LOOK UP showcases aerial sights

From gargoyles to the cross on Mount Royal, we’ve come up with a walking tour of the city detailing interesting artifacts that you can only see by looking up.

Most of us trudge through our daily routine noticing little about the interesting city around us.

We might notice the glitzy displays in store windows, or the cracks in the pavement.

But we pay no heed to the wondrous details hovering above eye level — from cat’s paw prints in 150-year-old bricks to gargoyles galore.

That’s why The Gazette has come up with a walking tour to help you raise your eyes — and gain a whole new perspective.

Look Up is an online series detailing interesting artifacts in downtown Montreal that you can only see by looking up. Soon to follow will be more on Griffintown and Old Montreal. Print out the downtown Montreal tour, which you can find at montrealgazette.com/exploremontreal, or access it on your phone.

Above ground-floor facades, the upper stories of Victorian row houses tell the story of downtown’s residential past. Stone figurines and rooftop finials speak of an era when craftsmanship thrived. And roofs — flat or sloping, squat or soaring — illustrate changing architectural styles.

To understand the urban environment, you have to learn to gaze upward, said David Hanna, a professor of urban planning at the Université du Québec à Montréal.

“Every September, I tell my students, I’m going to teach you to look up,” he said.

Hanna has devised a walking tour for Gazette readers that strays off the beaten track, avoiding the usual tourist attractions. It includes everything from a Nepalese-style pagoda atop a former park chalet to rusty cone-like structures on a grain elevator.

Once you get in the habit of looking up, you’ll soon start noticing the rich abundance of architectural details all around you. Just mind you don’t get a stiff neck — or fall into a manhole!

On this page, some wellknown Montrealers choose their favourite views at which to look up!

JOHN KENNEY/ THE GAZETTE The pediment atop the Bank of Montreal building in Old Montreal depicts Montreal’s crest, featuring symbols of Scotland, Ireland, England and French Canada, and two natives.

ALLEN MCINNIS/ THE GAZETTE “Seeing that (owl) makes people look at the wonderful widow’s walk at the top of the Shaughnessy House, and the great railing at the top,” architect Phyllis Lambert says of plastic raptor perched atop the Canadian Centre for Architecture.

ALLEN MCINNIS/ THE GAZETTE “No matter what your religious background, it makes you feel you’re home,” crime writer Kathy Reichs says of the cross on Mount Royal, which was erected in 1924.

ALLEN MCINNIS/ THE GAZETTE “Every once in a while, it’s at half-mast, which means somebody important to McGill has died,” former chancellor Richard Pound says of the university’s flag atop the Arts Building.