Montreal will give the first green light to the construction of a Hydro-Québec transformer station in the heart of the Latin Quarter, in exchange for commitments regarding the quality of the building.
The state corporation promised the City of Montreal to launch an architectural competition and to minimize the size of its technical building, planned just north of the Grande Bibliothèque. It is currently a park and a large grassy area, corner of Berri and Ontario.
“We want a building that fits well into the urban landscape,” explained Maxime Huard-Lefebvre, spokesperson for Hydro-Québec, in an interview with The Press. An architectural competition is “a way of confirming the ambition we want to demonstrate in the project”.
The City of Montreal held an easement on the land. Next week, the municipal council will be asked to vote in favor of selling it to Hydro-Québec in return for commitments explained in a letter from CEO Michael Sabia to Mayor Valérie Plante.
In addition to the architectural competition, Hydro-Québec undertakes to “reduce as much as possible the footprint of the future station in order to protect the developed park as much as possible”.
The state company assures that the construction of a new 315,000 volt transformer station is necessary due to the obsolescence of the Berri station, a brutalist building located on the coast of the same name.
“There are electrical needs”
The Plante administration said it was satisfied with the guarantees offered by Hydro-Québec.
“Our ambition is to be as ambitious as possible and to minimize the impact on the developed park,” indicated the elected official responsible for urban planning within the Plante administration, Robert Beaudry, in a telephone interview. .
Mr. Beaudry affirmed that Montreal recognized the need for a city to accommodate technical buildings like this. “We see that there are electrical needs in this sector,” he said. “But it has to be to the detriment of the quality of life and the experience when you arrive directly in the Latin Quarter. »
The idea of installing a technical building in this location attracted the wrath of the mother of the Grande Bibliothèque, Lise Bissonnette. “I understand the energy transition, but it’s cruel,” she told Montreal Journal. “We are at the heart of culture, we are next to UQAM, we are in the old Latin Quarter… And we decide that on such precious land, so extraordinarily located, we will simply do [un poste électrique technique]. »
Hydro-Québec has already indicated that “it is not with joy of heart” that it is planning a position in this location. “As we speak, there are no other credible land options to build this project,” said Maxime Huard Lefebvre.