油麻地停車場大廈 Yau Ma Tei Carpark Building

too much obituary but then here is another one.

Yau Ma Tei Carpark Building, know for the Gascoigne Road Flyover passing through the building on the 3rd floor, will be permanently closed next year, in 2021. The top three floors of the car park will off limit starting 1st nov 2020. disappearing landscape aficionados in hong kong are congregating on the 7th and 8th floors to savour the hustle and bustle of yaumatei on this last full day of its operation.

2020實在寫得太多訃聞，不過還是越寫越有。預告你知十一月仲有我想寫但未寫嘅。油麻地停車場大廈要重建／改建了。我期待的是地下的讀書館會變得更乾淨、更大、提供更多元服務等等。今日我就跟其他香港人追逐那些虛無縹緲、似有似無嘅回憶。油蔴地係五湖四海、人流複雜的地方。出入停車場大廈地下公廁的，有時有點駭人、像是吸毒癮君子、亦有神志不清的人。如果說資源不公，這里的圖書館和公廁都可以算是我用過之中的最污糟。希望這社區奇景消失之餘，政府會改善此地的各項服務。

https://youtu.be/WR97jqinsQ0

too many photos taken inside

carpark

carpark2 – flyover on lower right

bmw – car as model

notice on permanent closure

此時此刻的地圖  library was marked in the middle of the proposed thoroughfare

another video after my errands at the library 去完圖書館再拍過:

低啲再影過 a closer look further down :

海員俱樂部再發展

只是一兩個月冇經過中間道旁的小徑，驚見海員俱樂部搭起拆樓嘅石屎支撐加工字鐵承起嘅上蓋。在網上翻查一下，原來舊年已經尋找地產發展商協作再發展。簡單、非龐然大物嘅建築，係旺區如尖沙嘴要抵得住改變、擴展嘅命運可謂難過登天！

外觀

ole ola, mas nenhuma força

ole ola….

The dust has long settled after the World Cup 2014 in Brazil. Football aside, the theme song and its video really sounded and looked heavily American, albeit international production. So much for Brazil’s backbone of photographing and fingerprinting Americans visitors knocking on their doors on arrival, when it comes to big money, multinationals still dictate how events are run or sponsored. This couldn’t be truer weird and somewhat vulgar and definitely violent (towards the end) parody which par hasard caught my attention today:

So the Brazilians spent all that money, threw in some false pride, garnished with cultural absence and misrepresentations and topped off with some posh infrastructures, et Voilà! Who eventually would benefit? Wait, Rio will host the Olympics in less than 48 months and the story keeps on fermenting itself.

and here’s the NFL or Miami-like original jingle.

蘇屋邨的夕陽 sun setting So Uk

杜鵑, 海棠, 茶花, 彩雀, 百合, 牡丹, 劍蘭, 金松, 櫻桃, 蘭花, 石竹 楓林, 綠柳, 壽菊, 丁香。。。不要心邪,這不是某夜總會的小姐的別稱。當2012年初到最後時，香港的蘇屋邨也快走進歷史。一九六零年代建成的最後幾座也快要拆掉。 有陽光，有空間，有樹木的好環境，不知將來“再生”的蘇屋邨比得上舊的嗎？

As we leave 2012 behind, we bit farewell to So Uk Estate，one of the first housing estates in Hong Kong. The last of its remaining buildings will also leave the physical world and enter into history books.

In those earlier days of housing development, even the banal naming of housing blocks sounded much more elegant than the luxurious private condominiums these days…
Azalea, Begonia, Camelia, Larkspur, Lily, Lotus， Cedar, Cherry, Orchid, Gladiolus, Carnation, Peony, Maple, Willow, Marigold, Lilac… buildings all named after flowers, you can’t get really more elegant than that!

Goodbye 2012, goodbye another piece of Hong Kong history from the 20th century.

蘇屋邨 杜鵑樓 Azalea House, So Uk estate

name plaque

蘇屋邨 (三), So Uk estate (3)

蘇屋邨, So Uk estate (name in Chinese)

encore un Flatiron

Une autre bâtisse devant les grandes tours!

another Flatiron in Hong Kong

Compared previously posted in Vancouver and Hong Kong or that in Paris of the Orient, they all have their charm, only if they are not to be bulldozered by development.

in colour

2 Flatirons, 2 destinies

encore des fers à repasser (Flatiron)

another “flatiron” in Vancouver, BC, Canada 加拿大溫哥華一"熨斗"樓宇

cette bâtisse dans un coin anciennement défavorisé a vécu la gentrification (c’est à dire l’embourgeoisement) du quartier. Il y a de plus en plus des touristes qui la passent pour aller aux boutiques, aux cafés ou aux restos.

本土九龍的，更人來人往

九龍大角咀也有熨斗唄 ONE of the Flatirons in Tai Kok Tsui, Kowloon, HK

可悲是有特色，而不太高的舊樓在市建局的陰影下生存空間越來越窄，跟熨斗一樣窄！
為什麼前者（溫哥華的）可以留下來？但這大角咀的呢，多半會在一、兩年內消失。

看看以前這博客提及過的熨斗樓吧

more flatirons in this blog from the past

two stand-alones 兩棟獨立樓

separated at birth VI 物以類聚 6

Certaine tour résidentielle à Taipei, à quelques pas du centre-ville.
臺北承德路附近的一棟居住用舊樓

臺北一舊樓

太平洋的另一端蒙特利爾的商業樓宇 l’autre coté en Amérique du Nord
une édifice pas loin du Quartier des spectacles, sur Sainte-Catherine, à Montréal

une édifice pleine de couleurs

Les deux édifices sont suffisamment mignonnes, situées à quelques pas du centre-ville, leurs destins dans les prochaines années porteraient des surprises. On les revisitera!

more “separated at birth” 更多“物以類聚” les anciens “qui se ressemble s’assemble”：

1), 2), 3), 4)

education + religion – separated at birth? (4)

This is (not quite) another case of separated at birth (4), but a continuation of the fake bros in Beijing.

Can you guess where these structures are located exactly in Shanghai, China and Montréal, Canada?

Pas nécessairement ressemble des paroles des forêts de Shanghaï à l’Irlande, mais si ces 2 photos réussissent à relier la Chine et le Québec pour une raison différente.

上海的雙子塔(click on image for enlarged full view) les tours jumelles à Shanghai

une des églises à la 'Ville-Marie', commonly know as Montréal 蒙特利爾多若流星的教堂之一

1) 復旦大學的行政大樓 Administrative Building of Fudan University

2) 6500 boulevard Saint-Laurent, Montréal, Canada – I dont even know the name of the this église-turn-condos in Petite Italie (Little Italy)! 蒙特利爾小意大利區的一已經改為公寓大廈的教堂。

more “separated at birth”

1), 2), 3)

gentrification vs urban decay

Which one leads to another or it is not the case at all?

the defunct "Del Mar Inn"

the owner says

not for sell

dwarf in front a towering giant

isn’t that a normalising landscape in many cities throughout the world, including Vancouver, British Columbia here?

deviner une oeuvre d’art

J’ai assisté un atelier d’écriture récemment. C’était un bon exercice. Voici ma ‘oeuvre d’art’ – thème de notre session.

Les toursits la rendent l’hommage jour après jour
Les religieux y prient semaine après semaine
Moi, j’y réfléchirais voyage après voyage, si je suis en ville à  Barcelone
Les tours fines, longues et connectées
recherchent la limite du ciel

Mystérieuse et pleine de motifs irréguliers
Elle crie du surréalisme pour les artistes ou intellectuels
Pour les autres, c’est un air parfois morbide
En chantier qui ne s’arrête pas
Même en rejettant les dons japonais
La fierté des Catalans monte haute et loine

La réponse se trouve ici.