In downtown Montreal there is an area called Shaughnessy Village, its roughly between Dawson College and Concordia University (Sir George Williams campus). This old dépanneur, called Elephant Direct is on Chomedey st, near the old Forum. It looks to be shuttered, and an adjacent building looks boarded up too. One can imagine this prime real estate would make for a good condo tower, they built many around here. The architecture was a hodgepodge of ideas, you can see a classic French roof-line with bay windows and a steep sloping shingled facade. In the middle, is a corrugated plastic roof that covers a balcony. It looks like someone still lives in the mid and upper floors. Metal bars were behind the window, and a metal grating was in front, so pretty secure it would seem.
Dépanneur Elephant Direct, watercolour 8 x 10" cold press, April 2026
Looking east along st Catherine, there are many restaurants and shops with interesting exteriors. Over the years, they have been renovated, painted over, built on, painted again... resulting in more hodgepodge architecture. This one had tall 'stucco' panelling, like a slap of rough asphalt, and brown aluminum siding, with a black shingle roof. Red, orange, yellow and chartreuse signs popped off against an otherwise grey, blue and brown drizzly day. The building at center bottom in the distance is the Place Ville Marie tower.
Red, orange, yellow chartreuse signs, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2026
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