Last week, the mayor of Montreal presented the first features of the Mount Royal revitalization project for 2027. It is a glimmer of hope for this majestic park disfigured for too long by the inopportune presence of the Camillien-Houde Way.
Safety is not the only justification behind this initiative, it is also the end of an urban anomaly: that of a transit route in the middle of a park.
The creator of Mount Royal Park, landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted, considered nature as a balm, an antidote to the tumults of urbanization and industrialization. Moreover, the latter had given instructions so that the ascent of the park should be done slowly. For him, each walk should open up to a slow meditation: an ode to the harmonious interaction between man and nature.
However, Mayor Drapeau has traced a route through this natural haven. His modernist vision blurred Olmsted’s initial vision. The renewal proposed by the City seeks to rectify a past blunder, to restore the park to its former essence, thus allowing walkers to freely explore its paths. Let’s already imagine this pedestrian and cycle loop through this unique green space. It is a symbolic act of returning the park to its true inhabitants: humans. I say bravo!
At a time when we are becoming daily aware of the deleterious effects of global warming, any similar gesture in cities becomes saving for humans. Promoting adaptation implies that we must create natural environments more conducive to providing respite to living beings. We return to the founding principles that guided Olmsted in his creation: nature as a therapeutic factor for humans.
It is astonishing to realize how the urbanization of the last century has often eclipsed the human essence in its design. Today, a gesture as simple as giving a park back to the population is seen as revolutionary, and even radical for some. But what is truly radical is shaping cities that seem indifferent to their residents. Fortunately, humans are once again at the heart of all land use planning concerns.
This new orientation evokes a return to the primacy of urban planners and urban landscape artisans. It was time to give these city professionals the keys to urban planning to allow them to shape our space. Their invaluable expertise will be able to guide us through climate challenges by giving back to the city its heart and soul, but above all a capacity for adaptation necessary to maintain the quality of life of city dwellers.
At the junction of the 19the and XXe centuries, these experts were at the heart of urban construction. However, with the rise of the automobile, their influence declined. The aesthetics of our cities have faded to give way to the gray paradise of asphalt roads. For a hundred years, the splendor of landscape and architecture has been neglected, distancing us from the simple beauty that nature can offer to soothe us from urban stress.
Basically, this is what the announcement of the transformation of Mount Royal Park is about. Words are important. It’s not just a street closure, as some like to claim. It is an act of human reappropriation of a space which should never have been distorted by his creative gesture. Thanks to their talent, urban planners, landscape architects and engineers will recreate a place of essential calm for human beings. There is no price for expertise serving the common good like this.
Ironically, while we are rediscovering the value of these professionals, Quebec had to lose one of its most illustrious landscape architects, Claude Cormier. I had the privilege of meeting him on a few occasions. I remember the passion that pushed him to transform urban grayness into a living painting. In his eyes, every street corner had artistic potential, was an opportunity to merge nature and the urban. His lively and creative mind knew how to transport us to the heart of a unique art and design that has transformed our urban landscapes.
For Cormier, the city was not just a mass of buildings, it was a work of perpetual evolution. From this vision, we must learn lessons to build the cities of tomorrow. Because beyond technical challenges, such as water management or mobility, urban aesthetics also matter when it comes to daily well-being.
Cormier had made this mission his priority, and his imprint can be seen in many spaces. Let us be inspired by his genius and pave the way for the next generation of creators, eager to make our cities more human, as we will soon see appear on Mount Royal.
To Claude Cormier, master of urban beauty and artisan of the sublime, thank you for everything!
CEO of the Institute of Resilience and Urban Innovation, professor and associate researcher, François William Croteau was mayor of Rosemont–La Petite-Patrie.