Montreal will recommend the demolition of the Verdun Natatorium pavilion, a heritage building which suffers from critical structural problems, we have learned The Press.
The mayor of the borough, Marie-Andrée Mauger, will make the announcement next week during a public meeting called to announce “an action plan and a scenario” for the building. Citizens will then be told that demolition is inevitable and that the City is working on a replacement project.
The Verdun Natatorium was inaugurated in 1940 and was then the largest outdoor swimming pool in Canada. Several generations of Montrealers have childhood memories linked to these places. The Art Deco pavilion was built at the same time as the Verdun Auditorium.
In 2017, work was begun on the building by the City of Montreal, in order to make it accessible to swimmers with reduced mobility. However, the work was quickly stopped the same year: worrying cracks were discovered in the concrete structure, particularly in the changing rooms and in the ceiling of the ground floor. Supports had to be installed.
The building has since been closed.
In interview with The Press On Thursday, district mayor Marie-Andrée Mauger did not want to confirm that the Natatorium would be destroyed. “I would say that there are some files in Verdun which are difficult and this one is among the difficult files,” she still let it go.
The official announcement will not come before next Tuesday, she stressed.
“It’s really an anticipated evening among the population. We have been wondering for several years what is happening with the bathers’ pavilion at the Natatorium and I know that the whole community is very attached to this place,” she continued. “It’s an emblematic place for which we have a great attachment. I know this is a sensitive subject. »
The opposition is getting organized
The announcement of the demolition has not yet been made and opponents are already stepping up to the plate. Jean-François Parenteau, the predecessor of Mme Mauger has already announced that he intends to fight “tooth and nail” against this possibility.
“We cannot afford, in any way, to destroy a heritage building. We have already lost a lot in Montreal,” he argued in an interview with The Press. “We’re going to the Moon, you won’t come and tell me that we can’t change a concrete beam. »
PHOTO DOMINICK GRAVEL, THE PRESS
Aerial view of the Verdun Natatorium, which has been closed to the population since 2017
“We proved it with the Auditorium [de Verdun], that we are capable of preserving heritage. Yes, there are costs related to that. But it is a legacy for the future,” he continued.
Héritage Montréal requested that heritage experts from the City of Montreal be involved in the matter.
“There is an issue of degradation of the original concrete,” said Dinu Bumbaru, program director. “This is not the first case of its kind. [Un autre bâtiment du centre-ville] had problems with old concrete which were overcome without destroying everything. »