The revamped Cabot Square maintains the circulation pattern of the original plaza while giving it a contemporary feel.
TEXT Peter Sealy

PHOTOS Thomas Miau
Cabot Square long marked the western entrance to Montreal?s centre-ville. However, since the Montreal Canadiens left the neighbouring Forum in 1996, the square and its surroundings have been better known for their boarded-up storefronts and the presence of a large itinerant population. A design charrette began to address the situation in 2008, followed by public consultations leading to an area masterplan in 2011.
While the ability of architecture to remediate economic and social ills is limited, it can serve to keep open certain possibilities that might otherwise be foreclosed amidst rapidly changing circumstances. This is exactly what Affleck de la Riva?s rehabilitation of Cabot Square offers. Working with City of Montreal architect Wade Eide and landscape architects Fahey et associés, they have re-urbanized a significant public space, valorizing its centrality at the heart of an evolving neighbourhood. First laid out as a Victorian design in 1890, Cabot Square has seen many iterations. Frederick Todd designed a picturesque garden there in the 1930s, and Wendy Graham reinterpreted it in a postmodern language in 1996.
Affleck de la Riva recognized the utility of the original ?union jack? plan with its diagonal axes, but softened its edges, marking them with a series of curving, white concrete benches. These protect l...