Montreal’s new Insectarium is racking up architectural awards and environmental certifications, but its gorgeous glass walls are overheating its occupants big and small, has learned The Press.
What there is to know
- The new Montréal Insectarium, in the form of a greenhouse, was inaugurated in 2022.
- Its glazed walls create a significant heat management problem.
- Over $200,000 has had to be invested to date to address the problem.
- The entrepreneur and the professionals are claiming nearly 9 million in extras.
While the building was inaugurated last year, workers complain of suffocating heat in certain sectors and the institution must inject hundreds of thousands of dollars to try to bring down the temperature.
“When the outside temperature is above 28 ℃, the production and quarantine greenhouses are overheated,” officials said in bidding documents. “With the positioning of the sun, the interior temperatures felt […] rise very quickly. »
The Montreal Insectarium is part of Space for Life, the museum complex that also includes the Biodôme and the Botanical Garden, and belongs to the City of Montreal.
“The Insectarium is too hot to work and visit. This is not tolerable,” lamented Jean-Pierre Lauzon, president of the Montreal blue-collar union, which has several members working in this building.
When it’s too hot, you get dehydrated. We could no longer work inside, the employees complained of the heat.
Jean-Pierre Lauzon, president of the Montreal blue-collar union
The Commission for Standards, Equity, Health and Safety at Work (CNESST) has opened a file on the situation.
“There are also citizens who have complained about the heat,” added the trade unionist.
PHOTO HUGO-SÉBASTIEN AUBERT, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
Installations of the Insectarium where butterflies are found in freedom
Air conditioning units and films
The building, in the shape of a greenhouse, nevertheless received the prestigious ecological certification LEED Gold last week, which underlined “the optimization of natural ventilation in greenhouses” and its “many energy-efficient characteristics”. Last spring, the project also won the Grand Prize for Excellence from the Order of Architects.
But the splendid building is now adorned with accessories that were not planned in the architects’ plans: large air conditioning units have been rented and installed for the summer season, as was the case last summer.
PHOTO HUGO-SÉBASTIEN AUBERT, THE PRESS
Large air conditioning units have been rented and installed for the summer season, as was the case last summer.
A specialized firm has been commissioned to find a long-term solution.
Films will also be placed on some of the windows in order to “reduce the impact of heat by 45% in the production and quarantine greenhouses”, said spokesperson Anne Bourgoin. “The whole thing will add more comfort and better circulation of fresh air and will better meet LEED Canada standards. »
Total cost, so far: $214,000.
“Poor management on site”
The new Insectarium project was chosen in 2014 following an international architectural competition. The consortium formed by the Berlin architect Kuehn Malvezzi as well as the Quebec firms Pelletier De Fontenay and Jodoin Lamarre Pratte was selected.
Nicolas Ranger, architect in the latter office, underlined in an interview with The Press that the City of Montreal had been kept informed of the progress of the project “at every stage” and that it had not requested air conditioning in the production sector.
The Insectarium design team is well aware of the heat issue and is actively working to address it, the architect added.
The inauguration of the Insectarium took place in 2022, rather than in 2019 as initially planned. The project went from a budget of 23 million in 2015 to almost 29 million in 2017, then to 36 million in 2019, then again to 38 million when it was inaugurated last year.
And this may not be the end of this vertiginous inflation. In another tender document, municipal officials reveal having received “a request for additional professional fees” for $585,000, as well as a “request for compensation from the general contractor” in the amount of $8.1 million.
“The Insectarium construction site suffered delays extending the construction site by an additional year due to COVID-19, interdisciplinary coordination, the issuance of numerous directives and poor management on the construction site,” explain the officials.
This information was made public because the City of Montreal entrusted a specialized firm with the mandate to evaluate all these requests for additional payments. It will cost him $70,000.