The Arrondissement de Ville-Marie launches a landscape architecture competition for development of a new green space in the Quartier des Spectacles
MONTRÉAL, Oct. 15, 2020 /CNW Telbec/ - The Mayor of Montréal and of the Arrondissement de Ville-Marie is proud to announce the launch of a multidisciplinary landscape architecture competition for the redesign of Lot 066, located just north of Place des Festivals. The project aims to transform the space into a cooling island and a new gathering place for neighbourhood residents as well as workers and visitors. The borough council authorized the holding of the competition at its regular meeting last Tuesday. Finalists will submit their service offerings this fall and the winning team will be announced early next year.
"With this contest, we want to ensure that this new green space has a one-of-a-kind personality and incorporates best practices in planning and design to help make downtown a friendlier, more neighbourly place," Mayor Valerie Plante said. "Consultations held in recent years prompted us to make citizen concerns a core element of the planning process. The Partenariat du Quartier des spectacles will also be supporting the borough and the Ville de Montréal as a member of the competition technical committee. This will ensure that we take into account the logistical aspects of festival presentations while increasing plant cover in this area, which is mostly hardscapes," she added.
Planning objectives
In 2018, a series of public consultations on redevelopment of the site showed that people want access to more green spaces in the Quartier des spectacles district. The project therefore aims to respond to that shared aspiration and to create:
- An urban garden where plants predominate in the design and contribute to user comfort;
- A meeting place open to everyone that meets the needs of neighbourhood residents as well as those of visitors, complies with universal design standards, and promotes dialogue between different social groups;
- A multifunctional space with the versatility and flexibility to allow coexistence, in summer, of festival logistics operations on part of the site with a cooling-island role in a living environment.
A two-stage competition
The landscape architecture competition is open to international teams and is being held in two stages. At the end of the first stage, the jury will select a maximum of five finalists from the anonymous proposals received. During the second stage, the finalists will develop their service offerings (boards comprising sketches, a presentation of the concept, budget estimates, etc.). The same jury members will then review all the documents and select one service offering to recommend to the borough council. At the conclusion of this process, council will award a professional services contract to the winning team.
The jury comprises the following individuals:
- Élise Beauregard, landscape architect, c.M.Sc.F., urban soil specialist
- Rami Bebawi, architect, Partner, Kanva
- Vincent Lemay, landscape architect, Arrondissement de Ville-Marie
- Charles Ormsby, civil engineer, Arup
- Marjorie Pratte, landscape architect, Partner, Pratte Paysage +
- Marie-Claude Séguin, landscape architect, Division Head ? Aménagement des parcs urbains et espaces publics, Service des grands parcs, du Mont-Royal et des sports, Ville de Montréal
- Juan Torres, urbanist, Professor, School of Planning and Landscape Architecture, Faculty of Urban Planning, Université de Montréal
The Bureau du design of the Ville de Montréal is providing support and guidance to the Arrondissement de Ville-Marie in development and implementation of the competition, which is being held in keeping with the Ville de Montréal's commitments to, among other things, promoting quality and exemplarity in design and architecture and in turn helping to assert Montréal's status as a UNESCO City of Design.
Full information about the competition is posted on the website of the Bureau du design, in the "Competitions" section (designmontreal.com/en/competitions).
Further details (in French) on the Lot 066 redesign project are available on the web page realisonsmtl.ca/terrain066.
SOURCE Ville de Montréal - Arrondissement de Ville-Marie
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