A city once neglected by previous administrations, the Renaissance Montreal has been experiencing as of late is remarkable, and inspiring. Although the city has been on an upswing since the mid-2000’s, the boom taking place from 2010- onwards has been rapid fire. As seen in my previous post about future downtown Montreal projects, the city has been densifying and adding more people, but there’s much more to that. The boom is more than condos and offices, it also includes new parks, infrastructure projects and revitalization of neighbourhoods. In this edition, we’ll be looking at not only new towers but infrastructure projects for a better, cleaner and newer Montreal.

Buildings

Maison Manuvie/Manulife house, 28 floors, 486,500 Sq. Ft

This project by Ivanhoe Cambridge was to consolidate office spaces of Manulife into one building. New office towers in Montreal are rare, but as of late we’ve seen nearly 1.2M Sq.Ft added downtown, with potentially another 3-4M Sq.Ft proposed/considered. The building is near completion and is expecting occupancy next month.

Image was taken by Jeremy Brouillaud https://www.instagram.com/p/BWa6aYLBkrJ/

2. Four Seasons Montreal, 18 floors

Four Seasons makes a comeback in Montreal after 20 or so years. The complex includes a connection to Ogilvy’s store, a very high-end store I might add, bars, restaurants, reception hall, and 18 condos. What makes this project even crazier by Montreal standards is the price tag to the condos, with the highest being $18 million. The highest sold condo in Montreal history was $5M, so this is more than triple the price.

The view from one of the new condos, taken from the website.

3. Ilot Balmoral, 13 floors.

Probably one of my favourite projects taking place in the city. Ok, to be fair I say that about all of them, but this one is one of the most anticipated ones. The National Filmboard of Canada’s new HQ downtown Montreal. What makes the design striking is the odd angle of the building and the accent of the red panels/glass. Taking place in the entertainment district of downtown, it only makes sense to have something stand out from the rest, and this building does. Even at only 13 floors, the building has a striking impact in the area.

Ilot Balmoral has topped off and is expected to have occupancy by next year.

Photo was taken by Chris1989, a fellow friend and Montreal lover as well!

Infrastructure

Something Montrealers are fond of these days is construction everywhere, and although I understand their frustration, the city is getting a much-needed update.

New Champlain Bridge, $4B.

A much-needed project in Montreal, the new Champlain Bridge will signify a start of a new era in Montreal. Compared to the old bridge, this one has a very open design, will include bike lanes and a lookout, will have a mast of 162 metres in height and will also hold the future REM tracks in the middle, giving us a futuristic cityscape. With the bridge also being at a higher elevation, the views of downtown and the St. Lawrence river will be even more breathtaking than usual. The bridge is expected to be complete late 2018/early 2019.

Webcam: http://www.nouveauchamplain.ca/chantier/chantier-en-direct/

2. Turcot Interchange $3.8B, expected to finish end of 2020

Yup, it’s that crazy. This project is considered to be the most complicated construction project in North America due to the old highway being in the way. To compensate, the highway will be much lower than the previous highway. The project will include wider lanes, bus lanes, and the addition of trees, landscaping and potentially green space/bike lanes. The new Turcot project is also using steel beams rather than concrete, and the concrete pillars will be 90% recycled from old concrete, making it an eco-friendly design.

http://imgur.com/hFEVyHX

https://www.turcot.transports.gouv.qc.ca/en/Pages/default.aspx

Greenspace

Bonaventure Expressway project, expected to finish September 2017.

Imagine your downtown being separated by an ugly, crumbling highway overpass from the 1960’s and you’ll get what used to be part of the Bonaventure Expressway. The project is nearing completion and the only thing left is planting trees, landscaping and public art installations. The sidewalks on both sides have been expanded and the addition of trees and street furniture has made the area look 100 times better. With this part of downtown growing at a rapid pace, it only made sense to add green space and make it more pedestrian friendly.

More about the project: http://bonaventure.wpengine.com/projet/la-vision/

I hope everyone enjoys this update, they’ll for sure be more updates showing the future of Montreal, a city in upswing motion. If you would like to see more future projects in Montreal, here are some links to previous posts, have a great day!

About the future light rail system: https://the514lifeblog.wordpress.com/2017/06/29/a-greener-future-reseau-electrique-metropolitain/

Future MTL projects #1: https://the514lifeblog.wordpress.com/2017/05/16/future-downtown-montreal-projects/

Other links used:

Ilot: http://www.shdm.org/en/renters/ilot-balmoral/

Four Seasons: http://lesresidencesprivees.com/en/the-residences/views

Manulife: http://www.ivanhoecambridge.com/en/news-and-media/news/2014/10/maison-manuvie