A vast mixed real estate project is under construction in Pointe-Saint-Charles on former CN land. Ultimately, there will be 900 apartments, with social housing and a housing cooperative, but also green spaces, a public square and even the first “blue-green” alley in Quebec with ecological rainwater management.
The people who take up residence there will be lucky; in addition to being next to Building 7, they owe one to the collective behind the creation of the community space where you can have a beer, repair your bike, visit a farm, but also make pottery or welding.
Building 7 is above all a place that symbolizes the strength of citizen power in a neighborhood which, like so many others, has become gentrified. “Building 7 has created a place of life and exchange in the neighborhood. Cohesion too,” praises Jocelyne Bernier while she is at the checkout at the local grocery store. Le Détour, non-profit, managed by members and volunteers.
PHOTO DOMINICK GRAVEL, THE PRESS
Jocelyne Bernier has lived in Pointe-Saint-Charles for 45 years. She is involved in the Development Corporation which brings together community organizations in the neighborhood.
Next to the grocery store is the microbrewery Les sans-taverne, where author Anna Kruzynski recently launched Neighborhood in strugglea book where she looks back on the two decades of “social struggle” in Pointe-Saint-Charles which led to the creation of Building 7.
“Struggle” is a word that we will often hear during our visit to the site in the company of Caroline Monast-Landriault, responsible for external communications for Collectif 7 à nous, born almost 15 years ago. “I joined the project in 2016. The fight had started a good decade ago,” she emphasizes.
Building 7 occupies land which belonged to CN and which was leased until 2003 by the transport multinational Alstom. In June 2005, Loto-Québec considered moving the Montreal Casino there in collaboration with Cirque du Soleil. After much citizen mobilization, the project was aborted and a symbolic flag was planted in the hope that at least a small part of the former CN land could not be privatized. After all, the former industrial zone represented a third of the area of the district affectionately nicknamed “La Pointe”.
We are skipping steps – particularly regarding negotiations with the Mach Group – but it was in 2009 that Collectif 7 à nous was born, which led a major popular development operation to transform 7e of the 13 buildings annotated on the ground in one self-managed social center.
PHOTO DOMINICK GRAVEL, THE PRESS
“In the southern part of the neighborhood, before Building 7, there was no restaurant or grocery store. We wanted to create a place where you can meet people and go have a drink,” explains Caroline Monast-Landriault.
[C’est] a mixture of citizens, community people, anarchists, libertarians, people for the preservation of heritage.
Caroline Monast-Landriault, head of external communications for Collectif 7 à nous
Judith Cayer was at the heart of “the struggle”. A struggle that bore fruit with a place that is part of his daily life and that of his children. “I was 26 years old. I am 42. This project has been my life […] There’s dignity and pride in that, she says. It’s a collective pride, something that unites us and that inhabits our lives and our families… It’s strong. »
PHOTO FRANÇOIS ROY, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
Judith Cayer has lived in Pointe-Saint-Charles for 22 years and has had to move five times. “Now, I have the chance to be in a cooperative, but I have experienced it very closely, the transformation of the neighborhood,” she says.
Last Wednesday, the book launch Neighborhood in struggle allowed us to take a step back from all the progress we have made. “We felt it in people, the idea that “wow, it exists”. »
Factory of collective autonomy
PHOTO DOMINICK GRAVEL, THE PRESS
Collectif 7 à nous won another fight recently: preventing the construction of a line of condos 12 meters from its facade. There will be a blue-green alley instead, near the farmhouse seen in this photo.
It took years and endless “we’re almost there” before Collectif 7 à nous was able to take over the premises, renovate them and open them to the public in 2018.
In the collaborative workshops of Building 7, artists, cyclists, photographers, etc. come together in a DIY spirit.
We call ourselves a factory of collective autonomy to become more autonomous and free ourselves from the need to always need to buy.
Caroline Monast-Landriault, head of external communications for Collectif 7 à nous
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PHOTO DOMINICK GRAVEL, THE PRESS
A trained photographer, Guillaume Simoneau followed training at Atelier La Coulée because he wanted to perfect his knowledge in making bronze or aluminum sculpture. “When I knew that this foundry was accessible unlike that of Concordia, because I was not studying there, I jumped at the opportunity and it was an extraordinary experience. »
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PHOTO DOMINICK GRAVEL, THE PRESS
Éric Saindon describes himself as “an artisan in residence”. Also educational, he praises the inclusive vocation of the foundry. “Steel professions are not accessible to everyone. »
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PHOTO DOMINICK GRAVEL, THE PRESS
In the ceramic workshop, artist Kellyann Marie works quietly.
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PHOTO DOMINICK GRAVEL, THE PRESS
The painting workshop
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PHOTO DOMINICK GRAVEL, THE PRESS
The arcade where young people go while their parents have a beer at the Les sans-taverne microbrewery.
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PHOTO DOMINICK GRAVEL, THE PRESS
The bike workshop
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PHOTO DOMINICK GRAVEL, THE PRESS
The Le Détour grocery store will be expanded in the second phase of Building 7.
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PHOTO DOMINICK GRAVEL, THE PRESS
“Having known that it was just $15 an hour, I would have come long before to work under my truck,” says Luc, busy in the mechanical workshop.
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Upstairs, there is a photo studio, a digital printing workshop and a youth arcade managed by Press Start Coop. But the most impressive is undoubtedly the Atelier La Coulée, where you can work metal and where there is a foundry.
PHOTO DOMINICK GRAVEL, THE PRESS
A second phase of development is planned.
However, only part of the old industrial building has been used so far. A second phase of development will allow the arrival of a daycare center, the Pointe-Saint-Charles art school and the Action Gardien development corporation, which brings together community organizations in the neighborhood.
To use the words of Judith Cayer, do you feel it, “the deep community fabric” that watches over Pointe-Saint-Charles?
A great opportunity to discover Building 7: the Lëon Market, which will take place on December 2 and 3.