“You have to see how much public money has been put into Maison Chevalier!” »Is indignant Lucie K. Morisset, at a time when the State cedes this exceptional building in Old Quebec to a private company. Here is too much, judges this professor from UQAM, holder of the Canada Research Chair in urban heritage. “It goes beyond the limits,” she says, while specifying that she is not used to getting carried away about heritage issues. “The reasons given to justify the abandonment of this 1752 building by the State are completely far-fetched. “
Many politicians and groups, including the Group of initiatives and applied research in the community and the Fédération historique Québec, unanimously denounced this week the decision of the Legault government in this matter.
“We have been told that it is not possible to fit out this building to make it acceptable for the pursuit of museum projects … However, at the same time, we have already committed a fortune in fitting out projects of the same type for blue spaces! »Notes Lucie K. Morisset, emphasizing the contradiction.
This sale by the State of an exceptional building occurred at a time when the Legault government undertook to set up, at full speed, a museum network of its own, the Blue Spaces. These 17 regional spaces, dedicated to the celebration of a patriotic feeling, must be installed in the different administrative regions of the province. They will be housed in heritage buildings which were not designed for these purposes and which need to be adapted.
“These spaces that we are going to have to develop are exactly the same thing that they say they cannot do for Maison Chevalier, which we already own”, remarks Mme Morisset. It’s hard to imagine a more heartbreaking lack of consistency in the preservation and enhancement of heritage, says the professor who has just been awarded the 2021 Robert-Lionel-Séguin Prize for her commitment to safeguarding and enhancing of the built heritage.
Hollows in the blue spaces
Lucie K. Morisset recalls that if Quebec saw fit to expropriate, in 1956, at the time of Duplessis, the private owner of the Maison Chevalier to assert its full public importance, it is not so that in two another government, for no valid reason, simply handed it over to the private sector. “That the Minister of Culture take a good look at the idea of relieving herself, in such a hasty manner, of such an important building shows the little knowledge and the little regard that is made for heritage. Obviously, there is no control over what heritage means, its enhancement, its presence, ”says Lucie K. Morisset.
That the Minister of Culture take a positive view of the idea of relieving herself, in such a hasty manner, of such an important building shows the little knowledge and the little regard that is made for heritage. Obviously, there is no control over what heritage means, its development, its presence.
The former president of the Ordre des architectes du Québec (OAQ) André Bourassa agrees. “What we say we cannot do for Maison Chevalier, we intend to do elsewhere! If we are not able to do nothing, to think nothing for Maison Chevalier, that is a very bad message. “
“This sale, unjustified, represents an immense paradox when we say that we also want to defend Quebec’s heritage. Especially since this government claims to be more or less Maurice Duplessis, adds Lucie K. Morisset. The Blue Spaces is as if the government had launched a chain of grocery stores, a commercial project more than a reflection on the commons. “
Far from sobriety
Interventions in heritage spaces, despite their claims in favor of preservation, can turn out to be destructive. In Percé, on the spectacular heights of Cape Canon, which dominates the famous rock, the Frederick-James villa will become one of the Blue Spaces announced by the government. This exceptional 1887 house, built by the American painter, is in danger of being swallowed up by the sea. With its skilful wooden ornaments, this English Queen Anne Revival house is located just 4 meters from the cliff. At the current rate of erosion, the house could be washed away in 2042, study shows.
To transform this sumptuous abandoned house into a Blue Space, it will first have to be moved. Then, so that it can withstand intensive museum use for which it is intended, additional volumes are provided below, with the addition of an elevator. Parking spaces and access roads to the main residence, linked to an additional building, located below, may ultimately significantly alter one of Quebec’s most famous landscapes.
“The program planned for the Blue Spaces is too big for the building,” notes Lisa-Marie Gagnon, real estate development assistant for the City of Percé. “One can have the impression that it is to want to enter a square in a circle, but I trust the professionals who work on the file. This point, this landscape are emblematic for Quebec; we must act in all sensitivity. We are lucky that the building is taken care of. “
A fragile balance
The City of Percé regrets being little involved in the project, but hopes to benefit from it. She still has confidence in government officials. “We have to,” says Mme Gagnon. “This is not a project led by the City of Percé. We would like to be more involved. Everything that happens in our territory is close to our hearts. The villa is a gem. There is the possibility of setting a magnificent precedent in terms of heritage, and we have a long way to go in Quebec as a community. “
There is a “balance to be found between the preservation of heritage and new uses which keep them alive, but which require upgrading to standards”, believes Percé. Installing sprinklers or even universal access inflicts irremediable stigma on these buildings.
In Quebec City, the Petit Séminaire will constitute the bridgehead of the Espaces Bleues network. Here too, the interventions that must be carried out according to specific museum standards will alter the premises.
The duty noted that work has already started to smash the facade of the Camille-Roy pavilion overlooking the parking lot. This will be a new entry. We also dig down to the rock that supports this old building, among other things to eventually allow the development of access ramps. Interior spaces, however just restored, are once again under construction. Indeed, the Hall of Promotions of the Seminary of Quebec, with all its Second Empire style pageantry, had already benefited from a restoration at great expense. However, the “bringing up to standards” ordered by the Blue Spaces implies that several of the work just carried out on the Seminar must be reconsidered.
“Instead of saying that ‘standards require it’ and submitting to them, suggests André Bourassa, you have to have the common sense to question them! It’s as if, in Quebec, we weren’t able to work without always breaking everything, as if we ignored the deep qualities of sobriety. “
Too complex
“The issue of sprinklers in a museum setting can entail more risks than benefits,” says the former president of the OAQ. “It is certain that if you call on a specialized firm, they will tell you that the code must be respected to the letter. But the code does not fall from the sky! Can we stop for two minutes and ask questions? Could we achieve the same ends with different interventions? To speak only of the issue of sprinklers, there are other protection systems. In Europe, it shows. However, it takes willpower. Reflection too, as much as finesse and subtlety. “
These are not the qualities of sobriety that are put forward in these state projects, he regrets. “The government’s blue spaces won’t make strong children!” We are going to spend crazy sums that are not necessary, because we are still in this logic where we must impress, dazzle. It is not the time of Louis XIV, but not far! It is the show-off who wins. Sobriety is not on the agenda of governments that have no knowledge of building. We do not seem to understand that there are, in Europe for example, places that require [à ce qu’on] adapts ways of doing things, which should not be set in stone. “
What a priori is lacking in these projects according to him? “Reasonable deadlines and proper planning of needs. Each building must first be studied for what it is. “
Breaking everything
It is certain that the fitting out of an industrial concrete structure into a museum, as is the case for the Blue Space planned for Magog in the old buildings of a textile industry, poses fewer difficulties than that of a wood structure as in Gaspé.
In Baie-Saint-Paul, the Mother House, the former convent where the local Blue Space is to be set up, also suggests major interventions.
The danger of such a global museum project, propelled at high speed, is to believe that we can introduce a similar exhibition program everywhere rather than adapting it to the places, believe specialists. “In the past, we allowed a lot of buildings to be demolished, convents for example, because we said that they had to respond to this or that in terms of development and that it was too complicated,” explains André Bourassa. There, we ask old buildings to be the equivalent of new! “
“It is certain that if we do business with a specialized firm, which only applies the Building Code, we will hit a wall in terms of heritage preservation,” believes the former president of the OAQ. But can we finally be smart enough to ask questions? There are different ways of setting up places, different ways of protecting them as well. It takes political will for that. And there is none. Breaking everything to create Blue Spaces will in no way help to preserve heritage. “
Mr. Bourassa says he had fun evaluating the training and experience of 125 Quebec elected officials in the building industry. “In all parties, it is lamentable. There are not five Quebec elected officials who have experience, however minimal, in the field of building. This explains, at least in part, he says, the few satisfactory results in terms of preservation and enhancement of heritage. “No wonder we score so little in terms of heritage and that we are caught in a lot of nonsense! “
With Catherine Lalonde and Dave Noël
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