We approached this first stage of the Saul-Bellow Library expansion project in Lachine as an integrated design process, joining our architecture and urban design team with a mechanical engineer specializing in the development of green solutions and a landscape architect. This working structure enabled us to integrate the notions of sustainable development in a comprehensive way, taking charge of the different scales of the site right from the conceptualization stage. Our intention is to make the new library a structuring project in the city, and an instigator of sustainable development, from the scale of the building to the metropolitan scale, in a long-term global vision.
The site at different scales
A telescopic analysis of the context's scales enables us, on the one hand, to understand the site's potential in order to anchor it in the reality of the City of Lachine and, on the other, to grasp the nature of the arteries and public spaces that serve and frame the library. Inserting the library into its context should enhance its accessibility by reinforcing mobility and porosity through the urban fabric at different scales and speeds of travel, while reinforcing, or requalifying, the adjoining thoroughfares and public spaces, in order to improve the public living environment.
On a metropolitan scale, 32nd Avenue is the main access road to the city of Lachine. The redevelopment of this thoroughfare, currently designed for motorists, provides an opportunity to address transportation and mobility issues at different speeds, as well as to reflect on this important heat island in the heart of the city. We propose transforming 32nd Avenue into a genuine urban boulevard - with the addition of a corridor reserved for cyclists and wide, planted sidewalks to encourage walking - that crosses the center of the city and extends to the river, Lachine's territorial landscape and place of origin.
On an urban scale, we insist on reinforcing Saint-Antoine Street as an East-West civic artery - the North-South streets being essentially residential - where we find the hospital, city services, schools, an arena, churches, large parks with sports fields, by designing a wide public square in front of the library on this thoroughfare, and by locating its entrance there. In addition to proposing tree planting along the sidewalks to affirm the presence of Patterson Park and refresh this entire section of Saint-Antoine Street, and with a view to long-term development, we see real potential for urban consolidation by configuring an urban park in front of the library, running from Saint-Antoine Street to Remembrance Street in front of the fire station, another civic building. The redevelopment of the eastern part of the site, occupied mainly by the parking lots of the current shopping center, would be part of a project to reconstitute the largely disconnected fabric at this location, and further reduce this large heat island. Built in the middle of a former golf course - a true island of freshness in the heart of the city at the time - 32nd Avenue created a suburban fabric on both sides of the road, contrasting with and disconnecting from the city's orthogonal grid, and hindering mobility and accessibility on an urban and neighborhood scale. This was also the time of the multiplicity of large asphalt surfaces.
On a neighborhood scale, we feel it's important to give Patterson Park frontage on rue Saint-Antoine. We therefore propose its preservation and reinforcement all the way to rue Saint-Antoine, in continuity with its current western boundary, as an abundantly planted pedestrian passage through the neighborhood fabric, and as a development precedent helping to reduce heat islands in the area.
Overall, therefore, we propose the creation of a north-south green corridor to the river - in continuation of the existing line of green spaces to the north of the site - that addresses and connects all the scales present on the site: Patterson neighborhood park, the library forecourt on rue Saint-Antoine and the 32nd Avenue urban boulevard.
(From competitor's text)
(Unofficial automated translation)
The concept proposes a complex organization of space, lacking simplicity both inside and out.
The "circulation circuit" principle is not adapted to the scale of the project; an obligatory promenade is not adapted to the function and generates excess surface area. The large number of levels complicates operations and functioning.
The idea of tectonics is interesting, but not the objective of this competition; this aesthetic is valid, but not for the function.
The roof, while very elegant, proposes an undersized structure, which raises budgetary and aesthetic questions.
The interesting urban analysis is not reflected in the design.
(From jury report)
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