INDUSTRIAL WASTELAND Rejuvenating Industrial Wasteland in Montréal

REJUVENATING INDUSTRIAL WASTELAND IN MONTRÉAL

BY PIERRE THÉROUX, JOURNALIST

DENIS TREMBLAY

CANADIAN POWER BOAT COMPANY, 4000-4008, ST. PATRICK STREET (SOUTH-WEST)

Located alongside the Lachine Canal, the site offers a breathtaking view of the city and Mount Royal. The landmark building is a magnificent testimonial to the early industrialization of the country. It was where the Canadian Power Boat Company built small fast boats for the Royal Canadian Navy during the Second World War.

T

he shipyard then gave way to a toy manufacturer, and later became a place for artists’ studios. They in turn were evicted to make way for a public works yard to park municipal vehicles. Then the space was abandoned, like so many other industrial complexes that lost their soul over the decades.

But the heritage building at 4000 St. Patrick Street and the former abandoned 28,000 m² (300,000 sq. ft.) lot southwest of downtown will soon have a new vocation. The City wants to revitalize the site and create a new hub of innovative companies as well as studios for artisans.

It is a flagship project for Montréal. "The site has huge potential for developing a mixed-use project that reflects the new economy of light industry, shops and businesses, artists’ studios, green spaces and community activities. We don’t want to build any more smoke-belching industrial plants," said Benoit Dorais, mayor of the Southwest borough and president of the City of Montréal’s executive committee.

BENOIT DORAIS

Mayor of the Southwest borough and president City of Montréal’s executive committee

NEW ECONOMIC IMPETUS

The site was the catalyst for a call for project submissions within the scope of the global Reinventing Cities network. Montréal participated in the initiative, a global challenge where cities implement programs to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and climate hazards. In January the City selected four teams as finalists who will present their proposals in September. The main building should be renovated in order to preserve and promote its historical heritage, while the two secondary buildings and the two outbuildings, also located on this large plot of land, are to be dismantled.

Revitalization of the site "will help reinvigorate a sector of the city that needs new impetus and a new economic vocation," added Mr. Dorais. He cited the example of new momentum in the adjacent Griffintown neighbourhood (also bordering the Lachine Canal), virtually abandoned prior to its transformation as a centre for innovation.

ÉRIC ALAN CALDWELL

Executive committee’s director of urban planning and mobility City of Montréal

The renaissance of urban districts is part of a wave of other initiatives underway in Montréal to revive abandoned industrial lands. "Urban renewal is imperative. In the evolution of a city, these abandoned sites must make way for better cohabitation between economic activity and urban life. We must allow families who wish to stay in Montréal, or want to come and live here, to settle in neighbourhoods where they can both live and work, or at least take advantage of public transit to get to work in other parts of town," said Éric Alan Caldwell, the executive committee’s director of urban planning and mobility.

LACHINE EAST AT THE HEART OF THE MOVEMENT

The Lachine East sector, not far from 4000 St. Patrick Street, also has industrial zones along the Lachine Canal that are in decline. Lachine was the location for the manufacturer of iron and steel superstructures for bridges and buildings Dominion Bridge which, like the nearby Dominion Wire Rope factory, set up shop in the 1860s. The area’s imposing industrial complex is now abandoned. This has freed up some 100 hectares (more than one million square meters), also slated for redevelopment.

Here again, the City would like to see mixed-use projects (with both economic and social aspects) that might possibly include new local industries, shops or services that complement what is currently available on nearby Notre Dame St. It also wants to transform this vast industrial wasteland into "an eco-district for families by building housing, schools, day care centres and green spaces," said Mr. Caldwell, adding that the revitalization currently underway is the result of consultation with the local community.

In addition, the project to redevelop the former CPR train marshalling yard in Outremont, built in 1891, aims to revitalize a 38-hectare industrial wasteland situated at the junction where four boroughs and Mount Royal meet. This new knowledge sector, MIL Montréal, is being built around the University of Montréal science complex and will include over 1000 housing units.

As Éric Alan Caldwell notes, "Other redevelopment projects are expected to move forward in the next few years to repair urban scars and rejuvenate these neighbourhoods," citing Montréal’s former horseracing track as an example, as well as redevelopment projects around the L’Assomption subway station and in the Plateau neighbourhood between Papineau Ave., Sherbrooke St. and the CPR tracks.

CREATION OF A FOOD HUB

Revitalization is also underway in the Louvain East district of the Ahuntsic-Cartierville borough. This eight-hectare site (the equivalent of eight football fields), bordered by Christophe-Colomb Avenue, de Louvain Street East, St. Hubert Street, the Canadian National rail line and a Hydro-Québec high-voltage line, is located on property formerly owned by the Sulpician Fathers. The City wants to transform the site of its former municipal car pound, abandoned since it ceased operations in 2008, into an ecodistrict comprising 800 to 1,000 housing units and local shops. It also plans to develop a food hub. "Urban agriculture will be given an important place in the rejuvenation project for this sector," added Mr. Caldwell.

The installation of a 550 m2 (5900 sq. ft.) greenhouse dedicated to the production of fruits and vegetables (that might also be grown in a field) should help alleviate the paucity of good grocery and food choices in the area, currently limited to a few convenience stores and some restaurants near Ahuntsic College. The project would provide residents with better access to fresh, healthy foods.

TECHNOPÔLE ANGUS, AN EXEMPLARY PROJECT

There are several revitalization projects underway in Montréal, some of them quite inspiring.

About 25 years ago a project to redevelop the former CP Rail Angus Shops was launched. It became a model for rejuvenating an industrial district far past its glory days. The Canadian Pacific Railway had abandoned the huge workshops used to manufacture or repair railway equipment. Today Technopôle Angus has numerous local businesses and shops in a neighborhood that has become a thriving eco-district home to thousands of residents.

LOUVAIN EAST SECTOR, IN THE AHUNTSIC-CARTIERVILLE BOROUGH

TECHNOPÔLE ANGUS

SOCIÉTÉ DE DÉVELOPPEMENT ANGUS

"The redevelopment of this derelict area was marked by daring innovation. It is a beautiful laboratory that demonstrates a city’s capacity for self-renewal," noted Mr. Caldwell. That is a major challenge that Montréal, like many other big cities, is facing head-on.