McGill College Avenue

McGill College Avenue reinvented is first and foremost a piece of the mountain, of our ancestral forest, complemented by a historical and cultural axis on which the waters of the contemporary city flow. The opening from the esplanade frames the view of Mount Royal as a large tableau vivant and as Montreal’s identity perspective. Under the new canopy, niches of biodiversity are introduced into the heart of downtown Montreal, like a window on the living world that we must take great care of. The proposal is anchored on the Promenade fleuve-montagne and positioned as a linear invitation, focused on flexible, non-intensive programming, set back from the teeming crowds on Sainte-Catherine.

The generous esplanade stretches uninterrupted along the historic axis of McGill Street. The axis and the relatively steep slope are underlined by a furrow which, when rinsed with a thin trickle of rainwater or snowmelt, reflects the sky. The imaginary design is reminiscent of the gutters and regulating basins installed along the Olmsted Trail on the mountain: the gesture celebrates the natural flow of water from the mountain to the river. The groove takes the form of a swale in the paving framework, with a variable profile and sinuous deployment. It meanders between the pebbles, a collection of furniture pieces both enigmatic and precious, offering moments of intimacy and places of physical and visual interaction with the new avenue. Where the woodland meets the esplanade, the furrow cuts clearings and passages, places of comfort and lounges. A long bank of greenery stretches along the wooded beaches. This piece connects and brings together all public spaces in a single, organic gesture.