I wonder if there is a new architecture just waiting for city-dwellers to discover it. In every town I visit it seems the locals feel that they have the best urban environment possible. That could be true in the cottages of the Hollywood Hills, or the tenements of Chinatown, N.Y. Everyone seems to see the world around them as naturally occurring.

Take the example of Montreal. I'm here for the Summer, and I very much enjoy walking the alleys of the city to see the backs of the buildings and all the unregulated stuff people do there. There are motorcycle garages, and illegally renovated back sheds with flower boxes on their second story windows. This is the part of the city which has yet to be completely regulated as far as building appearance goes. Whereas on the building fronts you cannot make a significant alteration without going before a citizens committee which examines the historic relationship of the building to the environment. Or something like that. But they still let you do what you want as far as the alleys go, though the municipal architects and concerned citizens *watchdog* groups I believe are zeroing in on regulating what can be done to a building's caboose. Good, bad or indifferent.

I was saying to a good friend in the area, how I thought it would be exciting to see a new kind of building style emerge from the Mile-End neighborhood. It would be a form and living design which encouraged and facilitated certain activities, such as creative work or socializing with neighbors. Or it would embody whatever it was people aspired to in life, rather than one which simply dealt with life's problems. Having lived in Los Angeles for four years, I came to realize how much I valued and relied upon my garage. This is a very Californian aspiration, to have a garage - along with a ranch home or bungalow. And that particular style of dwelling I'd say is drawing ever more reproach from the environmentally conscious.
But putting that aside, I wonder if there is something to be taken from the example of California and the wonders that have come out of its garages? Surfboards, skateboards, apple computers, steadi-cams. There is just an amazing amount of really cool things that have come out of the backyard garage/workshop. And I'm not even bringing up bands.

But my Montreal friend was skeptical. We don't want that, she said. We don't want this place to be California. And she went on to explain how the Montreal triplex building, with the outdoor stairs, and the backyard and breezeways; was the best possible use of space to give the most people a certain quality of life. In other words, they have attained perfection. But what about workshop space, I asked. There's no place to rebuild your motorcycle suspension, or paint signs for a political rally. It's obvious to me that every indoor space in this part of Montreal is occupied. Space is critical to developing small, artisan industries, and those are the ones that grow into big, earth shaking companies. And Canada is such a big country. Hello suburbia!

My friend's real point about architecture in the city being unregulated, is that it would quickly fill up with custom homes for wealthy individuals. There would be even fewer people per square foot than now. It would be like L.A. in other words. Big garages for all the pimp cars. Hot tub on the roof. Maybe a Texas Hold-em room! But if the only alternative is Le Corbusier's school of urbanism as a utopian social project, well, I'll be out in the pool.