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The International District of Montreal

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The International District of Montreal Available online at www.sciencedirect.com ScienceDirect Procedia Engineering 165 ( 2016 ) 726 – 729 15th International scientific conference “Underground Urbanisation as a Prerequisite for Sustainable Development” Over & underground spaces & networks integrations a case study: the international district of Montreal a, Clément Demers * aQuartier international de Montréal,Montreal, Canada Abstract Downtown Montreal underwent a major urban renewal in 2000–2004. The Quartier international de Montréal (QIM) is held by many as one of the finest examples of urban design in Canada. The main purpose of the project was to restore the continuity of Montreal's downtown, broken by the gaping trench of the Ville-Marie Expressway since the 1960s, and thus to bridge the historic Old Montreal district the existing downtown business district centred around Place Ville-Marie. Other goals included the beautification of the built environment, creation of elegant city squares, showcase of Quebec design and public art, and stimulation of world-class real estate development at the heart of Montreal. The two major north-south underground pedestrian pathways were connected by the missing link put in place beneath the CDP Capital Centre and Place Jean-Paul Riopelle. Nearly 1.3 kilometers of underground corridors, animated by public art, were created and tripled access to the subway. The goal of the presentation is to present an approach to developing Air Rights above an underground (trench) expressway in a downtown area in consideration with urban design aspects, building design constraints, technical, legal and economic aspects. This session will examine the results of this significant original project, the ongoing vision for this major part of the city, and what future development activity is likely to take place. © 20162016 PublishedThe Authors. by Elsevier Published Ltd. Thisby Elsevier is an open Ltd access. article under the CC BY-NC-ND license Peer(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/-review under responsibility of the scientific). committee of the 15th International scientific conference “Underground UrbPeer-reviewanisation under as a responsibility Prerequisite offor the Sustainable scientific committee Development of the. 15th International scientific conference “Underground Urbanisation as a Prerequisite for Sustainable Development Keywords: underground urban development, megacities, new challenges, “undergrounders”, human-centered underground space design. * Corresponding author. E-mail address: [email protected] 1877-7058 © 2016 Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the 15th International scientific conference “Underground Urbanisation as a Prerequisite for Sustainable Development doi: 10.1016/j.proeng.2016.11.770 Clément Demers / Procedia Engineering 165 ( 2016 ) 726 – 729 727 1. Introduction The sector of Montréal that is today called the "Quartier international de Montréal" covers a territory of about 27 hectares. It is nestled between Montréal's business district to the north and Old Montreal to the south. The latter is a tourist area that encompasses the French site of Ville-Marie, founded in 1642, a fortified settlement until the beginning of the 19th century, and situated more to the south with the Old Port and the Saint Lawrence River. Since the late 60s, the below-grade Ville-Marie Expressway, running east to west, separated the business district from Old Montreal, creating a barrier between these two strategic sectors (12.5 million visitors per year). However, the territory had three Metro stations, as well as two isolated north-south sections of the underground pedestrian network that made it possible, year round, to walk to downtown Montreal. In the 80s and 90s, several buildings with international vocations were erected on either side of the Expressway: the Palais des Congrès de Montréal, itself built directly over the below-grade highway (1983); the World Trade Centre Montreal, on the south side (1991); and the new headquarters of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), on the north side (1995). The work that accompanied the digging out of the Ville-Marie Expressway, that is, the construction of the Metro and its installations, left the zone in a state of disarray, offering its residents and visitors a view that was less than exciting, with its many waste areas and vacant lots used for parking. But these spaces also had major hidden development potential. In 1997, the Palais des Congrès expressed the need to expand its facilities — or move to another more spacious site, which would have left a building above the highway that is largely closed to the surrounding world and quite difficult to repurpose. It was in particular this intention expressed by the Palais des Congrès that reinvigorated the efforts in urban planning and development design initiated in the late 80s in this sector. The Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, a first-class fund manager and institutional investor, already present in the sector, would bring to bear its full weight to re-launch, on this site, an ambitious and innovative project: the Quartier international de Montréal. 2. Project and partners The project, designed starting in 1997, had five closely interrelated objectives: x Focus the design of the sector on sustainable development, user friendliness, and safety; x Make the public spaces of the sector an international showcase of the local creativity, resources and technologies; x Foster high-quality real-estate development in the sector; x Increase the number of conventions and foreign tourism in Montréal, and their economic benefits; x Increase the number of international organizations, activities and events in Montréal, and their economic benefits. The nature and scope of the project warranted a public/private partnership, the developer being the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, the public lenders being the governments of Canada and Québec and Ville de Montréal, while the resident association, ARQIM (the Association des riverains du Quartier international de Montréal) and a few major sponsors represented the contribution of the private sector. The management and realization of the project was entrusted to Quartier international de Montréal, a not-for-profit organization, charged with managing the professionals and designers, hiring the contractors, and calling upon the collaboration, as need be, of the departments of the Ville de Montréal. The capacity to realize such a complex project rested on a diversified set of experts and deliverables in: x Development and urban planning; x Engineering (civil, structure, traffic, electrical, and mechanical); x Architecture, urban architecture, and landscape architecture; x Design (urban, industrial, and graphic); x Fountain design, lighting, project management, law, lab work (soil and materials), management of contaminated soil, archeology, public art, heritage conservation and restoration, mediation, fund raising, etc. 728 Clément Demers / Procedia Engineering 165 ( 2016 ) 726 – 729 3. The challenges of development The most obvious development challenge was to restore the continuity of the urban fabric. This not only involved eliminating the waste areas and off-street parking lots, but also covering the whole section of the highway intersecting the sector of intervention (500 metres), to restore functional and safe links between the business district and Old Montreal. On this topic, it was necessary to take into account the divergent interests of public decision-makers regarding this major urban planning intervention. Thus, while the Ministère des Transports had no interest in covering the highway, the Ministère du Revenu and the riverside community expected considerable benefits in tax revenues. Improving the quality of the design in the downtown area was another challenge. It consisted in rethinking and restructuring the public domain (8 hectares), specifically to reduce the presence of automobiles on the streets in favour of public transport, in increasing pedestrian surfaces by 40%, in connecting east-west the two north-south sections of the underground pedestrian network and their access to the Metro, and in reducing the number of outdoor parking spaces, all this in view of creating an environment that would be much more user-friendly and appealing for Montrealers and visitors alike. The creation of new underground spaces quickly emerged as one of the keys to the development desired in the Quartier international: covering of the Expressway, construction of indoor short-term public parking (1,300 spots); signage, extension of the network and increase of the number of street-level accesses to the "underground city" (indoor pedestrian network) and to the Metro; complementarity, rather than competition, between the outdoor and indoor pedestrian pathways, all of high quality. 4. The legal challenges In the Quartier international de Montréal, certain underground spaces, such as the right-of-way of the highway, are the property of the Ministère des Transports, and any dealings with the latter requires the approval of the provincial government. Other spaces are the property of Ville de Montréal, while others belong to the riverside community. Such a situation complicates the construction of buildings bridging the business district and Old Montreal (which was already the case of the Palais des Congrès).
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