Point st Charles is one of the rapidly gentrifying neighborhoods in Montreal, located east of Verdun and in between highways, the river, and the canal. Once a residential-industrial blended neighborhood, the old factories and warehouses are being razed one by one and replaced with condominiums and retail. In this scene on st Patrick street, I found a neat warehouse/building center, still open for business. It made for an interesting composition with contrasting angles and depth elements.
Green wall construction center, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, October 2026
A small park called Parc des Chaudronniers is nestled between buildings. Its surrounded by a vast empty gravel lot which has the look of something destined to be developed. It was a great place to stand with my bike and paint yesterday on a nice, cool fall day. In the background, is a newly built condominium with its yellowish insulation layer still showing before the bricks are set.
Empty lot new condo, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, October 2026
Same spot looking east, you see multiple building structures with a neat variety of textures and colours. Bottom left was a challenging dark-yellow with aluminum siding, behind were white-washed red brick, then an exposed-wood panelling wall in the background. To the right was a tall stainless steel or aluminum vat connected by piping to the buildings.
Old textures and vat, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, October 2026
And looking to the west, a towering wall of glass condos, the traffic on st Patrick, and part of the empty lot on the bottom left, with some graffiti on the wall. I hope the city can turn this empty lot into a park to extend the existing Chaudronniers park, and I have a feeling they will. In other areas, the city also reserved park space, so as to avoid an unbroken block of Condos in one area.
Glass walls empty lot, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, October 2026
