Exploring Montréal: 151 Best Buildings

Discover Montréal with this authoritative and highly readable guide to the city’s most interesting places and learn how, why and by whom the city’s urban environment was shaped.

Montréal boasts Canada’s most diverse array of architecture, spanning styles from the missionary and fur-trade era of New France to striking twenty-first-century designs. In this engaging and accessible guide, architectural writer Robin Ward introduces a curated selection of the city’s most fascinating landmarks: grand public buildings, museums, banking halls, churches, theatres, the mansions of the fabled Golden Square Mile, French and British monuments, industrial heritage sites and innovative contemporary structures reshaping the urban landscape.

Over one hundred and fifty buildings and points of interest are illustrated with colour photographs and arranged into self-guided routes that cover various neighbourhoods. All are easily accessible on foot, by bicycle or via public transit—especially the city’s efficient Métro system. For wayfinding, entries are numbered and keyed to maps. Exploring Montréal is the perfect companion for curious visitors as well as long-time residents of this fascinating metropolis.

“The photography is excellent and selection of buildings and civic statuary or artwork both astute and appropriate to exploring the built environment of Canada’s one-time leading metropolis...[Exploring Montreal] beckons design professionals, urban history enthusiasts, and attentive visitors to explore the ‘City of Saints’ gathered around Mount Royal on Montreal Island.”