Walking around #Montreal neighborhoods like Plateau Mont Royal and Mile End, you can’t help but notice a quirky residential design feature: exterior staircases. •• It is, to put it mildly, a curious choice for a city submerged in snow, ice, and subfreezing temperatures around 6 months out of the year. But it is a uniquely Montreal feature, with a lot of staircases even taller and longer than the ones pictured, much bigger than Brooklyn stoops, for example. •• Many theories exist as to why they were designed: to maximize the use of internal space by transferring staircases outside the usual “plex” (stacked) arr... Read more