Straight streets of brick duplexes run down to the Saint Lawrence, and the Auditorium's rink has stood in for other arenas on screen.
What Verdun looks like
is the commercial spine, three and four storey buildings with ground floor shops under apartments above. It runs for several blocks past pharmacies and small restaurants, most sharing the same style storefront band along the sidewalk.
Back from Wellington, streets like run straight and flat, lined with two and three storey brick duplexes. Iron staircases zigzag up the front of each building to a second floor door, with narrow balconies tucked underneath. Most of these rows date from the 1920s and 1930s, and the brick runs unbroken from one end of the block to the other.
Boulevard LaSalle follows the river along the south edge of the borough, with a grass park strip and a paved path between the road and the water. The stands on the boulevard, a brick arena with a glass entrance addition and its own ice rink inside. Further along the waterfront, the Natatorium's art deco pool building from 1940 faces the same path.
West of the Auditorium, breaks from the straight grid that covers most of the borough, with curved streets and a more suburban layout. Detached houses with driveways and shallow front lawns replace the shared brick duplexes found closer to the water.
Shot in Verdun
The Verdun Auditorium on Boulevard LaSalle is the city's oldest arena, and its rink has stood in for other hockey venues on screen more than once. More than one production has redressed the rink itself rather than build one, since the arena already has a real bowl and boards to work with.
The Verdun Auditorium
4110 Boulevard LaSalle. Four productions have used the arena's own rink, more than one redressing the boards and signage rather than filming elsewhere.
Les Boys 4
The Verdun Auditorium
The comedy franchise shot its hockey scenes at the Auditorium, filming on the arena's own rink. The boards and the seating bowl in frame are the building's real ice rink. Street View
Pee-Wee 3D: L'hiver qui a changé ma vie
Played the Colisée de Québec, Québec City, Quebec
The production dressed the rink as the Colisée de Québec for this hockey drama, changing the signage and the boards around the ice. The Auditorium's own seating bowl looks like a professional arena on camera. Street View
Lance et compte 3
The hockey series filmed its game scenes at the Auditorium. The ice and the boards in frame are the arena's own.
Jean Béliveau
Played the Montreal Forum, Montreal, Quebec
The production dressed the rink as the old Montreal Forum for this docu-fiction series about Jean Béliveau, filmed in the fall of 2016. It redid the ice markings and the boards, and the Auditorium's own seating bowl stood in for the demolished arena.
What Verdun can double for
Saint-Sauveur in Quebec City, Quebec
Saint-Sauveur's older blocks carry the same brick triplexes with exterior iron staircases climbing to upper floor doors, built through the same 1920s to 1940s window. The straight grid and worker scale housing match a Verdun side street closely. Saint-Sauveur's staircases tend to run in shorter double flights rather than Verdun's tighter spirals, so a wide establishing shot holds the illusion better than a close angle on the stairs themselves. Try searching brick triplex staircases now.
Pilsen's brick two-flats run in the same straight rows as Verdun's side streets, worker housing built close to the sidewalk with little setback. Projecting bay windows and repeating cornices give the blocks a similar rhythm from the street. Chicago's alleys and detached garages sit behind the blocks rather than in front, so keep wide shots to the street face and away from the rear lot lines. Try searching brick two-flats now.
Dorchester's triple-decker blocks share the same multi-unit scale and straight residential streets, with two or three flats stacked behind one facade. Many blocks were built across the same working class expansion of the 1920s and 1930s. The construction is wood rather than brick, and the stairways sit inside covered porches instead of open iron spirals. A close shot of an entrance gives the city away fast. Try searching triple-decker wood porches now.
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