?It?s busier than I?ve ever seen it,? says Gavin Affleck of Montreal?s Affleck de la Riva architects, who has practiced for 30 years. ?Students and graduates are basically hired instantly,? says Anne Cormier, of Atelier Big City. Every firm in Quebec seems to agree: work is plentiful. Architects are comparing the current boom to the build-up of Montreal in the pivotal decade of the 1960s.
Designed by Birtz Bastien Beaudoin Laforest Architectes (Groupe Provencher_Roy), the École Baril school addition integrates with the restored and renovated original 1910 buildling, which had been slated for demolition. Photo by Stephane Brugger
This winter, Montreal?s real estate sector overtook Vancouver as the second largest market in the country after Toronto. In the past year, housing has shown strong price growth, a period when prices in other cities softened. And the city still has ?a lot of catching up to do,? says Gavin Affleck: there are many empty downtown lots that remain from the 1980s and 90s, when recessions and the threat of separation from Canada put the province in an economic rut. The boom is also affecting heritage buildings, which are being restored and converted to new uses. The biggest of these is the multi-building Royal Victoria Hospital site, which flanks the southern edge of Mount Royal. The site sat in limbo for several years, but the Quebec government has now given its main building to McGill University, which plans to convert the heritage structure into campus...