Designed by architect Roger Taillibert for the 1976 Summer Olympic Games, the inclined tower of Montreal’s Olympic Stadium will this year greet its first tenants: the employees of the AccèsD online payment platform of the Desjardins Group, the leading cooperative financial group in Canada. For the occasion, Provencher_Roy carried out a complete rehabilitation of the façades and a restructuring of the interior spaces.
Montreal’s Olympic Park, administered by the Olympic Installations Board (RIO), is located in the Mercier?Hochelaga-Maisonneuve borough, in the city’s east end. It boasts one of the island’s most modern multisport complexes, frequently hosts major events, and accommodates provincial and national sports and recreation associations. During the work undertaken in 2015 to refurbish and renovate the tower, which had been planned well in advance by the RIO, Provencher_Roy replaced the existing prefabricated concrete envelope with a curtain wall for more abundant transparency and fenestration, thereby augmenting the presence of natural light within while respecting the original architecture. In 1971, then-mayor Jean Drapeau, impressed by the Parc des Princes stadium in Paris, called on its architect, Roger Taillibert, to conceive Montréal’s Olympic Park. One year later, the project model, featuring a dominant ellipsoidal building, was unveiled to the international press. Open at its centre, with a gigantic, 165-metre inclined tower per...