass condo buildings) to argue that Canada is a better architectural destination. It doesn’t mean Canada doesn’t have interesting buildings and public spaces but the quantity just isn’t there.
Now I happen to feel like both the US and Canada have been pretty good at dilapidating that heritage and favoring function over form since the end of WWII, and things are not getting any better given the amount of roadway required for recent urban development. But that is a different story.
Americans have art deco which while not an American model of architecture, it managed to give the US some awesome buildings.
Canadian architecture seems to resume to glass buildings.
THE US blows australia and Canada off of the water in architecture.
I believe the nicer areas of Philly like Society Hill, Old City, Rittenhouse Square Area, Art Museum Area, Chestnut Hill, and The Main Line are more beautiful than anything you see in Toronto. The bad areas of Philly are worse than anything you see in Toronto!
Americans have art deco which while not an American model of architecture, it managed to give the US some awesome buildings.
Canadian architecture seems to resume to glass buildings.
THE US blows australia and Canada off of the water in architecture.
Canada does have some pretty unique cities for architecture like Quebec City, Victoria, Montreal.
However, I think zoning and recent population-explosion in Canada has something to do with the architecture of its built environment. Whereas, US cities seem to have stricter Zoning and fewer exemptions.
The main examples are Trellick Tower designed by architect Ernő Goldfinger, who played cards at the same club as Ian Fleming who wrote the James Bond books. Goldfinger also designed Balfron Tower in the East End.
Other examples include the Barbican, Queen Elizabeth Hall. Hayward Gallery and National Theatre on the Southbank as well as the Alexandra & Ainsworth Estate aka Rowley Way in Camden.
However most of the post war estates have been demolished and replaced with traditional housing and private apartments.
In Brisbane they seem to be either demolishing it or heritage listing it depending on the building. I think it's quite a common scenario around the world at the moment.
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Sydney and Melbourne also seem to lack stunning architecture.
They might be pleasant, beach, green, tons of wilderness around.... but certainly not architectural epicenters in any form.
Sydney has beautiful European style Victorian sandstone buildings, and the Sydney Harbour Bridge and Opera House are among the most iconic structures on earth.
Whilst the Sydney's Bay is breathtaking, and it is one of the most stunning cities in the world.
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In Brisbane they seem to be either demolishing it or heritage listing it depending on the building. I think it's quite a common scenario around the world at the moment.
Congratulations to Brisbane, on being awarded the 2032 Olympic Games.
There are a lot of silly generalizations in this thread. The U.S has more breadth of architectural styles and so I don't think Australia or Canada can compete due to the size and history of the U.S. That said, I think Australia and Canada perform well and in Canada's case (i'm less familiar with Australia), Canada has a pretty impressive architectural collection given the age of the country and particularly given the fact it only really developed a sizable population in the 1800's
I also find it interesting that people tend to dismiss anything as being architecturally significant, if it wasn't built before 1900.
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