The Radio-Canada Tower will be undressed … then dressed

We are talking about the transformation of the Radio-Canada site for twenty years. Either long enough not to believe it. But now the noise of the heavy machinery which demolishes the buildings around the large hexagonal brown tower finally suggests the beginning of work which will bring back into life.

Posted at 6:30 a.m.

The last time I sat down with Mach to discover the secrets of its future Enlightenment district, it was in early March 2020^⁠1. We didn’t know what was hanging on our nose. The world almost stopped a few days later. And Mach has not given much news, even when Radio-Canada employees have moved to their new glass building on Papineau avenue.

Obviously, the project is not dead in the egg as can see all those who go through the René-Lévesque boulevard these days. The demolition is going well. Trucks have also entered the famous studio 42, which will soon be nothing left, apart from memories ofHey boubouof Evening star and Fury.

Needless to say, to understand that the project of more than $ 1 billion has undergone some adjustments over time.

For Daniel Arbour, vice-president responsible for major Mach projects, he is “excessively modified because the pandemic has changed several rules in real estate”, in particular the interest in offices. In addition, the particular urban planning program (PPU) of the suburbs adopted in 2021 limited the height of future buildings.

But many elements have been kept, starting with the big public square, the vast underground parking lot, the spaces designed for large commercial areas, social housing, the park (sponge) and primary school. An “urban school” concept of 24 classes has been developed in collaboration with the City, to which the land was given, and the school service center. Only lacking in the confirmation of Quebec to pass drawings to construction.

“The condo market is zero”

More than 50 years after hundreds of families have been driven from the neighborhood, this school alone illustrates the desire to see children grow up at the foot of the Jacques-Cartier bridge. Mach believes that parents will find their footstelling in the house offer, all offered for rental “because the condo market, currently, is zero”.

In the first building that will be built, around 10 % of the units will have three rooms, says Daniel Arbour. “It is a lot for downtown Montreal, because you are targeting a clientele that is normal. I call it normal … It’s not a downtown clientele, singles live just in the city center during the week. »»

For the time being, let’s be frank, the neighborhood suffers from many ailments that do not make a dream place to raise its marmaille. I still hope that it changes one day, because the Enlightenment district is not the only project that will improve the corner.

If everything goes as planned, we will transform “the psychological barrier” that is avenue Viger into a urban boulevard. The project should improve the fluidity and the feeling of unity with another ambitious district which must, that one, replace the Molson brasserie ^⁠2. This Montoni project valued at $ 2 billion must include 5,000 dwellings.

As for the iconic 23-storey skyscraper that has seen all the artists and politicians from recent decades, it will remain at the heart of the redevelopment, of course.

“We will completely undress the tower,” explains Daniel Arbour. The only thing we keep is the structure that is built to undergo the third world war and we will dress it with the same architectural language. »»

The shade of the next coating will be paler, as its designers imagined, but the choice of material does not seem sunk in concrete. No more than its future use, moreover. All options remain on the table: housing, hotel, offices. The work will start in the summer of 2027, provides Mach, which gives it time to fix.

One thing is certain, immense spaces are planned for shops as large as Canadian Tires, a Walmart or a grocery store. Such areas of up to 100,000 pi^⁠2 There are not numerous in the city center, which seems, it seems, the retailers. “I would not say that we have a waiting list, but not far,” says the old real estate road. Many water will flow under the bridges by the opening of the doors, planned in 2030, that said. Small premises will welcome local shops.

Logistically, nobody really achieves the scale of the challenge. Because the old Radio-Canada building is “like an iceberg”, with two floors that come out of the ground and eight levels below. The demolition therefore gives way to a very deep hole, of about fifty feet, on which it will be necessary in particular to build the streets of the Gauchetière and Panet, which will cross the site. On each side of the accommodation buildings will be erected, the first from 2026, while the last one must be delivered in 2032. The management of Mach does not yet know who exactly built social housing. She could take care of it or give the ground to an organization.

According to the SCHL, it will be necessary to build 860,000 homes in Quebec to fill the demand, by 2030, which suggests that the Enlightenment district will meet a need. But to transform a wasteland into a neighborhood of life, it will take more than cranes and plans: it will take people to believe it.