Devimco, the embattled developer with big plans for the forlorn neighbourhood of Griffintown, south of Downtown, have finally unveiled their new, albeit considerably scaled-down plan for four new high-rise residential buildings, which they are now calling "District Griffin".

The four buildings will be primarily residential with three condo buildings and one mixed 150 room, 3 star hotel/office building.  Stores will be located on the bottom floor but potential tenants and sizes remain to be seen.  The buildings will front rue Smith and will be bordered by Wellington to the north and west, and Shannon to the east.  Currently, this area is mostly parking lots and warehouse buildings so this phase will see limited demolition which was one of the biggest concerns with the previous plans which encompassed a much larger portion of the neighbourhood.

Building heights won't differ too much from previous plans with the hotel slated for 12 storeys and the residential buildings to be built as tall as 19 storeys.  Condos will come with 1 to 3 bedrooms at prices ranging from $250 000 to $750 000 per unit.

Information on the actual design of the buildings has been scant with a couple generic night-time mockups on their website and the vague map above being pretty much all that has been presented by the developer.  As was the case with Devimco's previous plans, it is unlikely that they intend for the final product to correspond with any of their preliminary marketing or mock-ups.

However, Devimco's greenwashing tactics and pandering to opponents seem to have been sharpened since 2007 when they came into Griffintown, guns blazing, not expecting citizen opposition or, as it seemed, the fact that there were actually residents living in the area.  They now plan to build 275 social housing units and another 206 affordable units (8% more than is required by the Sud-Ouest borough) which will be built off-site and sometime in the future, while also planning to give $25 000 to maison Saint-Gabriel, a history museum in Pointe-St-Charles.  Hopes to get condo buyers out of their cars apparently comes with their plan to give free bicycles to condo buyers and providing parking spaces for Communauto (a now standard practice for any new development in the city).  Devimico is also still pushing hard for the tramway, taunting Richard Bergeron about it at yesterday's announcement of the project (nothing has been said of Devimco's previous pledge of $10 million to the city to help build the tramway).

Construction is expected to begin in the next three to four months costing $475 million.  Any additional phases planned for the future have not been announced as of yet.

• Image credits ― Google Maps

Du Métro Montréal, le vendredi 16 avril :

Le quartier Griffintown sera composé d'imposantes tours d'habitations, dont la hauteur maximale a été fixée à 75 m (20 étages). « Il faudra apprendre à vivre avec les hauteurs, a affirmé Richard Bergeron. Nous visons un quartier urbain et densifé. »

D'après moi, le dimanche 18 avril :

Avec plus de 26 000 habitants/km carré, Levallois-Perret (France), banlieue parisienne, compte parmi les communes les plus densément peuplées d'Europe. Ses « tours d'habitations » n'ont qu'une hauteur moyenne de 6 étages. « Density can mean Paris as well as Manhattan. » a écrit Neil Flanagan sur son blog d'urbanisme цarьchitect à Washington, D.C.

Photo by Marketel

After many weeks of waiting, this afternoon I finally had a chance to speak with Isabelle Hudon, chairperson of the board at the Société du Havre de Montréal (SHM) about her response to the Office de consultation publique (OCPM) report. Hudon spoke candidly in this audio interview and mentioned that the Bonaventure Project will move forward in the near future.

At the end of March, the Office de consultation publique de Montréal (OCPM) plans to release it's report and recommendations from the Quartier Bonaventure consultation meetings in January. During this public consultation process, citizens voiced concern over the proposal to build a bus corridor on Rue Dalhousie in Griffintown.

In this video I speak with Sami Hakim, an engineer and Griffintown property owner, as well as David Hanna, an urban planning professor at UQAM, who has studied this project extensively.

I contacted the Société du Havre de Montréal (SHM) and requested an interview with Isabelle Hudon, but I received a response from Andre Bouthillier saying: "Unfortunately, she will wait the Office de consultation publique de Montréal report before giving other interviews." Quite a change since Hudon spoke freely to media during the consultation process. But I hope to speak with her or someone at the SHM after the report is released. To be continued...

2-22 Sainte-Catherine, the anchor building for arts organizations in the Quartier des Spectacles has shrunk from a 12-story flashy glass-fronted design, to a 5-story brick structure which promises to be more in harmony with the local architecture. Unsurprisingly, the artists for whom this project was conceived would not have been able to afford space in the building. Since this redesign actually fits within the area's urban plan, no further public consultations will be required.

The controversial Quadrilatère Saint-Laurent has also seen its budget cut by more than half.  I have heard rumors from 2 sources that Hydro Quebec has withdrawn from the project. However in an interview with Le Devoir, SDA president Christian Yaccarini said that Hydro Quebec will remain the main tenant in the shrunken Quadrilatère. Rather, he blames Café Cleopatra for retarding the project by refusing to leave the location. The pared-back design will not surpass the Monument National.

The last, and probably best of the SDA's developments, a cultural centre on the empty lot around metro Saint-Laurent station, is also on hold for "at least a year" (read: indefinitely). The developer has only able to find tenants for a quarter of the space. Once again, few cultural groups are able shell out for the brand new digs, despite municipal subsidies.

Lessons learned?

For people who were involved in the public consultation process, the temptation is to shout out a great big "I told you so." Architect and author Louis Rastelli, who is involved with the Save the Main recently wrote to me:

"In short, everything everyone warned about these 3 projects has come to pass -- rushed forward too soon without confirmed tenants, Hydro not likely willing to wait forever, no plan B from the developer, premature expropriation, questionable idea of putting offices in a concert district etc."

But money talks and, perhaps ironically, lack of money has ground this project to a halt after citizen opposition was categorically ignored.

There is one contradiction that I hope does not go unnoticed here: during public consultations, we were told that the only way that these projects could be financially viable was through renting many stories of office space. Now, the cash-strapped developer is cutting back the project to something that is actually cohesive with the urban plan in terms of building height. Why was this kind of design initially portrayed as impossible when it is, in fact, not only possible but apparently cheaper? (Keeping in mind that SDA purports to be a non-profit organization).

Unless, of course, this pared-back version of the project actually is impossible, is nothing but a smoke screen to cover a a more complete retreat. Remember when, barely over a year ago, Projet Griffintown's finances went down the tubes and developer Devimco promised a pared-back project? And then we never heard from them again? A recent writeup in Métro Montréal concludes the project is "practically dead"

We can say good riddance to Projet Griffintown because the developer actually owned very little of the property that they hoped to build upon. That's not the case with the SDA on the Lower Main: over the past year, they snapped up all the properties they could and crushed the little life that was left on the block below Sainte-Catherine. You can bet that, with the exception of Café Cleopatra and perhaps the Montreal Pool room who have not yet finalized the sale of their property, the strip will be neglected for years to come as this gets sorted out, or doesn't.

Now, more than ever before, it is time to get a bit more creative and "Save the Main."

Have we finally learned that confiding a neighbourhood's revitalization to a single developer (and without even a public bidding process) is too great a risk?

I know that, when they rubberstamp projects of this scale, city officials are not trying to win my vote. Perhaps they are seeking the support from business people, or catering to an older generation wistful for the golden years of bulldoze-and-build-it-better, Expo-style development.

If nothing else, I hope the City be burned enough to learn that bending over backwards to push through a high-profile project is, politically speaking, only a good move if you can actually deliver.

As I mentioned in my post last week about the 2010 City of Montreal budget, one of the new measures it includes is a special tax on downtown parking spaces. Two zones of taxation are proposed. Parking lots in central neighbourhoods (defined by Atwater on the west, Papineau on the east, and des Pins on the north) will be taxed at a lower rate. Parking lots in the central business district will be taxed at a higher rate. In both cases exterior surface parking will be billed at a higher rate than indoor parking.

The charges will range from $19.80 per square metre for a surface lot in the central business district to $4.95 per square metre for an indoor lot farther out. The revenue generated from this tax will be earmarked for improving public transit, and the city expects it to make around $20 million dollars per year.

This is a measure long overdue. As the above map shows, surface parking lots take up a significant portion of the downtown area. While the situation in Montreal is not nearly as bad as in some of the Canadian Prairies cities or the US  Sunbelt cities, surface parking is nevertheless very present.

This constitutes an inefficient use of space which is to be discouraged. It promotes an unsustainable car-dependent lifestyle and retards the development of large swaths of downtown. Part of the reason there is so much surface parking is because it is profitable and requires little investment. Why spend tens of millions of dollars constructing (or renovating) a building on your property when you can just throw down some asphalt and start immediately extracting money from it? This new tax will help change the profit calculations of property owners and encourage them to look for other uses for their land.

Of course, some amount of parking will always be needed downtown. A sensible policy would be to gradually replace existing surface parking with more space-efficient indoor parking, while in the process slowly reducing the total supply of parking to encourage all who can take public transit to do so.  The Parking Lot Tax is a good first step towards that vision.

While I am generally supportive of this policy, I question the City's decision of where to delineate the higher and lower rate zones. The higher rate zone fails to include two key parking areas that are closely linked to the central business district: the sector south of Sainte-Catherine and east of Guy, and the lots around the Bonaventure Expressway. This second case is all the more puzzling given the Tremblay administration's goal of removing the raised expressway and rehabilitating the surrounding sector. If the area is to be revitalized then the parking lots must go.

In the map below the higher-rate sector is shown in blue, and the parking sectors it excludes are clearly visible.

As to be expected, certain downtown merchants have begun to make a fuss. Many of them are still angry over last year's increase in parking meter rates, out of the same perennial fear of competition from suburban malls. Tremblay knew that he would take some criticism on this issue, and to his credit he pushed ahead anyway. Hopefully this is a sign of a new willingness to get serious on improving public transit and promoting a pro-sustainability agenda.

The OPCM has already begun public consultations for the Quartier Bonaventure which will drastically overhaul the no-man's land between Griffintown and the Quartier des Recollets (just west of Old Montreal). What I originally thought of away as a simple remake of the highway actually turns out to be an entire neighbourhood with residential and commercial towers, a public square, and new green spaces near the canal. At first glance I'd say it's a better spot than most for those ubiquitous high rises.

Being a fan of re-inhabiting unused nooks and crannies in the city, I quite like the plan for "Renewed use of the Canadian National rail viaduct"

In order to reinsert the rail viaduct into the urban fabric of the faubourgs, it is proposed to reopen its fenestration, reclaim the ground-level floor space for commercial use, and make more safe and comfortable the many east-west passageways. That part of the rail viaduct between Ottawa and William streets, facing the public place, could house, most usefully, the necessary facilities for the users of public transportation. (From the city of Montreal's Quariter Bonaventure Synthesis document PDF).

So far the main controversy is over the Dalhousie bus corridor which would funnel buses from the South Shore through the neighbourhood (there are currently about 350 of those buses a day and they have to take a more circuitous route through the old streets).

The vibrations from construction and concentration of bus traffic could harm the historic New City Gas Co. building, and opponents describe the corridor as a barrier and a health hazard for local residents. Apparently, a business man with interest in the area has been trying to mobilize citizens against the Dalhousie bus corridor.

Rendering of the Dalhousie bus corridor, with the CN rail vaiduct with fenestration re-done and new commercial spaces.

At the outset, I'm a bit concerned that this neighbourhood is being planned independently from the Windsor-Station-train-tracks-over-St-Antoine idea that has been floating around recently. It would be a shame to invest so much transforming the Bonaventure autoroute into an urban boulevard and integrating the CN viaduct into the urban fabric, only to create a brand new barrier a few blocks away.

I don't know enough about it to say much at this point. For those interested in learning more, the OCPM is holding an information session tonight (Nov 26) at 7pm at the Cathédrale Marie-Reine-du-Monde, 1110 rue mansfield. Another information session will be held December 1st at 7pm, and memoirs and comments can be presented January 12, 2010.

Both images are from the Fiches synthèses du rapport de l’avant-projet détaillé, mars 2009 (PDF) as seen on the OPCM website

Photo prise le 24 avril, 2009, derrière l'écurie sur la rue Bassin.

Photo prise le 24 avril, 2009.

The plan to tear down the Bonaventure Expressway in favour of an "urban boulevard" (with four lanes going both ways), complete with new office buildings and hotels with street-level storefronts has been on the table for few years and now looks as if it will be a reality sooner than later.  However, recently added to the plan is the idea of a bus corridor to be used by the 1 400 public transit buses that cross the Champlain Bridge every day travelling between Montreal and the South Shore.  The new bus corridor, which will shave only a few minutes off the current commute will start at the existing bus terminus on rue de la Cathedrale and travel down Dalhousie which will be extended to reach the Bonaventure Expressway.  The Gazette has a map of the plan, along with the plan for Phase 1 of the Bonaventure project here.

One of the most costly and controversial parts of the project is the need to drill a tunnel through the elevated train tracks for Dalhousie to be extended. Experts are concerned however, that the 160 year old New City Gas Co. building will not be able to withstand the vibrations from the drilling along with the thousands of buses that will pass by it daily if the corridor is built as planned.  The corridor, which will cost somewhere around $65 million dollars is being heavily criticised by members of the Comité pour le sain redéveloppement de Griffintown* who, in a press release, questioned the need for the corridor suggesting alternate routes that wouldn't threaten heritage buildings, and ultimately be less costly:

During the roadwork period, the most logical detour for the estimated 1 400 daily buses (200 buses per hour at rush hour) would be to turn left on Wellington  street and drive up Peel Street, (two wide streets with multiple lanes).  Why was this option rejected? Because, we’re told, Montreal mayor Gérald Tremblay wishes to reserve Peel Street for the hypothetical and much publicized tramway line, although it isn’t budgeted for in the near future by the AMT.

And why shouldn’t the permanent route be a reserved bus lane on each of the two new four-lane urban boulevards? So buses don’t slow down car circulation, says the AMT. Yes, five traffic lights along the new section are bound to slow down  traffic at rush hour. So why not simply use the reserved lane in the opposite direction at rush hour?

Luckily, as The Gazette reported, the plan will be going to public consultations through the Office de consultation publique de Montréal, however, their website as of yet says nothing of it.

*Full disclosure: The CSRG is an organisation of which I am a member.

The bad news for Devimco's proposed 1.3 billion dollar redevelopment keeps piling up with last week possibly being the tipping point.  After being forced to scale back phase 1 of the plan due to an ailing economy, La Presse reported last week that unless the city pitches in with money to add green space to the Lachine Canal and go ahead with the tramway along Peel, they'll pack up and head back to Brossard to do more work on their Dix30 "lifestyle centre".  "J'ai multiplié par cinq la valeur de tous leurs terrains à mes frais. J'ai déjà dépensé 10 millions dans ce projet. J'ai pris des risques. Si je voulais, j'ai un million de pieds carrés à construire le long de l'autoroute 10 et c'est moins risqué..." Devimco president, Serge Goulet told La Presse.

Adding to Devimco's Griffintown woes is the city's decision to cancel the expropriation orders on the 27 properties set aside to be demolished in order to widen parts of Peel and Wellington.  This allows individual property owners in the area the ability to take new tenants again, sell their property outright, or to tear down their existing buildings and rebuild withing the framework of the Devimco-dictated PPU adopted last year.

Devimco asking the city for even more handouts than it has already received seems to finally be the last death-knell for this project.  Other developers have been clammering over Griffintown to build their own schemes and were extremely angry with the city last year when the entire area was handed over to Devimco without asking any other developers.  If the city does go through with Devimco's demands, other developers will inevitably line up to say they can do it without the demands creating a less than ideal PR climate for City Hall (in an election year).  The loss of the forced expropriations on property owners gives Devimco considerably less leverage and may see the construction of individual projects without any involvement from Devimco.  I think it is now safe to predict that "Projet Griffintown" is dead and the neighbourhood's immediate future is once again anybody's guess.

Awhile ago, I wrote about some of the odd things surrounding the Darling Foundry on Ottawa Street in Griffintown.  Along with being an excellent space for emerging artists, the area around the foundry has been dubbed the "Quartier éphémère" where various events and interventions have been happening.  Last summer, the block of Ottawa Street in front of the Foundry was shut down to traffic and a garden of sorts was planted on top of the pavement.  My favourite part of the Foundry, however, is the graffiti on the walls of the old industrial buildings surrounding it.  Although the quality of this graffiti tends not to be as high as in other areas of the city, I've always liked it because it's so different and more artistic than what is seen elsewhere.  Below are some photos I took of it last summer while I was lucky enough to live only a couple blocks down the street. (click on photos for a larger view)

Yesterday, The Gazette reported that Devimco, the company that gained approval from city hall last summer to build a massive mixed-use development near the Peel Basin, may have to downsize the first phase of their plan.  Citing concerns over the state of the economy, Devimco is drafting a "plan-B"which would bring the cost of phase 1 down to about $200 million from the originally planned $400 million.

The alternative plan, to be presented to the city sometime in the next couple weeks, will also give a new time-line for when ground will be broken for the project.  In November, Devimco announced they would delay the originally planned summer 2009 start-date by a year meaning development probably won't start until sometime around summer 2010.  The article also talks to various business and land owners in the area who shed doubt on whether the project will even happen at all.

What could this mean the future of Griffintown?  A less ambitious project may lead to a smaller, more human-scaled development, however given Devimco's history concerning this project, it's not unlikely that the new plan to be presented to the city will look more like a large shopping centre than a mixed-use neighbourhood.  Indeed, the first phase of the project is largely commercial with the later phases being the residential components, so it would be fairly easy for Devimco to build a mall in phase 1, then abandon the rest of the project.

Another question to be raised is whether or not Devimco and the city will have to go through another round of public consultations concerning the project and its impact on the area.  The project approved by the city was the $1.3 billion dollar project which this will obviously fail to be.  However, considering how city hall has acted on this dossier, acting essentially as a rubber stamp factory for Devimco, I wouldn't put too much faith in the city getting tough on the developer and forcing them to go through with what was promised.

Although Tuto claims to have Mayan roots, he does not seem to be daunted by the impending cold.

"Actually, they are the basins of the ancien havre but that 's what happens when the branding guys get hold of this," commented Mark Poddubiuk, an architect who has worked on the project, in his email inviting me to the Canada Post site open house today.

A detail perhaps, but the historical significance of this area has profoundly shaped the project. Located between rue Ottawa and the Lachine Canal, and bordered by Richmond street and Rue du Séminaire, this site was once the cradle of Montreal's industrial revolution. The Bassins du nouveau havre project would excavate the four St-Gabriel Basins, which were built between 1848 and 1885 and later filled in with earth from the metro system.

Two of the basins would be completely excavated, maximizing water-front homes (and even lending some extra waterfront to the adjacent Griffintown project). Another two basins would be partially excavated to reveal their historic structure and then used as recreational green space.

The proposal would also reconnect the local street grid by re-opening rue Basin as the neighbourhood's main street. The North-South links would all be pedestrian and the canal-side bike path would bridge the reconstituted piers.

A panorama of the bassins in 1896 (from the Bassins du nouveau havre press package).

Sustainability

The Canada Lands corporation is once again working with local architecture firm L'OEUF, as they did for the international award-winning Benny Farm housing development. Mark Poddubiuk, an architect with L'OEUF,  says that the proposal meets the criteria for LEED neighbourhood development certification.

Neighbourhood commerces and a focus on pedestrian and cycling infrastructure mean that car-ownership will be far from a necessity. One innovative system would divert all the rainwater runoff from the site into a filtration pond located in the 2nd basin, rather than into city's storm sewers. A central waste processing system for garbage, compost and recyclables has also been proposed.

Furthremore, and site will be decontaminated during the excavation of the basins and the Canada Post building will be dismantled so that the component materials can be re-used and recycled as much as possible.

Housing

After consulting with local community groups, the Canada Lands corporation has made housing for families a focus of the project. The development would include 1400 condos, of which a quarter are to be designed for families with children; 400 units of social housing (for instance housing co-ops), and 200 affordable private units. Of the social and affoardable housing, half the homes would cater to families with children.

Poddubiuk explains that family-friendly housing means large units with 2 or 3 bedrooms, ground access, play parks and recreational facilities.  Yep, that's an outdoor swimming pool in Basin 1 - or it will be if the developers can find someone to pay for it. Just north of there, a sports field will double as a skating rink during the winter.

Although the plans were inspired by successful family-friendly housing developments in Europe, Poddubiuk says that a big questions remains as to whether condo-style living will really capture the hearts of North American families.

Proposed zoning for the Bassins du nouveau havre: red is commercial, orange is mixed use (local commerces with residential above) yellow is residential, with social and family housing concentrated in the 2nd pier from left; numbers represent building height in stories.

Another Griffintown?

Its hard not to compare and contrast the Bassins du nouveau havre with the neighbouring Projet Griffintown. The plans for the Canada Lands site are being released just one day after Devimco announced that construction Griffintown Project will be delayed, due to difficulty in recruiting financial backers in the current economic downturn.

"In the economic slowdown, we have to recognize the value of crown corporations who have decided to invest [in Montreal]" said Mayor Gerald Tremblay this afternoon. The Canada Lands spokesperson also pointed out that, since the site is a surplus government land, the developer does not have to negotiate the purchase parcel by parcel with local property-owners.

Here are a few other distinctions I've noted so far:

• During the press conference, one member of the Irish community who grew up in the neighbourhood during the 1930s thanked the presentors for respecting the neighbourhood's history and engaging in constructive dialogue with community partners. During Projet Griffintown's public sessions, community members expressed outrage that historical buildings would be destroyed or displaced.
• The Bassins project reconnects the historical street grid while the Griffintown project eliminated streets by lumping several blocks together under giant towers.
• The Bassins will undergo public consultation by the Office de Consultation Publique de Montréal in the spring. The Griffintown project tried to bypass this by running public consultation through the borough only.
• After the site is decontaminated and the infrastructure in place, the Bassins will ultimately be developed by various private firms and co-ops, whereas Devimco would remain the proprietor of the entire Projet Griffintown site, and the landlord of the commercial spaces.

The developers encourage feedback from the public on their website, although unfortunately they provide no forum for public comments and debate. Comments submitted on-line will be taken into account by the borough before they approve the project.

Check it out for yourself: the Canada Post site will be open to the public Thursday November 13th, from 4pm to 8pm and Saturday, November 15th, from 12 noon to 5pm.

While options on properties necessary to proceed have almost all been bought up by the developer, perhaps this gives Montrealers an opportunity to rethink megaprojects of this type. Are there options for development that are less dependent on the uncertain winds of international finance? Is car-oriented retail and more luxury condos really the best way to ensure economic stability here in Montreal?

This weekend, members of CUTV (Concordia University Television) will be hosting Remember Griffintown, an event which organisers say is a way to "allow the citizens of Montreal, as well as anyone else, to get to know a forgotten part of Montreal." and is "a celebration of the rich history this area has to offer."  Organiser Paul Aflalo discusses the event and his reasons for staging it at length in a story featured last month in The Gazette.

Most of the events will take place in or around the New City Gas building at 950 rue Ottawa and in the Griffintown Gallery inside the building.  A calendar of the many events planned can be found on their website.  Some highlights include a vernissage at the Griffintown Gallery, film screenings, day tours, and a neighbourhood scavenger hunt. A long lineup of bands will also be performing over the weekend as well.  To put the icing on the cake, everything (except food and drinks) is completely free.

If you have some time to kill this weekend, a trip to Griffintown would be more than worth the trip!

Everyday, on my way to work, I bike by the Darling Foundry. Being a rather eclectic arts centre, it's not surprising that the area around the building features some very odd things. The first of which is the street in which the building itself is on. Last month, the last block of Ottawa Street between Prince and Queen was shut down to traffic and turned into car-free public space. Picnic tables have been installed and long narrow gardens jut out from the sidewalk. A sign explaining the project was on the side of the building for a couple days but quickly disappeared and there doesn't seem to be anything on the website so I don't really know what's going on with this project. The mock-up on the sign showed the gardens on the street meeting up with the grass they grew on the wall last year but so far nothing more has been done and the website seems to make no mention of it. Hopefully, the project will be finished as this has the potential to be a great public space in an area where there is little.

Around the corner from the foundry, in an empty lot on Queen, stood this very mysterious structure:

A sign by the door (it had been removed when I took the picture above) said simply "Musée Lumière 24/24". The inside of the chipboard box was pitch black save for the three "exhibits", all of which used light in some way or another. The first was a combination lock inside a strange glass casing which was lit up by the light outside. Around the corner was a window holding a transparency with a picture of a graffiti covered door further down on Queen. Written on the photo was an excerpt from the website of a condo development being built nearby that described their windows. Around the last corner, the final exhibit was what a friend described as a camera obscura that reflected the image of a building across the street onto the soles of two pair of upside down shoes held up on metal bars. Surprisingly, this even worked at night.

What I liked most about this "museum" was its mystery. It was more or less in the middle of nowhere and had no insignia describing who built it, or why. It was nice having it around as I always had a little museum down the street I could take visitors to for free anytime I wanted .

I took the above picture last Friday and when I went back on Sunday to take a couple more photos, I found this sad sight:

Unfortunatley, the museum has finally been dismantled after being in the same spot for about six months. I'm kicking myself now for not writing this post months ago while I watched the snow beneath it slowly melt away from under it.

Lastly, in the environs of the Darling Foundry, is the Plan Large project. Three billboards (the website shows a fourth but I think it's since been taken down) have been used to display, instead of advertisements, photography, such as this one:

It's refreshing to see random and artistic signs lit up along the Bonaventure rather than another ad trying to push another useless product on passing commuters. Two of these signs are on the roof of a building on Duke and another is in front of the New City Gas Building on Ottawa at the corner of Dalhousie.

Many more things can be found around the foundry such as some very eclectic graffiti as well as some interesting public art put up be the foundry or by the city. The Darling Foundry is at 745 Ottawa Street in Griffintown.

Apartment buildings on lower Mountain Street, near Notre-Dame, on the edge of Griffintown.

May 23, 2008

Monday's municipal council meeting was the night when Griffintown's future was finally decided. Despite recent pleas from experts to stop the project, a city councillor asking for a delay on the vote, and a demo/mock funeral which led around 200 people through Griffintown to city hall, the PPU which will allow Devimco to build their massive 1.3 billion dollar mixed-use development was approved.

The motion to approve the PPU was passed by all but three councillors (Marvin Rotrand and Warren Allmand from Tremblay's Union Montréal party as well as Richard Bergeron from Projet Montréal) who all expressed concerns about the lack of time given to review the project details and to properly hold public consultations. Rotrand expressed particular concern about the city electing not to use the Office de consultation publique de Montréal (OCPM), a non partisan commission which was set up to allow public review just such a project. Furthermore, just last week many changes were made to Devimco's plan in response to concerns brought up during public consultations (most of the changes are trivial and amount mostly to green-washing). Apparently the mayor saw no point in making time to review major changes made to the development plan.

The biggest issue with the approval of the PPU is the precedent it may set for future developments in Montreal. With this yes vote, it is now official that the city has the ability (and apparently the desire) to be co-opted by private developers, bypass its own public consultation process, and then approve a plan for a development project that hasn't even been fully thought out yet.

Photo by Jack Ruttan