Place des Montréalaises
Lemay + Angela Silver + SNC-Lavalin
Short description
Healing the longstanding scar of an expressway running between Old Montreal’s history with the present-day innovations of a downtown core, the Place des Montréalaises is a sweeping, restorative gesture that bridges two radically different urban topographies back together in one public space of connection and reflection. Teams in architecture, landscape architecture and art joined to design an experiential moment for Montrealers, that aligns with the city’s ongoing initiative for greater recognition of women through placemaking. They will be memorialized with a grand gesture: an urban perennial meadow that will feature 21 species evolving through the seasons, one for each Montréalaise commemorated. In embracing the power of these names, and by claiming new territory in the city those names called home, the site is a both powerful act of recognition and a place of serene reflection.
The flowery meadow sits on an inclined plane and is the most symbolically important and poetic aspect of the project, while simultaneously being a greening strategy. It acts as a pollinator garden and helps to reduce the great heat island that is the city on Montreal.
The Miroir des Montréalaises, the site’s centerpiece sculpture created with artist Angela Silver, is a cylindrical mirrored surface that features the 21 names in perforations across its surface. The names appear among the reflections of users standing and reflecting in front of the monument, the city their backdrop.
Finally, the connection between the urban and the natural found in the juxtaposition of the meadow and sculpture is deepened by two adjoining hectares of forestry to evoke the Quebec landscape with trees native to Montreal’s namesake green lung of Mount Royal.