WINNER OF A 2020 CANADIAN ARCHITECT AWARD OF EXCELLENCE
?This project is healing the city by connecting back over the highway to join two major precincts. It also honours the memory of 21 women who were so important to the evolution of Montreal. It imagines itself throughout the year through a meadow of flowers, trying to take advantage of all of the seasons. It?s beautifully rendered through line drawings.? ? Susan Fitzgerald, juror
The plaza uses a sloping plane to connect between the Champ-de-Mars subway and Old Montreal.
The winning entry to an open international design competition launched by the City of Montreal, Place des Montréalaises is a complex blend of architecture and landscape that connects Old Montreal to the city?s downtown. The series of new public spaces, planted areas and art honours 21 Montreal women who have shaped the city, from Ursuline nun and hospital founder Jeanne Mance to Indigenous Radio-Canada producer Myra Cree. Crossing over the sunken Ville-Marie expressway, an inclined plane negotiates the change in grade between the two precincts. This suspended architectural piece is landscaped as a floating meadow?a bouquet of 21 varieties of plants that will flower in sequence, constantly evolving in memory of the Montréalaises. The meadow?s geometry transforms from a sweeping field to the south to an orthogonal grid to the north, bringing the plaza into dialogue with its surrounding cityscape. A commemorative staircase at the midpoint of the s...