A mural in Villeray on the side of Les Habitations Saint-Georges, a public housing complex for the elderly. Created by Dominique Desbiens of MU Art in 2008. Entitled : “La 6e sphère de la culture”.
Photo du jour: Public housing; public art
By Devin Alfaro
Read more articles by Devin Alfaro
5 comments
Pretty incredible. Where is this exactly? Can Spacing please name the street when posting just photos? I never know where anything is (and I thought I knew Montreal).
Funny, it isn’t in an out-of-the-way place; you can see it from Jean-Talon in front of Jean-Talon métro. Les Habitations Saint-Georges are on Lajeunesse, between rue de Castelnau and Jean-Talon, just behind Église St-Georges (or St-George’s Church, or whatever the Arabic is, an Orthodox church on Jean-Talon, one of the monuments of the Lebanese community that settled in the area at the beginning of the last century, as the Italian community did.
Les Habitations St-Georges are among the nicest complexes of social housing for elderly people; as you can see they are low rise buildings (they do have elevators though, due to the needs of the clientele), happily not very “institutional” looking. They are well-designed small flats, each one has a balcony as you can see.
Of course the area is very convenient, very close to a métro station with two lines, and many buses, handy for people who might not be quite up to the métro (alas Jean-Talon didn’t get a lift as Lionel-Groulx and the ends of lines have), to the Jean-Talon market, the Métro supermarket and Asian shops even closer, rue St-Hubert, a community centre (Centre Lajeunesse) where there are many activities for seniors and others, places of worship…
I know someone who lives there very happily. L’Association des locataires de Villeray played a part in advocating this complex.
So do you think the old people drew this or what
You can see more of the 20 murals MU produced in Montréal on their web site: http://www.mu-art.ca
So far they have transformed 4 housing complex, including Habitations Jeanne-Mance on de Maisonneuve, between Saint-Denis and Saint-Dominique.
I am the only one to not like these things…? There are so many ads, graffitis and drawings everywhere — I find plain bricks or stones to be soothing for the eyes.
Sorry for being the party pooper.