The City of Saint-Lambert held a consultation evening on June 19 to present the heritage study of the city hall, conducted by the firm EVOQ. While the firm discussed the heritage values of the building, Mayor Pascale Mongrain highlighted the possibility of using the parking lot to finance its renovation.
During a presentation lasting around forty minutes, Georges Drolet, managing architect at EVOQ, and Mélissa Mars, heritage specialist at EVOQ, summarized their analysis of this building built in three stages: a first construction in 1924, followed an expansion in 1967 and another in 1984.
However, the building has been closed since March 2022.
“Many of the heritage values are linked to the whole. The evolution of the whole, the creation, its change over time, the desire to harmonize from era to era, while marking its time. All of that, these are really the most remarkable values on this site,” said Mr. Drolet.
He emphasized that despite additions over time and external variations, everything is coherent.
“In the history of the Saint-Lambert city hall, somewhere hidden, there were the principles of sustainable development, without them having been identified at that time. But this idea of reusing, of projecting things that we already have into the future, by modifying them, by adapting them, by expanding them in a harmonious and coherent way, that’s really all we seek to do today as architects,” he noted.
The firm believes in particular that “the public face of the building”, namely the 1924 and 1967 wings, should remain the public face. “It is not façadism that we are proposing, but to integrate these two wings into what you want to do, so that we can continue to perceive the presence of these two volumes on the site,” added Mr. Drolet.
Opportunity
The presentation of this study follows that made by the architecture and design firm Groupe Leclerc, presented in November 2023, which estimated a summary of projected costs of the work.
Among other things, it indicated that demolishing and rebuilding the Saint-Lambert city hall would cost less than renovating it.
Mayor Pascale Mongrain assured on June 19 that no decision had been made and that no scenario was “on the table” at the time. However, she indicated that her idea “is very clear” and said she agreed with the EVOQ report.
“I think it would be a mistake for these buildings to be demolished,” she said.
She also mentioned the possibility of financing this work of more than ten million dollars by using the city hall parking lot, for a real estate project for example.
“It is clear that this is a work worth tens of millions, which the City does not have. […] But we are very lucky to have this asset (parking), which will allow us to do something good, because restoring it is very expensive. And if this is what the council wants, fortunately we will have this possibility,” indicated Ms. Mongrain.
