Screenshot of Google results showing outdoor staircases in Montréal
All those outdoor staircases in front of older buildings in Montréal aren’t just an interesting architectural feature. There’s actually a reason behind them: staircases take up space.
To maximise the living area inside a building, staircases were installed outside instead, in the small green space in front of the building.
Another reason was to keep heating costs down. If the staircase had been built inside, that’s more space requiring heat in the winter.
And here you thought Montrealers were just nutjobs for installing their staircases outside in a city of snow and ice.
On your next visit to Montréal, you can check out staircases in the neighbourhood called le Plateau-Mont-Royal, for example.
un escalier extérieur
an outdoor staircase
L’escalier est à l’extérieur.
The staircase is outside.
Super cool! Love the uniqueness of it. Was told by someone once that Montreal’s property taxes used to be taxed based on the indoor square footage, so was more cost effective to move the stairs outside so as not to have to build extra indoor space for them… and that this type of outdoor-stair architecture stopped being built once this formula of taxation was taken off the books. But was told this by a friend, so am not sure if it’s true or just an urban legend. Regardless, it give the city a great style of its own for sure 🙂
They might be the result of a combination of factors.
In a Le Devoir article, the author writes:
Une réglementation importante voit le jour à Montréal en 1880 : l’approbation du plan de lotissement est maintenant obligatoire et la Ville impose l’alignement des constructions sur une marge de recul d’une dizaine de pieds de la bordure de la rue.
(It says a law was adopted in 1880 requiring the buildings to be built aligned about ten feet away from the edge of the street.)
If space was required to be put between the street and façade, this would’ve impeded on the size of the building. Moving the staircase out into the required green space in front of the building would’ve helped to compensate.
http://www.ledevoir.com/culture/arts-visuels/390714/et-l-escalier-exterieur-s-imposa-au-pays-du-triplex