Village Griffintown: We Have Questions

As a resident of Sud-Ouest — right where Griffintown, Little Burgundy and Point St-Charles intersect, actually — I was surprised by the scope and scale of the Village Griffintown project announced yesterday for a long-neglected neighbourhood in southwestern Montreal. It’s not at all what we were expecting, and while we welcome redevelopment, and the proposed design has many positive attributes, not least of which is its ability to slow or stop urban sprawl, my neighbours and I have some unanswered questions.

1. Why the megablocks?

The design currently imposes some superblocks onto existing streets, blocking Shannon and Young. The plan view can be misleading, seeming to show through streets in the two large residential-commercial buildings, but these are actually sky terraces for the tower dwellers. Surely the same amount of space could be incorporated with more, smaller buildings, on more intimately scaled streets, and preserving the historic street grid?

2. Why go with Le Corbusier-styled ‘Towers in the park?’

Good retail urban design involves building right to the sidewalk, and lining the streets with shops, windows and displays. The current “superblock” design would seem to impose a lot of blank walls on side streets, and further separates the buildings from the streets with berms and plazas. The same seems to go for some of the smaller apartment buildings to be built canalside – creating isolated, “Habitations Jeanne Mance” dead zones, instead of lively / leafy / intimate streets. The city of Portland in fact discourages new commercial buildings without providing for “living streets” in this fashion, and it’s something we should look at here.

3. Why this ‘campus style’ unified design?

It may seem picayune to quibble about the aesthetics of the project, but viewed as an ensemble, it resembles a university satellite campus or a superhospital, rather than anything village-like. What we actually have here is not that different than the Terrasses Windsor — inexpensive modern boxes clad in different-coloured brick to make them seem more detailed than they actually are. Looking at Place D’Armes and other historical ensembles that evolved organically over time — where you can see three eras of architecture in the Bank of Montreal alone — how difficult would it be to design an ensemble of buildings that all looked different, yet historically appropriate to the neighborhood – red sandstone, limestone, granite, red and yellow brick, mixing historic styles from 1850s to postmodern — something that’ll age a bit better than the current design?

4. Why the secrecy?

Why was this project developed behind closed doors for so long? According to the Sud-Ouest borough mayors’ office there will be public consultations in either December or January, and a decision has to be made by April…a bit rushed for something so important, no?

5. Why the car-centric development when we’re coming to the end of the oil era?

I applaud the fact that they’re planning to make the development transit-centric, and incorporate the proposed tram line — but the economic reasoning for the large-surface retail outlets (and a 2000-seat theatre, and hotels) depends on a good deal of car traffic. Geology and politics are against car-centric development — most oil geologists believe we have reached the peak of oil production right now, and we’re heading down a rather jagged slope towards depletion. Will this project survive 30, 50 years from now when few people, if any, will be driving?

6. What’s the energy and waste footprint of this ensemble?

Similarly to the car question, we wonder about the infrastructure and energy inputs that’ll be needed to support this development. There’ll need to be new sewer mains, electrical substations, etc. Large-surface retail needs a lot of energy to heat and cool. The flat roofs will create urban heat islands. Could the project use passive and active solar, rooftop or roof-edge wind turbines, or even geothermal loops? Will serious attempts be made to ban waste (disposable cups, excess packaging) and encourage recycling and composting on-site?

7. Will there be space for smaller and local non-chain retail?

As Kate from the Montreal City Weblog notes, “I think what makes me saddest about this kind of megadevelopment, even more than the knowledge that it brings more suburban values right into the heart of town, is that such developments are relentlessly corporate. Where’s the space for the used bookshop, the neighbourhood café, the ethnic chicken rotisserie?”

I would add to that list: space for urban gardening / farming, local produce markets, community space, schools, daycares, clinics, soccer fields, indoor recreation, art galleries, and maybe some decent, non-chain pubs and places to play live music?

Furthering on from points 5 and 6, and touching on all the other points, the more self-sustaining the complex is, the better. In an energy-scarce future, even maintaining buildings of this scope and size is going to be a real challenge. Not impossible, but the developers and promoters need to show us that they’re taking this into account.

What Will Become of Griffintown?

Recently, Quebec developer Devimco partnered with Toronto-based RioCan to build the suburban Dix30 “lifestyle centre,” a drive-in power-centre big-box shopping mall located in a greenfield development at the intersections of Highways 10 and 30 on the South Shore.

Devimco is now working with the City of Montreal to push through a similar $1B development right at the foot of Peel Street, on the Peel Basin section of the Lachine Canal, likely occupying the same land that was originally proposed for the now-defunct Cirque du Soleil / Casino complex. Reportedly, Wal-Mart and Canadian Tire are to be anchor tenants.

A suburban mall at the foot of one of Montreal’s central boulevards, in the middle of Griffintown and adjacent to Old Montreal, ignores both the “retail DNA” of Montreal and the history of a proud neighborhood. It’s anti-urban, representing low density and sprawl, and there is serious doubt that it will contribute positively in terms of built space, eyes on the street, and other issues.

Even if there is a residential tower attached, as the current proposal includes, it’s still likely going to be a lot of cheap sheds separated by acres of parking. It’s an odd decision in a neighborhood that is moving towards drastically increased residential density and good urban design, and which is likely to be enhanced by the Harbour Commission’s plans to demolish the elevated portions of the Bonaventure Expressway to create a pedestrian-friendly urban boulevard and tramway links. With Peak Oil on the horizon, are big-box malls of national chain retail even viable, anyway?

We — being Stephanie Troeth and yours truly, AJ Kandy — are proposing an alternative, urbanist vision for the project in a quick six-minute presentation at the upcoming Montreal Pecha Kucha Night, Tuesday, September 18th at the SAT, starting at 8:00pm. We hope to see all of you there, and for those who can’t attend, we’ll be republishing it online with narration, background articles and links, and providing tools for action and discussion.

In the meantime, interested citizens should get in touch with the Sud-Ouest borough mayor’s office about an upcoming series of public consultations on the project.

Fort McMurray Goes Supernova

Oilsands refinery in Fort McMurray, Alberta. Photo by Chad Young

VBS.tv, the online documentary arm of Vice Magazine run by Spike Jonze, has a thought-provoking documentary called Toxic Alberta available to view for free (in 15 segments, with some interruptions for ads). The film touches on the extreme environmental impact of tar sands operations; the burning of natural gas to reform bitumen into crude oil is responsible for a staggering 20% of all of Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions, and this is set to rise as there are calls to quintuple output in the next decade.

However, the film also inadvertently exposes the crisis the boom towns face, in terms of managing a 9% population growth rate. Most cities struggle to deal with 2-3% growth; 9% would be crippling. (Imagine adding another 100,000 people to Montreal in a very short time.) Thousands of people — many of them Maritimers looking for work — have flocked to the towns of Fort McMurray and Fort Chipyewan. I’ve heard stories of people getting paid insane amounts of money — even fast food workers make $20 an hour — and thus everyone with some sort of skilled trade has headed west. The documentary bears this out, with one surveyor mentioning a $10k monthly paycheck.

The problem is that planning has lagged far behind. The influx of newcomers and lack of housing has left many in a quasi-homeless situation. On top of that, the enormous salaries have distorted the local economy; a one-bedroom apartment rents for $1800 a month, and a small house can cost upwards of $500,000. Developers are building everything from dormitory-style bunkhouses, to subsidized apartments. One developer, quoted in the film, says that ‘anyone making less than $70,000 here basically needs public assistance.’

When the boom is over — or if there’s a massive switch to renewables and energy efficiency — what will become of these towns?

Evening Under the Bridge

Patterns of light, shadow and reflections underneath the Charlevoix Street Bridge, over the Lachine Canal in Montreal, during rush hour. Music is “Wildlife Analysis” by Boards of Canada.

Urbanism on the Big Screen in Two New Films

Director Gary Burns (Waydowntown) moves from fiction to documentary mode, teaming up with journalist Jim Brown to bring us Radiant City, a look at suburban sprawl from the point of view of a typical family living in a new tract development in Calgary, interspersed with commentary from the likes of Mark Kingwell and James Howard Kunstler. It is now playing in select cities (but not in Montreal, yet).

Toronto documentarian Gregory Greene, meanwhile, presents a sequel to his earlier End of Suburbia, with a look at how we move forward in an era of energy scarcity: Escape from Suburbia, which is due out in theatres soon. Interviewees include the Rocky Mountain Institute’s Amory Lovins, the Hon. Ed Schreyer, economist Jeremy Rifkin, and researcher/journalist Richard Heinberg, among others.

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Spring Returns to the Lachine Canal

This is a video and still photo slideshow I created of the Lachine Canal and some of the former industrial buildings near the Côte-St-Paul Locks. The Lachine Canal was opened in 1825, allowing boats to bypass the Lachine Rapids for the first time and sail directly to the Great Lakes. It sparked an industrial boom in this part of Montreal, but in 1959, it was made obsolete by the St. Lawrence Seaway. It closed in 1969. Since then, its banks have been redeveloped with parks and bike paths. In recent years, many new condos have been built here and many of the nearby industrial buildings have been converted into office and living space. Nonetheless, abandoned industry remains, especially towards the west.

The Old Town and the Sea

The St. Lawrence River in Montreal. Photo by Matt Hobbs

If we don’t get a handle on runaway greenhouse warming, sea levels are predicted to rise by approximately 20 feet, or seven meters. If you think this won’t affect Quebec, think again. Using the Google Maps API and NASA climate projection data, a clever person has put together a site to show exactly what will be flooded when sea levels rise.

In Quebec City, most of Lower Town will be underwater and significant portions of the islands and riverbanks will be lost. The region around Sorel-Tracy, mostly farms, will be completely flooded. Montreal and the South Shore will lose a lot of riverfront, and in general, many of the low-elevation islands such as the Iles de Boucherville will lose huge amounts of their surface area. Even municipalities along the Richelieu will also suffer a good deal of flooding, for instance, near Chambly.

And that, in part, is why I voted Green yesterday.

View From a Forgotten Street

On an evening of urban exploration with Kate McDonnell (Urbanphoto contributor and la bloggeuse from Montreal City Weblog), we approached Notre-Dame by way of more southerly side streets, where Griffintown and the Cité Multimédia meet up under the elevated portion of the Bonaventure expressway, aka University.

Of interest is the CCUM building at the bottom of Nazareth Street; I expect many people taking the Via trains or the expressway wonder what it is, and I was surprised to discover that it’s a gas-fired district heating plant. It provides steamy goodness to Central Station and the CN building, Place Ville Marie, 1000 de la Gauchetière, the Queen Elizabeth hotel and the Sun Life Building among others.

Just about 180 degrees to the left of the shot above is an interesting collection of older greystones intermingled with what appear to be houses, as well as one of the oldest blacksmiths in the city (now closed and/or turned into a museum). Sadly most of these back laneways are becoming access ramps for surface parking lots, but there’s still a lot to see down there.

If you’re walking along Duke Street, pay attention to the lampposts; some artist in the 1990s banded several of them with metal straps imprinted with lines of poetry, that otherwise look like the normal straps that would hold municipal signage in place. There’s also, all around the Duke Street Investments building, several illuminated billboards with an ever-changing array of surreal photo art.

Can A Downtown Be Too Lively?

Madison, capital of the state of Wisconsin, is home not only to a handsome seat of government, but also to the sprawling, lakeside campus of the University of Wisconsin. It’s said that the population of the city grows by a fifth during the school year; the central city and suburbs number about 200,000, and UW Madison alone boasts more than 41,000 students. With its mix of students and government, Madison’s comparable to Quebec City somewhat in scale and feel.

Carfree State Street is arguably the heart and soul of the Madison isthmus; a walkable, vibrant commercial thoroughfare. However, the proliferation of downtown bars and street-party events means that the area’s rowdy university nightlife scene is bumping up against new residential condo construction right around the Capitol. In an era of dead downtowns, is it possible that Madison’s downtown is too lively?

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My Neighborhood: Near The Canal

With shorter days and chilly weather surrounding us, here’s some golden-hour shots of my neighborhood from 2005 to remind us that the sun will return again.

Corner of Notre-Dame and Des Seigneurs in the heart of the Quartier des Antiquaires. Along this strip are residential apartments, lofts and condos; these buildings on the corner house many architecture and design firms, small art galleries, and of course antique stores. More

Slated for Demolition: A Block In Griffintown

As part of the École de Technologie Supérieur’s planned Phase III expansion, the college acquired several underused or empty lots in the quadrangle between Notre-Dame, Peel, Mountain and Ottawa streets. Just recently, demolition notices appeared on two buildings on the south side of Notre-Dame; there’d been an UQAM-logoed sign advising people not to park on the empty bit in between for some time before that.

The smaller of the two buildings – in reality a very old house with a storefront – is starting to come down now. I’ve contacted the ETS to find out what, exactly, they’re planning to build there. (Updates as they occur.)

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