With the arrival of good weather, it’s not just nature that is waking up. Last Monday, construction machinery began demolishing the Domaine-de-l’Estérel shopping center, one of the last vestiges of the luxurious and avant-garde resort complex built by Baron Édouard Empain between 1936 and 1938, in heart of the Laurentian forest.
In November 2012, the neighboring log inn went on fire, when it had just been sold to a real estate developer, along with the shopping center and its vast land bordering Lake Masson. Earlier in the year, the former Pointe-Bleue hotel, which had become a residential center for the elderly, had disappeared under the peak of the wreckers. Moreover, in the early 1960s, following the sale of the immense property of the Belgian baron to Quebec investors, the sports club erected on the shores of Lake Dupuis had been profoundly transformed to house the L’Estérel hotel.
Admittedly, the entire building cannot be demolished, its head being classified under the Cultural Heritage Act. Higher and rounded, it completes the lower part in the process of being razed, consisting of a large hall covered with one of the first concrete vaults in Quebec and surrounded by the alignment of shops. In 2014, the Minister of Culture did not consider it relevant to give this body of building the highest heritage status on the pretext that its aisles had been rebuilt following a fire. On the other hand, two of the interiors of the shopping center are protected: the Blue Room, the large restaurant dancing of the top floor, and the stairwell that leads to it, art deco spaces quite unique in Quebec.
More than thirty years of civic activism have failed to safeguard the Estérel estate. In 1987, the architect Philippe Lupien rediscovered this exceptional ensemble. His article in the journal Silo was followed by numerous enhancement initiatives led by the local historical society and Docomomo Québec, an association dedicated to the documentation and conservation of modern heritage.
In 2007, together with Action Patrimoine, they applied for classification. But the situation was profoundly changed when on the eve of the 2013 municipal elections, the City of Sainte-Marguerite-du-Lac-Masson, owner and occupant of the shopping center, decided to transfer the property to HBO Construction in order to make a recreational and hotel facility, a project that never saw the light of day. In 2021, the building, which has since been occupied, was bought by Olymbec.
By demolishing the rear, the new owner acts as of right, this part being protected only by the protection area attached to the classified one. Such a legal provision aims to ensure that any new construction within the right-of-way contributes to the enhancement of the heritage asset. We never understood why the entire building was not protected by the minister.
And we are not the only ones. The municipality of Sainte-Marguerite-du-Lac-Masson cited it in 2014, a measure that was contested by HBO Construction. Recently, in consultation with the community, Philippe Lupien took steps to have the Domaine-de-l’Estérel shopping center host the Espace bleu des Laurentides. We hope that the demolition in progress will not handicap this most promising project nor jeopardize the stability of the spur.