Future Contemporary Phi in Old Montreal | A Berlin-Montreal signature

It is the Berlin architects Kuehn Malvezzi associated with the Montreal agency Pelletier de Fontenay who will sign the architectural design of Phi Contemporain, the new setting of the Phi Foundation which will be built between 2023 and 2026, at the intersection of Saint-Paul and Good help. The Press visited the venue this week with Phi Founder and Chief Creative Officer, Phoebe Greenberg.

Eric Clement
The Press

The Phi Contemporain project presented quite a challenge to the 64 candidate architecture firms. They had to take into account the historical status of the district, the fact that rue Bonsecours is on a slope and that the transformation will affect several buildings at the same time. The last five firms selected, whose models had been publicly presented on April 26, had accommodated these constraints.

Phoebe Greenberg was delighted with the quality of the proposals from the firms Adjaye Associates, Bruther, Dorte Mandrup, Kuehn Malvezzi+Pelletier de Fontenay and Office Kersten Geers David Van Severen.

But we had to choose and the Berlin-Quebec consortium stood out. Phoebe Greenberg liked her circulation plan which will allow visitors to discover works from her collection during their visit. “I’m delighted,” she said. The competition responds very well to the established constraints. The chosen project is very elegant, with a public space on the roof. It’s fantastic. »

The model is not the final construction plan. A technical team weighed the project. Variations may occur. “But the feasibility of the project is solid,” says Phoebe Greenberg.

The Press visited, on Wednesday, the site that will host Phi Contemporain. The space includes the Maison Pierre-du-Calvet (which dates from 1725) and the Maison Louis-Viger where the first mayor of Montreal, Jacques Viger, lived. Heritage sites imbued with a New France style with tapestries, large fireplaces, traditional chandeliers and 43 small-paned windows!

The area that will accommodate new functions is immense. There are even rooms under rue Saint-Paul! A potential of 3600 m² will allow Phi to set up all of its activities on several levels (except for the Phi Centre, which will remain in operation at 407, rue Saint-Pierre). The passage from one building to another gives the impression of a labyrinth.

“That’s why the architectural competition was robust because the site is complicated,” says M^me Greenberg. Precious spaces will be preserved and others, less significant, transformed. This dynamic of a contemporary institution anchored in the past fascinates me because it is a transformation towards the future, a lasting gesture that also tells the story. »

We walk in places where history was written. As early as 1692, Marie Brazeau, considered one of the first Quebec feminists, lived there. But the “turbulent” woman had to give up her wooden house to her brother Nicolas who transformed it into stones. “When I see that Marie Brazeau lived here, I feel welcome! says Phoebe Greenberg.

The original stone walls are splendid. Other more recent structures have less cachet, such as the facade of the building located between the Maison Pierre-du-Calvet and the Maison Louis-Viger. The history of the places was examined within the framework of a study carried out by the firms Kubanek Architecte and ERA Architects and which helps to understand what must be preserved and what is of little value.

We then cross a room in the Maison Louis-Viger, for a time occupied by the writer Réjean Ducharme. From the windows, you can see, on the other side of the street, the apartment of Phyllis Lambert, founder of the Canadian Center for Architecture and great protector of heritage. “She asked that the tree located near the Maison Louis-Viger not be cut down,” says Phoebe Greenberg. We will see ! Note that the Kuehn Malvezzi+Pelletier de Fontenay model includes trees. M^me Lambert could be satisfied.

This real estate and cultural project will exceed 100 million, given the recent increase in construction costs. But also because this amount includes the funds for the activities of the first years of Phi Contemporain, as well as the investment necessary to acquire (10 million) and restore (60 million) the existing buildings.

Work will begin this summer. “Interventions will be done on the retaining walls, says Éric Albert, CEO of Phi. And archaeological excavations will take place at the level of the parking lot. A micro-site will be created by Phi in a few months to allow the public to follow the progress of the works from July 2023 and to consult photos of the places before their transformation.

For Phoebe Greenberg, it is important to pay tribute to these places that will be transformed. When she had the building at 407 rue Saint-Pierre renovated between 2009 and 2012 to create the Phi Centre, she had the idea of ​​inviting the filmmaker Denis Villeneuve to create a work there. This was the short film NextFloor. Same thing at the Foundation (rue Saint-Jean) where images had been shot.

In addition to documenting this block of Faubourg Bonsecours where a new page in local history will open, Phi will celebrate it from September 19 until January 2023, in partnership with the City of Montreal, with an animation of these old houses by means of light projections outside but also inside. An illumination on the theme of bird life.

Phobe Greenberg is thrilled by this project which means a lot to her because she has a lot of ambition with Phi Contemporain. “It’s a clear, contemporary model that will take our exhibits around the world,” she says. We will make international partnerships with institutions and people with the same kind of vision. Today, I believe that this gesture of creation of Phi Contemporain is very important because we must, more than ever, have a look whose gateway is art. It is crucial. »