The video screen of a silhouetted stripper was once a landmark at the corner of Ste. Catherine and the Main. It was a symbol of sorts for Montreal’s rapidly-dwindling red light district, a seedy neighbourhood of cheap bars, diners, peep shows juxtaposed with music venues, theatres and university buildings. It was about the only remarkable thing left on the building it occupied, a hideous, dilapidated, mostly-abandoned structure that was an eyesore even for a scuzzy part of town.
It’s a bit of a surprise to look at the photos on the right, compiled by Spacing Montreal’s Guillaume St-Jean, only to realize that that ugly building is in fact quite old. When it was built around the turn of the twentieth century, it was solid and elegant, if somewhat unremarkable. Over the course of a century it was brutalized to such an extent as to be all but unrecognizable, save for its distinctively narrow width.
Today’s La Presse reports that the building will be demolished in the spring to make way for a landmark that represents a different kind of Montreal. The city government has expropriated the two properties at the corner of Ste. Catherine and the Main for a new cultural centre that will be called — wait for it — the Red Light. The name is clearly an appropriation of the area’s often rough-and-tumble history (and whether it’s cynical or playful depends on your point of view), but the building itself doesn’t seem too bad. That is, if we can get a clear idea of how it will turn out, because the renderings that have been released are not exactly detailed.
The Red Light will anchor the new Quartier des spectacles, an attempt to reinforce the arts-driven character of the east end of downtown. Last month, $120 million worth of public space improvements were announced, including the creation of new plazas and squares and the part-time pedestrianization of Ste. Catherine St. There’s plenty of things to be wary about in this plan, but as far as the Red Light is concerned, I can think of worse things to build at one of Montreal’s more infamous intersections.
An earlier version of this post appeared on Urbanphoto.
2 comments
By what I can see of the rendering, there is far too light being released skywards. That is light pollution which should be unacceptable nowadays, in a new architectural project.
This design reminds me of Herzog and DeMeuron’s Allianz Arena in Munich. I love this, though I think the height is a bit out of scale with the surrounding buildings.