Urban Overflow: Animation Along Côte-des-Neiges Road

The improvements and urban animation along Côte-des-Neiges Road are the fruit of a physical and socio-economic neighborhood revitalization initiative undertaken by the City of Montreal and the Quebec government as part of the Urban Renewal Program launched in the early 2000s. civiliti was commissioned to come up with a project celebrating the borough’s cultural diversity and turning Côte-des-Neiges Road into a commercial and events hub. The project will help raise the quality of the public realm, an environment that still suffers from neglect, deprives the community of a positive image and hinders the artery’s economic development.

At the end of a consultation process, the sites of the interventions form a family of 5 public places, recognizable by a materiality and a formal writing reminiscent of the value of a historic commune and the perception of the contemporary street as the first collective space. The furniture plays with the scale typical of the city’s common spaces: large tables in front of the school, an institutional step in front of the hospital, large benches in front of Kent Park. An urban art project is being developed in parallel with the community: some forty bronze apples inscribed with phrases commemorating the neighborhood’s multi-ethnic culture are distributed on the furniture.