Big Ode: Enhancing civic spaces in Hochelaga-Maisonneuve
This project proposes to reuse the Olympic Stadium roof components to generate a pair of civic buildings that are connected by a linear park in the Hochelaga-Maisonneuve neighborhood. In essence, the project is an intervention on an urban scale but composed of several smaller elements used in combination that allow people to interact directly with the roof components and enables them to establish connections with their community. Ultimately, the goal is to create public spaces that become part of the network of social and cultural activity in Hochelaga-Maisonneuve and enhance the quality of life for the citizens of the neighborhood and visitors to the area.
The first component of the proposal is situated in Park de Rouen-Bennett near the former Maisonneuve Market and functions as an indoor-outdoor space for the citizens of Hochelaga-Maisonneuve to gather, to play, for outdoor music and theatre and as an extension of the adjacent public market amongst other things. This multi-purpose Canopy is composed struts, flying masts, stay cables and sections of the outer membrane creating a new civic building for the neighborhood.
The second element of the project proposes to repurpose Avenue Morgan into a linear park, creating a green artery that connects Park de Rouen-Bennett to Park Morgan. This pedestrianized space will feature individual elements of the roof placed at ground level for citizens and visitors to interact directly with the structural components. This playful Promenade will help combat the heat island effect in the neighborhood by increasing the vegetation cover along this thoroughfare. Furthermore, the park will provide additional green space for other civic buildings along this north-south axis such as Chomedy-de-Maisonneuve High School, Maisonneuve Elementary School and the Théâtre Denise-Pelletier.
The final piece of the proposition is an observation Tower located in Park Morgan which aims to connect the citizens visually to their surroundings, including the Saint-Laurent River. This structure will be built by bundling roof trusses together as well as using portions of the roof membrane as the guardrail. The tower will give the residents and visitors an elevated view of the river, the area of Hochelaga-Maisonneuve and of the Olympic stadium from a distance. It will also allow citizens to have views back toward the downtown core, the Jacques Cartier bridge as well as toward the east, situating them and their neighborhood in the greater metropolitan area.
(From competitor's text)
