Tour the buildings and architectural styles of historic Old Montreal from your home, hotel or the cobblestone streets.
Brian Merrett offers an Architectural Highlights Tour that allows the visitor to better understand the unique character of Old Montreal. It is based on the essential guidebook, Montreal Architecture, A Guide to Styles and Buildings (http://www.merrettimages.ca/Guide_to_Styles.html)
Old Montreal, once the colonial town of Montreal, was founded by the French in 1642 as a mission for the conversion of North American Indians to Catholicism. It soon became the centre of the Fur Trade. Today, the area boasts the largest concentration of stone structures in North America and can be considered an encyclopedia of architectural styles.
The Old Montreal Architectural Highlights Tour app is entirely self-contained with no need for an internet connection. It combines the best qualities of an e-book with the interactive features of an illustrated walking tour guide.
The app is divided into four sections :
The History Section
- a textual Introduction to the Tour;
- a brief history of the development of Old Montreal;
- descriptions of three eras of the citys evolution.
The Buildings Section
- 22 buildings listed chronologically;
- detailed descriptive texts by architectural historian François Rémillard;
- beautifully illustrated by architectural photographer Brian Merrett (http://www.merrettimages.ca);
- each entry includes the date of construction, the buildings address, the name of its architect and its architectural style;
- links to the Styles Section, showing other buildings on the tour of the same architectural style;
- additional flip views show two interiors and a detail;
- each building is geo-located for positioning on the optional maps feature.
The Styles Section
- lists chronologically a dozen of the historic areas architectural styles, from the Architecture of New France to Current Trends;
- each style is described in detail, tracing the origins of the style and its implementation in Old Montreal;
- each style description is illustrated with photographic details of its distinguishing features;
- contains links to the Buildings Section, showing all the buildings on the tour of that style.
The Tour Section
- arranges all buildings into a comprehensive walking tour;
- click-able, descriptive walking directions;
- starts at the Champs-de-Mars Metro (subway) station; ends at the Place d’Armes station;
- includes a self-contained, scale-able map with numbered interactive locator buttons;
- building-by-building links to a map feature.
Additional features
- in-app camera link to document your visit to Old Montreal. Images are saved to your camera roll;
- the application does not require an Internet connection to function;
- link to a map feature for geo-positioning (iPhone users are notified of the possibility of roaming charges);
- toggle between font sizes.