Love it or hate it, no-one in Montreal can ignore the new Centre Hospitalier de l?Université de Montréal?the CHUM. It is gargantuan, all three million square feet and two full city blocks of it. It is distinctive, with a massive curtainwall façade of variegated hue. And, perhaps most admirable of all, it is built, finally, after decades of political squabbling over its location and cost. Known by its acronym?pronounced shoom?it has come to fruition as a public-private-partnership, a P3?that damnable process spreading across the country, seemingly invented for the benefit of politicians and contractors and the detriment of architecture.
Embedded in the CHUM facade is ?La vie en montagne,? ?by Mathieu Doyon and Simon Rivest, one of 13 public art works integrated into the project. opposite Stairway and public space near the Sanguinet Street entrance. The P3 design process (or ?PPP,? as they call it in Quebec) too often offers little opportunity for critical design intent, let alone design excellence. The CHUM team have grappled with tremendous logistical challenges?starting with the requirement to stuff three million square feet into the heart of downtown Montreal. That in itself was a mandate that many Montrealers had disagreed with from the get-go, but that?s what the architects were handed. The project still receives sotto voce flak for its gargantuan presence, but that was a given: it?s hard to imagine an architectural team that could cram that much square footage on tw...