The building located at 2050, rue Stanley, whose possible demolition is announced in the article published in the Economy section of the To have to, on June 9, is an integral part of the Maison-Alcan project designed by Arcop at the turn of the 1970s and all the elements of which are classified under the Cultural Heritage Act, with the exception of the first. This case reminds me of the Domaine-de-L’Estérel shopping center.
The fact that 2050 Stanley Street belongs to the Maison-Alcan project is evident in the architectural design of the building, identical to that of the Davis building, erected in the early 1980s behind the old buildings preserved on Sherbrooke Street: same aluminum curtain wall and treatment of the ground floor facing the street, similar to the base of the venerable Lord-Atholsan House which stands further on, at the corner of Sherbrooke Street. 2050 Stanley Street was built for the Salvation Army, owner of the former Emmanuel Congregational Church, neighboring and located on Drummond Street, as part of a land exchange.
Since 2017, Maison-Alcan has been protected on three levels, as a classified heritage building, to which a protection area is attached, and as a classified heritage site of the Complexe-de-La-Maison-Alcan.
In fact, the listed building corresponds only to the former head office of Alcan consisting of six buildings, while the architects’ project included a seventh, the new building of the Salvation Army, as well as the garden crossing , between Stanley and Drummond streets, built around the former Emmanuel Congregational Church. These last two elements are added to the Maison-Alcan to constitute the heritage site.
Why bring this file closer to that of the Domaine-de-l’Estérel shopping center? Here, again, the architectural project carried out is not completely classified, but covered by a protected area, and the promoters have little regard for the heritage.
It is not easy for a citizen to imagine the influence of protected areas and the elements it includes; these are not specified in the Répertoire du patrimoine culturel du Québec. The Heritage Site and Maison-Alcan Conservation Plan tells us that the protected area covers the entire block bounded by Sherbrooke Street West, Stanley and Drummond Street and De Maisonneuve Boulevard West.
2050, rue Stanley is not only in the protected area of Maison-Alcan, but also in those of two other listed buildings, the Mount Royal Club and the Mount Stephen.
Moreover, 2050 Stanley Street is not beyond the control of the State. The Minister has the right to oversee major interventions in protected areas, such as demolitions and new constructions. The Law grants it such power in order to “promote” the preservation of the heritage value of the listed buildings to which they are attached.
The heritage value of Maison-Alcan is historical and architectural. Its construction as the head office of Alcan marks a turning point in the design of architecture: no more clean slate, in favor of a reconstruction of the city that respects its old texture and its heritage. Doesn’t replacing 2050 Stanley Street with a 40-storey tower betray this value?