What was once a run-down and car-centered stretch of a storied Montréal street has been transformed into a pedestrian hub thanks to Provencher_Roy?s reimagination of Sainte-Catherine St. West.

By transforming a four-lane road into a pedestrian-oriented one with a single lane of car traffic, the redesign creates a promenade stretching six blocks between De Bleury and Mansfield Streets where cars, cyclists, and pedestrians share the road.

The promenade showcases the historic department stores along the stretch and knits the area into the surroundings. Phillips Square is expanded, making a new, green public hub for the city whose ambition is to transform Montréal into the greenest city center in North America. 
The new Sainte-Catherine St. West works in tandem with the redevelopment of the Quartier des Spectacles to the east and the planned redevelopment of blocks further to the west to create a cohesive and greener heart for the city. The plan eliminates street parking and drastically widens the sidewalks, flipping the proportion of space allocated to cars and pedestrians to turn it into a place for people. The new shared street creates a linear plaza that links the previously disjointed network of squares, monuments, and historic buildings into a cohesive urban landscape. Bronze plates set in the street serve as urban markers, identifying the grand turn-of-the-century department stores and commercial buildings that lend this area its storied heritage.
Newly laid pave...