Bringing Quebec farm produce and sustainable development to downtown Montreal

The Marché Voyageur.Cité Maraîchère Project is dedicated to creating an inclusive and sustainable development public market for local farm produce in downtown Montreal. The project presented at last year’s Je Vois Montréal event has now evolved into a full fledged community project for the revocation of the îlot Voyageur south lot and its abandoned coach terminal building. Transforming this civic asset into a cultural and commercial public space is what will fix once and for all this urban management quagmire.

Abandoned Civic Assets

The Voyageur coach terminal building and its lot are currently abandoned. The building, still connected to the Berri-UQÀM metro station as well as to the new coach terminal just north, is still opened to transit users. From the Berri-UQÀM station many other important institutions are linked, the UQÀM University campus’ main building, the National library and Archives of Quebec, the Place Émilie-Gamelin and the Place Dupuis. The abandoned Voyageur coach terminal building is an important link of the Montreal underground network. Hence it is still significantly transited, despite its dusty, sketchy and empty corridors. In our estimation, between fifteen and twenty thousand people transit through the abandoned terminal weekly making it one of North-America’s busiest abandoned buildings.

A thoughtless project from the PQ

We think this square’s natural civic asset is being a public transit hub. The previous government of Quebec project to erect an administrative tower with 246,000,000$ of public money disregards this urban function. The Liberal administration has inherited this project dossier from the Marois government after its electoral defeat. The revenu québec office tower project is stalled for reasons unknown. The current public debt and austerity politics may have something to do with this. The heavily transited square, its central location and the district’s needs should be the most important denominators considered to determine what we will do with this square. The new CHUM super hospital will bring an extra 15 000 people daily in the Quartier Latin in 2016. Without an enhanced cultural and commercial offer, this central square of downtown Montreal will remain the benign tumour it has become. Montrealers who know this square also know the dynamic it is presently experiencing ; casting more shadow on an already shadowy square isn’t a sustainable project. To us, and to everyone we have involved in this project, the money Quebec wants to sink into their tower project makes no sens in the short, medium or long terme. There is a tremendous potential in the îlot Voyageur, an opportunity for something special, for another Quartier des Spectacles type venture in urban design and asset management, but with a slightly different marketing niche. The Marché Public Voyageur.Cité Maraîchère Project is a sustainable urban development project wrapped around a strong environmentally driven community oriented plan with a permanent social reinsertion program and human scale commercial activities. Like other successful central districts of Montreal, the Quartier Latin should be more liveable. The obvious analogy is the success of the Atwater market district. The Marché Voyageur Project adresses several downtown Montreal issues. The current architectural design of the îlot Voyageur south and its infrastructures suit our concept very well. More over, it would be the only public market directly accessible from the metro, on three lines.

An Urban Agricultural Green Roof

The masterpiece of the project is the proposed University led urban farming green roof with its iconique rain water collector tower. In the middle of the city, this unique attraction with regular events would become a reason to stick around for transiting Montrealers and a reason to visit for tourists. The real estate boom of the adjacent Quartier des Spectacle alone justifies this economic model for the îlot Voyageur south and its abandoned bus terminal. The marketing model for the Public Market is obvious to us because of the surrounding booming districts. The residential density and the busy institutions sitting on the same street corner is what creates this massive presence of people around the îlot. Yet no one sticks around because there are no reasons to… Our JeVoisMtl project was presented last fall during the Place-des-Arts event. Our proposition was put forward for five simple reasons: 1 — the building and its interior court are in a recoverable state and are perfectly designed to receive such a cultural & commercial hub. 2 — This area of downtown is largely under-serviced in regards to trendy and popular urban services. 3 — the square has notorious street problems that need to be addressed. 4 — It is extremely busy and will get busier with the opening of the CHUM mega hospital in 2016. 5 — We want to contribute to Montreal’s green revolution and this place is the city’s best opportunity to revoque civic assets as a contribution to the immediate future.

The Quebec Farm in Downtown Montreal

We want to bring Quebec farm produce to downtown in what would be the only sustainable development public market in quebec. We also think it can be the perfect laboratory for green technology development and for inclusive socio-economic re-insertion programs. The center of the city deserves intelligent, sustainable and attractive action that can create more economic development, not a static function with no perspective of commercial and cultural development. Who wants to sink a quarter of a billion dollars in a project that will lead to no economic and quality of life improvements ? Downtown Montreal needs culture, events, healthy foods and green paths, not civil servant office towers — we are not Ottawa or Quebec City — suburban civil servants heading to their suburbs at five o’clock will not create wealth and jobs in the Quartier Latin.

Solid buildings ready for re-qualification

The terminal building’s interior court is perfectly suited for the vocation we want to give to this urban lot. It connects to beautiful Saint-Hubert Street in two places through vehicle entrances. The orientation of these entrances and the L shaped building creates a somewhat receded court. This would be the public space for events and it can comfortably accommodate 4000 people. These crowds can access the court from the inside and from the Saint-Hubert Street entrances. We think these entrances can be redesigned into a pedestrian style urban paths. Either way, people will need to pass by Saint-Hubert Street when accessing form outside or when fanning out into the city after their visit. And that is where this idea makes sens for Montreal. The market will serve as a tool to recreate Saint-Hubert Street between De Maisonneuve and Ontario and to change for the better the dynamic in this sector. Why not make that stretch a pedestrian street… Beautiful Saint-Hubert Street of the latin quarter is largely under-performing and we think the stretch between De Maisonneuve and Ontario will be revived in the spin off of our project. To attract merchants and residents we need to enhance the commercial and cultural offer. To fight street problems we need to make this new dream accessible to everyone with a solid social re-insertion program. To create excitement and a new sustainable urban design attraction we need to stop talking and start doing. Our project proposes to do so right away in this available and revocable civic asset. Our objective is to convince Montreal and Quebec that our urban development strategy is best long terme for this troubled Place Émilie-Gamelin district. We want Quebec to hand out the keys to the abandoned terminal building and let the community create the non-profit organism that will lay the foundation to getting this project completed.

An Open Source Project

Any institution or private company wanting to partner with us in this initiative or wanting to voice their approval can do so by contacting us through our project web site. The more the community comes together on this the more chances we have to get this done in time to avoid the terrible mistakes that could come with bad decisions in urban design. Don’t let this downtown Montreal Square to just anything, voice your opinion on our project’s Facebook page and through our online surveys #one and #two.

Text and photos : FI3200/ the startup responsible for this #jefaismtl initiative — all rights reserved/2015