“Here, it was a contaminated wasteland with tracks railways and containers,” says Christian Yaccarini.
A public square, condos, restaurants and businesses: should we believe it? “Above all, it was necessary to want”, nuances the one who is considered as the prime contractor for the revitalization of the Technopôle Angus, which we celebrate on the 25the birthday.
Transforming a former industrial wasteland into a living environment was easier to dream of than to make a reality. “At the beginning of the 1990s, it was a disaster in the east of Montreal. The factories were closing,” says the president and CEO of the Angus Development Corporation.
At the time, Christian Yaccarini worked at the Community Economic Development Corporation (CDEC) of Rosemont–Petite-Patrie. “In September 1991, we learned that the Angus Shops were closing,” he recalls.
PHOTO PROVIDED BY CANADIAN PACIFIC RAILWAYS
The Angus Workshops of the Canadian Pacific, in 1940
The Angus Workshops were built between 1902 and 1904 near the railway of its owner, the Canadian Pacific. Thousands of workers worked there and gave birth to the Rosemont district.
When the CP stopped producing railway equipment there, it considered making high-end residences. “With 20% unemployment in the neighborhood, it’s not what we needed. We needed jobs,” says Mr. Yaccarini.
PHOTO DOMINICK GRAVEL, THE PRESS
Christian Yaccarini
With a view to economic recovery, the CDEC then had the idea “a little crazy at the time” of acquiring the land. We skipped steps, but the CP ended up selling the land to the CDEC which created the Société de développement Angus (SDA).
At the time, specialized industrial parks were in vogue. But for the SDA board of directors, it was not necessary to follow suit. “When you specialize in a sector and there is a crisis, you eat a blow,” illustrates Mr. Yaccarini, recalling the bankruptcy of Nortel Networks.
“A multi-sectoral approach”
The SDA has adopted a “multi-sectoral approach” with Quebec SMEs rather than multinationals “with a business owner who works on site”.
Companies like Alto Design, PMT, Effigis, Octasic and lg2 have taken up residence in the Technopôle Angus. The SDA then developed the urban character of the area by attracting restaurants and businesses.
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PHOTO DOMINICK GRAVEL, THE PRESS
When couple Marc-André Jetté and Mila Rishkova opened the Hoogan et Beaufort restaurant, they made Angus a destination. They also recently opened the Annette wine bar, in the same building as the LG2 agency.
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PHOTO MARTIN CHAMBERLAND, THE PRESS
Place Léopold-Beaulieu
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PHOTO MARTIN CHAMBERLAND, THE PRESS
The terraces of Place Léopold-Beaulieu
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If you want to create a living environment, you need a public square and traders.
Christian Yaccarini
Today, hundreds of residents also live in the Technopôle Angus, whose social utility trust – which served as a model in Quebec – protects land and rents from real estate speculation.
It was not initially planned for the SDA to get into the residential sector, but it was a way of exchanging heat with office buildings and creating affordable housing for families unable to buy in Rosemont. . “With a lot of three bedrooms,” adds Christian Yaccarini.
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PHOTO MARTIN CHAMBERLAND, THE PRESS
Cité-Angus 2 is designed around a monumental helical staircase.
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PHOTO MARTIN CHAMBERLAND, THE PRESS
The interior courtyard of Cité Angus 1. “Pleasant density,” says Christian Yaccarini.
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PHOTO MARTIN CHAMBERLAND, THE PRESS
We can see the construction of a pedestrian thoroughfare and an urban wooded area from which rainwater will be collected. Social and rental housing projects are also under construction.
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PHOTO DOMINICK GRAVEL, THE PRESS
Locoshop Angus has been awarded the title of the first green industrial building in Canada.
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The modern buildings of the LEED-certified Technopôle Angus mingle with that of the Locoshop Angus, whose original structures recall the industrial traces of the past.
Buildings like that are turned into museums. We couldn’t have developed this project on anonymous land without a story.
Christian Yaccarini
It was even necessary to highlight the history of Shops Angus, argues Mr. Yaccarini. “Over 90 years, it is estimated that 120,000 people worked there. There is an attachment of the population to its past. »
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PHOTO DOMINICK GRAVEL, THE PRESS
The Technopôle Angus and Art Souterrain want to create a major annual meeting of contemporary art on ecological issues and options. Artist Loren Williams has reproduced plants that grew in the 19th century on sidewalks.e century on the grounds of the Technopôle. They reveal themselves when the asphalt is wet.
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PHOTO DOMINICK GRAVEL, THE PRESS
The artist Patrick Bérubé offers a work inspired by the “revolutionary” republican calendar created after the French Revolution to free itself from the monarchy and religion. “Each day is associated with an element of nature or agriculture,” he explains. It’s the idea of slowing down and following nature. »
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PHOTO DOMINICK GRAVEL, THE PRESS
The works are exhibited until September 24 in different key locations of the Technopôle: all around the Locoshop, inside and in front of the Bernard-Lamarre building as well as at Place Léopold-Beaulieu. Here, we can see (in montage) the installation of the artist Annie-France Leclerc taken from her exhibition Beyond the forest is a garden.
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PHOTO DOMINICK GRAVEL, THE PRESS
Annie-France Leclerc wonders about biodiversity and the fate reserved for what we call weeds (originally through her special relationship with the Boisé-de-Saint-Sulpice park). She used so-called invasive species (staghorn sumac, goldenrod) to dye the fabrics of her installation.
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Shops, parks, businesses, even clinics… What’s missing? A cultural offer, hence the current exhibition Angus meetingsin collaboration with Art Souterrain, whose theme is Take root, take root. A civic celebration is also planned for September 14 for the 25e birthday party with street food and music from the Winston Band.
“The history of the Angus factories could have ended in 1992,” argues Christian Yaccarini. But she continues. »