{"id":174,"date":"2007-10-25T13:57:55","date_gmt":"2007-10-25T17:57:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacingmontreal.ca\/?p=174"},"modified":"2013-01-21T11:45:15","modified_gmt":"2013-01-21T16:45:15","slug":"place-monseigneur-charbonneau","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/2007\/10\/25\/place-monseigneur-charbonneau\/","title":{"rendered":"Place Monseigneur-Charbonneau"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/christopherdewolf\/1583916860\/\"><img src='http:\/\/farm3.static.flickr.com\/2212\/1583916860_960662de0c.jpg?v=0' alt='pmc1.jpg' \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Montreal&#8217;s office district, running between Dorchester Square in the northwest and Victoria Square in the southeast, is not terribly exciting. Compared to Midtown Manhattan, or even Bay Street, it lacks a certain high-stakes punch, the relentless energy of money being made in vast amounts, of high-stress streetlife scurrying from one meeting to the next. It feels provincial. But at least it&#8217;s pretty: over the past four years, this section of downtown Montreal has seen some huge improvements to its urban environment. <\/p>\n<p>The change started with the overhaul of the so-called Quartier international, which included the construction of Place Jean-Paul Riopelle and the transformation of Victoria Square into a public space as refined and elegant as it had been, just a few years earlier, ratty and forgotten. A couple of blocks away, a series of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/philfo\/502720202\/\">luminescent pillars<\/a> were installed in the median of University Street. Throughout the area, sidewalks were widened and furnished with attractive new light standards, traffic lights, benches, trash cans and bike racks. <\/p>\n<p>One of the overlooked changes in the area, though, was the renovation of Place Monseigneur-Charbonneau, a small square at the corner of University and Ren\u00e9 L\u00e9vesque, right in front of 1 Place Ville-Marie, Montreal&#8217;s most iconic skyscraper. In 2005, it was <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sitq.com\/en\/comm\/23.asp\">reconfigured and nearly doubled in size<\/a>. Granite and concrete were used to create an eye-catching pavement design and vegetation was arranged simply and effectively, creating a canopy above the square while keeping the views of the surrounding streets open. The same sleek, comfortable benches that are used in the Quartier international were installed here.<\/p>\n<p>Like the redone Victoria Square, or the new Place Jean-Paul Riopelle, Place Monseigneur-Charbonneau manages to be both stylish and functional. I wasn&#8217;t even aware of the square until recently; before the renovations, it appeared to be nothing more than an overgrown mass of greenery marooned in a sea of traffic. Now, though, it has been well-used every time I have visited. Office workers eat lunch and chat on its benches, cabbies hang out near the taxi stand at the north side of the square, and its central location ensures a constant flow of pedestrians, at least during the day.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/christopherdewolf\/1583915908\/\"><img src='http:\/\/farm3.static.flickr.com\/2153\/1583915908_e0b9ccd977.jpg?v=0' alt='pmc2.jpg' \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/christopherdewolf\/1583915144\/\"><img src='http:\/\/farm3.static.flickr.com\/2192\/1583915144_fca8a10d9c.jpg?v=0' alt='pmc3.jpg' \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Montreal&#8217;s office district, running between Dorchester Square in the northwest and Victoria Square in the southeast, is not terribly exciting. Compared to Midtown Manhattan, or even Bay Street, it lacks a certain high-stakes punch, the relentless energy of money being made in vast amounts, of high-stress streetlife scurrying from one meeting to the next. It<a href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/2007\/10\/25\/place-monseigneur-charbonneau\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"sr-only\">&#8220;Place Monseigneur-Charbonneau&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5008,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7839,3537,7842],"tags":[9,810,48,520,125,49,5,812,45,809,811],"class_list":["post-174","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-neighbourhoods","category-parks","category-urban-design","tag-development","tag-dorchester-square","tag-downtown","tag-jean-paul-riopelle","tag-montreal","tag-squares-and-parks","tag-planning","tag-relentless-energy","tag-revitalisation","tag-university-street","tag-victoria-square"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Place Monseigneur-Charbonneau - Spacing Montreal<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/2007\/10\/25\/place-monseigneur-charbonneau\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Place Monseigneur-Charbonneau - Spacing Montreal\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Montreal&#8217;s office district, running between Dorchester Square in the northwest and Victoria Square in the southeast, is not terribly exciting. Compared to Midtown Manhattan, or even Bay Street, it lacks a certain high-stakes punch, the relentless energy of money being made in vast amounts, of high-stress streetlife scurrying from one meeting to the next. ItContinue reading &quot;Place Monseigneur-Charbonneau&quot;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/2007\/10\/25\/place-monseigneur-charbonneau\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Spacing Montreal\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2007-10-25T17:57:55+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2013-01-21T16:45:15+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/farm3.static.flickr.com\/2212\/1583916860_960662de0c.jpg?v=0\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Christopher DeWolf\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Spacing\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Spacing\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Christopher DeWolf\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/2007\/10\/25\/place-monseigneur-charbonneau\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/2007\/10\/25\/place-monseigneur-charbonneau\/\",\"name\":\"Place Monseigneur-Charbonneau - Spacing Montreal\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/2007\/10\/25\/place-monseigneur-charbonneau\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/2007\/10\/25\/place-monseigneur-charbonneau\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\/\/farm3.static.flickr.com\/2212\/1583916860_960662de0c.jpg?v=0\",\"datePublished\":\"2007-10-25T17:57:55+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-01-21T16:45:15+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/#\/schema\/person\/8d797e2a77c30d58d1f6fe3d915ad3fd\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/2007\/10\/25\/place-monseigneur-charbonneau\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/2007\/10\/25\/place-monseigneur-charbonneau\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/2007\/10\/25\/place-monseigneur-charbonneau\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/farm3.static.flickr.com\/2212\/1583916860_960662de0c.jpg?v=0\",\"contentUrl\":\"http:\/\/farm3.static.flickr.com\/2212\/1583916860_960662de0c.jpg?v=0\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/2007\/10\/25\/place-monseigneur-charbonneau\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Place Monseigneur-Charbonneau\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/\",\"name\":\"Spacing Montreal\",\"description\":\"Canadian Urbanism Uncovered  |  Montreal Architecture, Urban Design, Public Transit, City Hall, Parks, Walking, Bikes, Streetscape, History, Waterfront, Maps, Public Spaces\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/#\/schema\/person\/8d797e2a77c30d58d1f6fe3d915ad3fd\",\"name\":\"Christopher DeWolf\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/93c8aca91d7cfbd895846128d058930b?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/93c8aca91d7cfbd895846128d058930b?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Christopher DeWolf\"},\"description\":\"Check out Urbanphoto!\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/www.urbanphoto.net\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/author\/christopher\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Place Monseigneur-Charbonneau - Spacing Montreal","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/2007\/10\/25\/place-monseigneur-charbonneau\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Place Monseigneur-Charbonneau - Spacing Montreal","og_description":"Montreal&#8217;s office district, running between Dorchester Square in the northwest and Victoria Square in the southeast, is not terribly exciting. 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