A student residence in a heritage building

A former Montreal concierge, destined for demolition peaks, has found a second vocation: it now serves as a residence for around sixty students. Its success prepares the way for other resurrections of the same kind.

Despite its rich Beaux-Arts-inspired architecture, this Shaughnessy Village apartment building – nicknamed the Concordia ghetto – did not look like much when architect Jean Pelland visited it for the first time in 2021. “housing was not optimal,” he sums up modestly about the place known at the time for its unsanitary conditions. Several fire outbreaks have required the intervention of firefighters over the years.

However, it is on this brown brick building that the real estate investment fund Canora has set its sights to launch into the student residence market. For what ?

“Because, in our eyes, this century-old building allowed us to combine the architectural heritage with the modernity of Montreal. It represented an opportunity for us to create a different brand, reflecting the image of our city,” explains its president, Charles Paiement, installed in the beautiful contemporary-style café set up in the lobby of the building renamed Le Within.

The challenge was significant, recognizes Jean Pelland, senior partner at Sid Lee Architecture.

The constraints were numerous, adds the architect. Starting with the location of the windows, very numerous on the front, but rarer on the sides and at the back. “You had to be able to put your eyes in front of the holes,” he illustrates. In the same vein, it was also necessary to deal with the existing load-bearing walls and stairwells.

“It was like playing Tetris to fit all the blocks into a box,” confides Mathieu St-Jean, general manager of Canora.

Sense of community

The success of this puzzle required two years of work, carried out at a cost of 25 million. Inaugurated in August 2023, Le Within offers 16 microlofts and 14 apartments of three or four bedrooms.

Each microloft is a sort of small studio where, in the same room, the student finds a bed with integrated storage, a kitchenette and a small office space. A bathroom completes the accommodation.

For their part, tenants of large apartments have a shared kitchenette and living room, a fully furnished single bedroom and, in the majority of cases, equipped with a personal bathroom. “A demand that emerged with the COVID pandemic,” indicates Charles Paiement.

In short, each Within apartment offers all the necessary living spaces.

Its designers, however, aimed higher: they wanted, through its architecture, this building to arouse in its residents a desire for shared life, as well as a desire to discover their adopted city.

“That’s why we called it Le Within, that is to say “inside,” explains Mr. Paiement. Inside the city, the neighborhood and the project. »

It is in this spirit that Jean Pelland took advantage of the two large arched entrance doors, the large windows on the facade and the full-size basement to multiply the meeting places: a hall inspired by private mansions, a café Like Montreal, a large community kitchen, a multifunctional room equipped with a giant screen, an audiovisual recording studio and a study room are there to inspire a feeling of collegiality.

The result lives up to expectations, adds Charles Paiement. “One day I wondered why there was a fryer in the big kitchen. We weren’t the ones who put it there. I realized that a group of French students meet here every Friday to cook steaks and fries. This is the type of encounter we wanted to provoke. »

Montreal Scrapbook

Particular care was taken in the choice of materials, textures and colors to multiply the nods to Montreal.

If the polished concrete floors, painted brick walls and metal furniture are subtle references to the industrial heritage of the metropolis, the neon sign forming the code 514 and the framed images of the Orange Julep restaurant recall the icons of the Montreal landscape. “It’s like a scrapbook of what Montreal offers,” emphasizes Mr. St-Jean.

“We played with the city’s codes. We had fun,” adds Mr. Pelland, seated very close to a wall decorated with wallpaper with illustrations of maple syrup cans, the famous Farine Five Roses sign or the Grande Roue du Vieux- Port.

Building on this success, Canora is preparing a second project of the same type, still in Montreal, this one valued at 50 million, confides Charles Paiement.

“This is our way of combating the housing shortage. When I was a student, it was common to share large apartments with five or six rooms. Today, these apartments are sought after by large families. A student residence like this frees them up for them,” he concludes.

Visit the Within website