CONCEPT
Place des Montréalaises presents a strategic urban landscape that offers sensitive, playful and reflective experiences, including the most important and spectacular access to Old Montreal. Its environments reveal distinct plant ambiances, lyrical commemorative components, sometimes playful water management strategies, vivid lighting and hidden smart city devices.
DESIGN PARTY
Two sources of inspiration guided the development of the design: the flow of the old St-Martin River that ran along St-Antoine Street and the current pedestrian flow that animates this passageway. AU GRÉ DES FLOTS marks the importance given to water in our city as well as to the people who will frequent the square.
THE OBLIQUE
The site is organized around the Champ-de-Mars metro kiosk and its monumental glass roof according to a masterful oblique that structures the pedestrian routes. In addition to the alignment of the footbridge, the rotation materializes smoothly, without conflict with the urban fabric of the city, shaping elegant geometries, cutting out sub-spaces that are both functional and surprising with diversified atmospheres. At the intersection of east-west public spaces at the foot of the old fortifications and north-south between the river and City Hall, the Place des Montréalaises is positioned as a slightly angled key to align the significant public sequences. The crossing of the obliques creates triangles that energize the space between the metro kiosk and the reception pavilion, as well as between the fountain-canal under the trees of the commemorative forest and the hand-poem accompanying the crossing of the footbridge.
THE HEART OF THE SQUARE
If the periphery offers a defined vegetal framework, the heart of the square provides an open plan acting as an event plateau with the main zone of programmed and spontaneous activities. Its tight scale, sized to hold many types of events, provides all the necessary spatial and technical flexibility. The bleachers promise a unique stage environment with the Marcelle-Ferron glass roof as a backdrop. Integrated slides make it an artificial hill.
THE WATER SQUARE
At the foot of the subway kiosk, the water square is positioned as a free play area set in a unique retention structure. Nearly a third of the square's runoff accumulates here through its subtle topography, modifying the landscape according to rainfall events through retention and passive evaporation. As the center of the square, the retention, both playful and functional, makes visible the capacity of the development to instruct on water management in the urban environment. Through the occasional islands of water, the colors of the canopy are reflected. Mist-makers make it a playful destination in hot weather.
COMMEMORATION
The main commemorative components of the site, woven through the landscapes, are deployed in three locations that propose a commemorative strategy through carefully crafted textual grids integrated into the urban landscape.
The commemorative forest includes the fountain-canal and its micro-pools that celebrate the singular involvement of six pioneers through a tangle of names of Montreal women from all walks of life. An integrated and scenic lighting brings the names to life through a soft but striking light.
On the bridge, the hand-poem is a literary dedication to the fourteen polytechnic women. In this line of desire towards the old city, and with an eye towards a constantly evolving downtown, this commemoration turns towards the Montreal women of tomorrow. Associated with the heroic act of building bridges, this poem wraps itself around the handrail of the footbridge in a luminous perforated metal piece.
Finally, the Marie-Josèphe-Angélique space offers an environment of recollection in a place stamped by the intensity of a life violated then lost. This three-dimensional wooden construction, carved to form seats, offers a place for daily meetings. The tree grills lyrically tell a unique Montreal story that can be lit from within at dusk.
THE PAVILION
At the northwest corner of the site, the reception pavilion anchors the plaza to its urban context; situated at the crossroads of pedestrian flows, presenting itself as a beckon from the Champ-de-Mars metro subway exit, the structure offers basic program services. In deference to the aedicula and its glass roof, in subtle dialogue with its frank volumetry and its roof lines, the new pavilion proposes a sober and elegant architecture as well as a daring gesture: an imposing cantilevered pergola supporting a hundred solar panels supplying energy to the Place des Montréalaises. Under the pergola, a terrace unfolds near the area planned for foodtrucks.
THE PASSERELE
The bridge over the highway exit ramp is made up of two structures. The main one, the footbridge, is a hybrid structure with articulated ends. On the north side, it unfolds and flares out into the large steps and heights overlooking the plaza; on the south side, it splits in two, offering a main route oriented towards Vauquelin Place and a second towards Gosford Street. The southern articulation supports the redevelopment plan of the Champ-de-Mars and the figure of its embankment, favoring the sensitive reintegration of the monumental staircase at the northeast corner. The articulated structure is set in the topographies on either side of the exit ramp, minimizing its overall visual impact. Its contemporary architecture aims at structural clarity and careful materiality.
The second spanning structure is a park slab covering the first thirty meters of the recessed ramp and integrating the pedestrian route to the Saint-Antoine Street crossing. It provides the minimum coverage necessary to enhance the surroundings of the Hôtel-de-Ville Avenue and the use of the southwest quadrant of the square. The green slab is laid on top of a partial rework of the retaining walls.
WATER MANAGEMENT
The development will provide exemplary ecological stormwater management where it is envisioned that the project will contribute to transforming the Montreal community's perception of urban stormwater runoff. The project integrates specific strategies as sustainable development and climate change adaptation measures. The approach chosen favours control at the source with green infrastructure and the reuse of water for irrigation of plantations, making the site self-sufficient with zero discharge to existing networks. This has a direct impact on reducing overflows from sewer systems draining the area. The development will provide a higher level of service than the C-1.1 bylaw by effectively managing the full range of rainfall.
By distributing infiltration, temporary storage and reuse areas throughout the project, a resilient drainage system will be achieved. This will reduce the amount of runoff directed to the municipal systems, which will adapt to the amount of rainfall. The flexibility and adaptability of existing systems will be further enhanced by the use of sensors and intelligent control systems such as the Digital Delta in the Netherlands.
The stormwater management systems will be a signature element of the development and will be directly in line with the vision of the City of Montreal's Water Department, making it an identifying element. Based on some of the findings of projects already completed elsewhere in the Montreal region, special attention will be paid to the design and implementation of all-season systems, as well as to sediment management and ease of maintenance of equipment.
SMART AND RESILIENT CITY
With photovoltaic panels deployed on the pavilion's pergola, twelve geothermal wells, and heat recovery strategies from the subway, the plaza will achieve the net zero energy consumption goal to be certified Carbon Zero. It will use the energy produced on site in an optimal way, whether it is to light the spaces, maintain comfort in the pavilion, or activate the snow melting on the footbridge. Place des Montréalaises will become the first Montreal location to network five autonomous data centers: the City of Montreal, the Quebec government, emergency services, the STM and Environment Canada. With weather sensors, human movement sensors and interactive terminals, the square is positioned as a demonstration project integrated with the landscape, infrastructure and information technologies.
APPROPRIATION OF THE SITE
Place des Montréalaises will become a demonstration project of best practices in landscape design, from the scale of urban space planning to responsible raindrop management. In addition to its strong signature built and landscaped spaces, it will offer a place of flexible appropriation through the insertion of movable furniture (chairs, tables, table games) for interaction between area residents, workers, transient visitors and tourists. The Place des Montréalaises will be the pride of Montrealers and a popular destination!
(From competitor's text)
(Unofficial automated translation)
The innovative design approach, the ecological qualities and the application of smart city principles
distinguish this proposal.
The project also has a strong signature, whose axes of deployment, which break with the Montreal urban fabric, greatly pleased the jury. The details presented also show great finesse, and the theme surrounding the commemoration of the Montreal women is sensitive and current.
The square is lined with trees on both sides, while providing a clear view of the Cité administrative. The spaces near the CRCHUM are usable, well integrated and take into account the presence of wind in the area. The integration of the buildings seems well thought out. However, their formal and functional attributes will have to be clarified in the second phase.
The orientation of the footbridge structures the space well, judiciously integrates the constraint of the highway ramp and provides access to both Place Vauquelin and Gosford Street, which was appreciated by the jury members. The landing of the footbridge on the Champ-de-Mars, outside the zone authorized by the Ministère de la Culture et des Communications and by the Division du patrimoine de la Ville de Montréal, presents a risk/challenge to the future acceptance of this component of the project. The jury will want to hear from the team about the possibility of having to evolve the design of the footbridge in respect of the Champ-de-Mars site.
Despite the spatial qualities of the proposal, the jury nevertheless points out that the space is fragmented, sometimes on several levels, and can make the square difficult to read, particularly in terms of the route for users. The jury members also questioned the ease of appropriating the spaces for programmed or spontaneous activities. The flexibility and functionality of the square will have to be demonstrated in phase 2.
(From jury report)
(Unofficial automated translation)
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