The renovation project at the Montreal Museum of Contemporary Art (MAC) is underway. Partial demolition of the downtown building is expected to begin within the next three weeks.
The Société québécoise des infrastructures (SQI), which manages the project, has issued around ten calls for tenders in recent months. Initial proposals relate to major and specialized demolition or concreting works, for example.
The documents consulted indicate “before February 9, 2024” as the deadline for the start of demolition work. This calendar fits with the information obtained by The duty on an upcoming public announcement of the concrete launch of this highly anticipated project in the cultural and tourist sector.
Projections of the duration of certain infrastructural works already take us until spring 2027. This is the case, for example, for the call for tenders for fire protection equipment, which includes temporary extinguishers which are will be found on the site throughout the construction site.
Upcoming calls for tenders could postpone the inauguration of the new MAC for several more months. In particular, it remains to find suppliers for the finishing of the interior layout of the spaces, the design of the new furniture, the moving of the collections as well as employees. At best, reopening should therefore not occur before the end of 2027, or even 2028.
Since 1992, the MAC, a state corporation, has occupied the west section of Place des Arts, another state corporation. The slender, concrete building, with an uninviting entrance, clashes with the highly aesthetic functions of the establishment, which also offers relatively little exhibition space.
The first four construction contracts were signed in mid-December and cover the demolition of part of the current building in two phases, the creation of the formwork for the new structure, the structural reinforcement of the old one and the supply of steel beams. The SQI website then published six other calls for tenders for plumbing, electricity, ventilation, etc. The very first contractor, Démolition et excavation Démex, of Chicoutimi, will carry out the demolition work for a little less than $4 million. A defeated competitor bet on a proposal exceeding this amount by 50%.
The budget is exploding
The SQI and the museum management refused last week to provide more details on the real estate file. One thing is certain, budgets have exploded in a few years. Estimated at 51 million at its launch in April 2018, the envelope increased to 57 million in 2021, then to 85.3 million in 2022 and to 116 million in June 2023. It remains to be seen whether this projection will hold: a tiny minority of real estate projects respect the initial budget forecasts.
The architectural competition for the renovation was won by the firms Saucier+Perrotte Architectes and GLCRM Architectes. A calculation of The Press carried out according to the plans revealed last fall that the expansion would only increase the surface area of the exhibition rooms by 28%, an argument that nevertheless supports the project. The Minister of Culture, Mathieu Lacombe, and the director of the MAC, John Zeppetelli, affirmed that the size of the exhibition spaces would double in the new museum.
The prolonged closure of the establishment caused a lot of discontent in the visual arts community. Mr. Zeppetelli, who serves as combined director general and chief curator, announced just before Christmas that he would step down in 2024. He has led the MAC for ten years, three of which have been outside the walls.