civiliti + Mandaworks and SNC Lavalin were recently announced as the Winners of the McGill College, Reinventing the Avenue International Multidisciplinary Urban Design Competition.
The aim of the Reinventing the Avenue design competition is to select a spatial design concept for the entirety of Place de l’Avenue McGill College. The concept must meet and even surpass the City’s expectations regarding the challenges posed by the Project that is the subject of the competition, and which are described in the Competition Program. At the end of the competition, the jury will select and recommend a winner and, subject to approval by the relevant municipal authorities, the City will award the winner a contract to provide the professional services required to complete the project.
In their report, the jury members appreciated the poetry and storytelling expressed in the service offering. They also emphasized that one of the qualities of this project is that it brings nature into the heart of downtown. It proposes to transform the space into a broad swath of green that will come to symbolize this new Montréal space. This forest representation extends the mountain all the way to Place Ville Marie, in the manner of a linear park in the heart of the city. This design concept is the one that best meets the challenge of significantly increasing the tree canopy while freeing up the sightlines from the avenue to Mount Royal.
This concept was the one that best met the objectives of greening, heat island reduction, and resilience of the plantations along the avenue as stipulated in the competition program. The jury’s attention was drawn to the idea of using plant diversity to promote ecosystems and establish a diversified landscape conducive to soil regeneration and enrichment of biodiversity.
By placing sustainability, creativity and innovation at the service of the green and social transition, the winner’s service offering aligns fully with the Montréal 2030 Agenda for Quality and Exemplarity in Design and Architecture.
Reinventing the Avenue Design Competition Jury’s comment
“Part woodland, part plaza, the sillon (“furrow”) delineates clearings and passageways, spaces of comfort and ‘living rooms.’ A long bench/border unfurls over the length of the wooded beaches, linking and unifying all of the public spaces in one grand gesture. […] The Avenue Reinvented is a groove, ‘living rooms’ and a celebration of the seasons; it is water and nature in an authentic, diversified urban environment; it is the encounter of the formal and the informal for the pleasure of experiencing Montréal.”
Winner
civiliti + Mandaworks and SNC Lavalin, in collaboration with Lasalle-NHC, UDO Design, Biodiversité Conseil, Lamontagne Consultants and EVOQ
Canada / Sweden
