This Competition is for the spatial design of Place de l'Avenue McGill College, located in downtown Montréal. The Place is to be created by pedestrianizing Avenue McGill College over its full length, comprising four sections, from Rue Cathcart to Rue Sherbrooke Ouest. The aim of the Competition is to select a spatial design concept for the entirety of Place de l'Avenue McGill College that meets and even surpasses the City's expectations regarding the challenges posed by the Project that is the subject of the Competition, and which are described in the Program.
Avenue McGill College is an urban space that is emblematic of downtown Montréal. As well as being the site of office buildings that house businesses, organizations and government bodies playing a key role in Québec's economic and political life, it provides a singular user experience, punctuated by some of the city's most significant markers of identity and culture.
Having undergone multiple restructurings, today Avenue McGill College is experiencing a renewal, with major public- and private-sector urban renovation projects under way in the area. These large-scale projects are all directly adjacent to Avenue McGill College, and will contribute to redefining its user experience and street life.
The Ville de Montréal, a member of the UNESCO Cities of Design Network, is committed to actively implementing its design action plan, which is part of its economic development strategy. As such, it is launching a multidisciplinary international urban design competition to redevelop Avenue McGill College. Titled McGill College: Reinventing the Avenue, the competition aims at selecting a design concept that's exemplary in terms of the sustainability of urban public spaces.
At the competition's conclusion, the winning multidisciplinary team will be awarded a professional services contract to implement the project. This includes, for the first phase (between Rue Cathcart and Boulevard De Maisonneuve), finalizing the design, preparing the plans and estimates, and providing technical assistance during the construction work for the surface redesign and upgrading of underground infrastructures. The winner will also be tasked with drawing up the overall plan and providing guidance to the Ville de Montréal. This detailed design will be executed later by another consultant.
The competition has three main stages. The first consists in developing a preliminary design concept that will help determine the finalists for the second stage. At that second stage, each finalist will have the opportunity to refine their design and demonstrate the project's technical and financial feasibility. At a third, optional, step, the jury will conduct additional interviews with two grand finalists. The details of these three stages and the evaluation criteria for each are described in the Competition Rules.
(From competition program)
The composition of the jury includes architects, landscape architects, urban planners, designers, engineers, public sector workers and professors.
The role of the jury includes
- Selection and recommendation of finalists;
- Selection and recommendation of grand finalists, where applicable;
- Selection and recommendation to the city of the winner.
At the end of the call for proposals for the first stage of the competition, twenty-eight eligible proposals were received. At the conclusion of the Stage 1 jury session, five finalists were unanimously selected by the jury members.
The Stage 2 jury session was conducted via videoconference over two days. Prior to the jury meeting, the members had reviewed all of the finalists' performances as well as their audio-visual presentations. After a discussion on the general appreciation of the performances, the jury received the finalists in auditions.
Following this first round of evaluation, two performances stood out and were selected by the jury in order to further develop the respective quality of the concepts. These performances are : Et sillon... (Civiliti +Mandaworks + SNC Lavallin) and Le grand verger (Daoust Lestage in collaboration with WSP Canada). The in-depth evaluation of these two services led to the selection of the winner as well as to the listing of the jury's recommendations for the development of the project.
Evaluation criteria
The Jury conducted the evaluation using criteria that relate to the issues and challenges of the Project. The feasibility criterion had to be met, failing which the benefit would not be selected. The other criteria are judged on an equivalent basis.
Criteria Step 1 :
- Conceptual and environmental quality of the plant strategy
- Landscape and heritage quality
- Functional quality - Usage
- Functional quality - Mobility
Criteria step 2 :
The criteria are the same as in Step 1 (see first four criteria above), plus six new criteria:
- Evolution of the Proposal: appropriateness and effectiveness of the spatial, formal, material and technical choices made since the Stage 1 proposal;
- Material quality
- Consideration of phasing issues
- Innovation risk management
- Feasibility
- Qualification of the Team to carry out the mandate :
During the evaluation of the second stage of the competition, the jury paid particular attention to the issues of visual representations of the perspectives that vary from one performance to another (opaque or transparent trees, correct size of the plantations, possible appropriation or not under the plantations) in order to fully understand the construction work on the perspective and the clearing towards Mount Royal. This question is central to the competition.
Jury members also highlight the design issue related to the significant increase in vegetation and canopy on the avenue while freeing the visual corridor and views towards Mount Royal. This issue also raises the question of the bipartition of the site and the differentiated treatment of the west and east sides of the avenue. As such, there is no concept that, at this stage, exceptionally meets all of the project's objectives and sub-objectives. When evaluating the performances, the jury will therefore be sensitive to their ability to evolve, taking into account their conceptual strength and the associated development risks.
(From jury report)
| Jury president S1 |
Mélanie Glorieux, Architecte de paysage
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| Jury S1 | Cécile Baird, Architecte |
| | Christian Bissonnette, Adjoint directeur, direction des travaux publics |
| | Sébastien Deshaies, Ingénieur |
| | Mélanie Glorieux, Architecte de paysage |
| | Nik Luka, Professeur agrégé |
| | Olivier Philippe, Architecte de paysage |
| | Christiane Rail, Architecte |
| | Lola Sheppard, Architecte |
| |
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| Jury president S2 |
Mélanie Glorieux, Architecte de paysage
|
| Jury S2 | Cécile Baird, Architecte et designer urbain |
| | Christian Bissonnette, Adjoint directeur, direction des travaux publics |
| | Sébastien Deshaies, Ingénieur |
| | Mélanie Glorieux, Architecte de paysage |
| | Nik Luka, Professeur agrégé |
| | Olivier Philippe, Architecte de paysage |
| | Christiane Rail, Architecte |
| | Lola Sheppard, Architecte |
| |
|
| |
|
| Technical Commitee | Julie Boivin |
| | Rémi Brabant Blaquière |
| | Claudia Delisle |
| | Marie Dugué |
| | Pierre-Étienne Gendron-Landry |
| | Marie-Claude Langevin |
| | Ramy Mikati |
| | Daniel Paquin |
| | José Pierre |
| | Marie-Claude Séguin |
October 31st - December 19th 2019
Call for proposals for the first stage of the competition
December 19th 2019
Conformity analysis of proposals
January 16th 2020
Jury for stage 1 of the competition
January 17th 2020
Selection of finalist proposals
February 3rd 2020
Submission of the finalists' team complement files
March 3rd 2020
Public announcement of the selection of finalists
May 29th 2020
Submission of finalists' presentations
June 4th 2020
Advisory committee meeting
June 9th 2020
Technical committee meeting
June 22nd 2020
Jury for stage 2 of the competition
June 23rd 2020
Selection of winning proposal
(From jury report)
Place de l’avenue McGill College: An innovative participatory design approach!, Ville de Montréal, 2020
Defining a vocation for McGill College, NewCities, 2018
Winners of McGill College Avenue design competition announced, Canadian Architect, 2020
Civiliti Together with Mandaworks Re-imagine Montreal’s Iconic Avenue, Landizer, 2020
Karwacki, J. P., Montreal unveils its design for an urban forest in the middle of its downtown core, Time Out Montreal, 2020
Holmes, Damian, civiliti + Mandaworks and SNC Lavalin win the Reinventing the Avenue Design Competition, World Landscape Architecture, 2020
Ross, Selena, Mini-forest along McGill College, winner of landscaping contest, will 'extend the mountain', CTV News, 2020
- Programme
- Règlement
- Rapport du jury (global)
