Ville de Montréal launches nationwide ideas competition for the redesigning
of the area around Champ-de-Mars metro station

MONTREAL , Nov. 4 /CNW Telbec/ - The Mayor of Montréal, Gérald Tremblay, is pleased to announce a nationwide ideas competition for the redesigning of the area around Champ-de-Mars metro station. The purpose of the competition is to solicit explorations and illustrations of a variety of development concepts made possible by the planned covering of the Ville-Marie expressway and the potential reconfiguration of its exit ramps.

Champ-de-Mars station, with its magnificent glassworks by renowned artist Marcelle Ferron , is one of the few landmarks remaining from the time before the construction of the Ville-Marie expressway. The immediate perimeter of the station forms a link between downtown Montréal and Old Montréal, and is one of the main pedestrian access routes to the historic district.

Reflecting on the quality of public spaces in Montréal

The competition invites entrants to submit development proposals that integrate smoothly with the existing public spaces and take into account the current and future built environment, including the impending Centre hospitalier de l'Université de Montréal. Proposals must promote citizen appropriation of the urban environment and provide a development framework that facilitates movement through the city.

"Montréal has the potential, the talent and the resources to take its place as a true flagship city, where designers play a pre-eminent role in all urban renewal projects," Mayor Tremblay said. "To achieve this goal, it's important to promote exemplary practices such as the institution of competitions, workshops and expert panels. These are tried and tested methods on the international scene when it comes to enhancing the quality of urban environments, enriching thinking about the concept of public spaces, and generating new ideas."

This design competition is the third to be implemented in the wake of the commitments announced by the Mayor of Montréal at the Pecha Kucha Night for Elected Officials on September 30, 2008 . It aims to provide tangible impetus for creativity in made-in-Montréal design and architecture and widen access to public design commissions to the largest possible number of practitioners.

About the competition

The concept competition is being held on an anonymous-entry basis and is open to all design professionals, students or consortiums whose main place of business is located in Canada . It is a single-stage competition, with two submission categories, one for professionals and the other for students. The language of the competition is French. However, the conceptual approach may include a text in English.

Proposals received will be studied and evaluated by a jury on the basis of the following criteria: enhancement of the architecture and glassworks of Champ-de-Mars metro station; reinforcement of the pedestrian links and access routes leading from the station to all of the surrounding areas; and the innovative and esthetic qualities of the project as well as the atmosphere created by the planned action.

The jury members are:

    
    - Melvin Charney, architect;
    - Odile Decq, architect and Director of the École Spéciale
      d'Architecture, Paris;
    - Jacques Des Rochers, Curator of Canadian Art, Montréal Museum of Fine
      Arts;
    - Michel Dionne, architect, Cooper, Robertson & Partners, New York;
    - Raphaël Fischler, urban planner and professor at the School of Urban
      Planning, McGill University;
    - Mario Masson, landscape architect and Division Manager, Service du
      développement culturel, de la qualité du milieu de vie et de la
      diversité ethnoculturelle, Ville de Montréal;
    - Alessandra Ponte, associate professor, School of Architecture,
      Université de Montréal;
    - Philippe Poullaouec-Gonidec, landscape architect and holder of the
      UNESCO Chair in Landscape and Environmental Design at Université de
      Montréal.
    

Instructions for prospective entrants

Registration is free and mandatory. Each entrant must complete the form available on the realisonsmontreal.com website, by January 15, 2010 . Proposals must be sent no later than February 10, 2010 , at 5 p.m. (local time) to:

    
    Ideas Competition
    Redesigning of the area around Champ-de-Mars metro station
    A/S bureau Design Montréal
    303, rue Notre-Dame Est, 6e étage
    Montréal (Québec) H2Y 3Y8
    

Entrants who have questions about the competition must submit them by e-mail to the Design Montréal office at [email protected], no later than January 15, 2010 . The design competition is being jointly run by the Design Montréal office and the Urban Planning division of the Ville de Montréal's Service de la mise en valeur du territoire et du patrimoine.

About Design Montréal

The Design Montréal office was created in January 2006 by the Ville de Montréal. Its mission is to implement the municipal action plan aimed at improving design throughout the city and positioning Montréal as a city of design.

For further information: Stéphanie Jecrois, Design Montréal, [phone]; Source: Martin Tremblay, Office of the Mayor and the Executive Committee, [phone]