The Laurentides is a region of Quebec. It is often called the Laurentians in English, although the region includes only part of the Laurentian mountains.
The area was inhabited by the MontagnaisFirst Nations tribe, until the French settled it in the first half of the 19th century, establishing an agricultural presence throughout the valleys. During the 20th century, the area also became a popular tourist destination, based on a cottage and lake culture in the summer, and a downhill and cross-country ski culture in the winter. Ski resorts include Mont Tremblant and Gray Rocks.
The Laurentides still offer a weekend escape for Montrealers and tourists from New England to Ontario, but sadly the building of a major highway through the area in the 1970s (Laurentian Autoroute no. 15) has brought with it all the side effects of industrial tourism: traffic, noise, residential and commercial development, increases in the cost of living, and the destruction of nature. Currently, the lower Laurentides are being transformed into a suburb of Montreal, threatening to destroy any of the old-fashioned country charm that still lingers.
Motor hotels or laurentides motel cater to the same group of persons, but are often situated near or along major highways.
A minor piece of architecture, a laurentides motel, deserves mention, if only because the laurentides motel is a relatively new building type, leaning less on tradition than almost any other form and deriving most closely from the functional nature of its service to an automotive society.
The Heart of Atlanta laurentides motel, located in a section of Atlanta readily accessible to important interstate highways and with approximately 75 percent of its guests, therefore, from outside the state, had followed a policy of racial segregation—a practice unlawful under Title II of the 1964 act.
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