New Atlas on the Place des Montréalaises
A site called New Atlas waxes lyrical about the Place des Montréalaises.
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DeWolf 10:03 on 2026-03-29 Permalink
It’s a very flawed space but just the fact that it exists is worth celebrating. It really does improve accessibility in what was a very disjointed area. And the views are cool.
Ian 10:57 on 2026-03-29 Permalink
Am I anti-park for seeing this as an ugly 100 miilion dollar concrete plaza?
Kate 11:06 on 2026-03-29 Permalink
I didn’t feel like it was a place I’d want to linger, which is more or less what a park is supposed to be. It’s a reasonable bridge from Notre‑Dame Street down to Champ‑de‑Mars metro station, but it was expensive for that purpose.
Ian 11:15 on 2026-03-29 Permalink
…and required almost immediate renovations to prevent people using it for precisely that purpose from injuring themselves.
Blork 11:20 on 2026-03-29 Permalink
I walked through there a few times last summer. It’s weird and interesting. A bit strange that it’s so open and unsheltered, but it’s sort of magical when you’re there an hour or so before sundown on a warm day. More than half of the site is set with vegetation, but much of it hasn’t grown up yet I think. (AFAIK there’s a section that will be full of trees but the trees were not there yet last summer.)
It entirely changes the connection between Viger and Old Montreal, which is fantastic. And it’s a very close to the CHUM, so it’s a nice open respite for anyone who needs to get out and get some air while waiting for all the things one waits for when at a hospital. I found it to be a nice calming space. Not necessarily the best place to linger if you’re looking for a quiet shaded place to read your book, but I found it to be a good place to linger if you’re working on thinking something through or whatever, if that makes any sense.
Ultimately it’s not intended to be a regular relaxing park in the traditional sense, and my understanding is that the challenges of the site wouldn’t really allow that anyway. But it’s fantastic as a transition between two urban areas, and also kind a cool as a space for contemplation.
Ian 11:22 on 2026-03-29 Permalink
In all honesty I suspect some of the aesthetic of a “regular relaxing park in the traditional sense” was quietly taken off the drawing board to prevent homeless encampments.
Kate 14:18 on 2026-03-29 Permalink
Nobody could put up a tent on that white surface with holes punched through it. Could it be described as hostile park design?
Blork 15:03 on 2026-03-29 Permalink
That concrete thing takes up less than half of the park, especially if you include nearby Place Marie-Josèphe-Angélique. The concrete thing was designed primarily to fascilitate passage (i.e., to make it nice to go from point A to point B). It’s not designed for lingering or camping.
Calling its design “hostile” is like saying Parc Lafontaine is hostile because you can’t camp in the pond.