It has been decades since Montreal has seen this much development activity. In addition to the many condominium, retail and office buildings proposed or under construction, and giant public projects like the two superhospitals, there are at least four massive, multi-billion dollar development plans in the works for Griffintown, Viger Station, the Radio-Canada site and the area around Rosemont metro.
How will these new real estate ventures integrate into Montreal’s existing urban fabric? It’s an important question, one that was ignored at great cost in the 1960s, the last time Montreal underwent such a large development boom. In today’s Le Devoir, Heritage Montreal’s directors, Dinu Bumbaru and Robert Turgeon, offer a kind of manifesto for new development in Montreal.
“Montreal must step up to the challenge of maintaining a dynamic and coherent equilibrium between the common good and private interests,” they write, arguing that new developments should be judged on five essential points. Here’s an overview of what they wrote:
- 1. Relevance and acceptability. Firstly and most importantly, the benefits and drawbacks of every new project must be considered, especially in the context of the surrounding neighbourhood.
- 2. Urban and human context. No development exists in a bubble, so judging it in relation to its context is essential: “Is the project based on a solid understanding of its urban setting, including its history, its heritage, its architecture, its community life, cultural and economic dimensions and, above all, its human dimension?”
- 3. Credible, inclusive and exemplary process. There’s a reason the Office de consultation publique was established in 2001 — the development process must be transparent and it must weigh all of the project’s implications.
- 4. Innovation. “Does the project have an innovative approach to usage and architecture or its response to urban, patrimonial and environmental challenges?”
- 5. Sustainability. This question must be asked: will the project contribute as much to the vitality of Montreal in 25 years as it does today? More than just being environmentally-friendly, substainability means creating long-lasting, adaptable buildings.
St. Henri construction photo by Serge Lacasse
2 comments
Too bad they weren’t vigilent like this when they built that atrocity that is the Bell (Molson Centre) and destroyed the vocation of Windsor Station. Seems to me there continue to be ugly, non-quality buildings/projects being built – anything from Mosaique Sotham, to the vandalism of the Ritz Hotel.
At least an effort is being made to guide and restrain the developers. Left to their own devices, they’ll build the cheapest, ugliest least-civic crap possible as we have all seen. I think we can consider the Parc-Pine interchange as a huge improvement and definitely a good sign that there are wiser, more human minds in power than there were 40 years ago.