Rechercher dans la communauté

Conseil d'arrondissement, Assemblées du conseil, Autres conseils et comités, Bureau d'arrondissement Ordres du jour , Procès-verbaux 2010 - Calendrier des prochaines séances : Les séances ordinaires du Conseil d’arrondissement ont lieu à 19 heures, le deuxième lundi de chaque mois, excepté en juin, octobre et décembre. Depuis 2006, afin de se rapprocher des citoyennes et des citoyens de Ville-Marie, les élus ont décidé que les séances ordinaires du Conseil d’arrondissement se tiennent dans différents lieux. Cette décision se perpétue en 2010. Vous trouverez ci-dessous les dates ainsi que les adresses où les Conseils se dérouleront : Endroits où se dérouleront les conseils d'arrondissements 2010 Lundi 8 février, Maison de la culture Frontenac, 2550, rue Ontario Est District Sainte-Marie Lundi 8 mars, Salle du conseil, 888, boul. De Maisonneuve Est, 5e étage District Saint-Jacques Lundi 12 avril, Collège de Montréal, salle L’Ermitage, 3510, ch. de la Côte-des-Neiges District Peter McGill Lundi 10 mai, Maison de la culture Frontenac, 2550, rue Ontario Est District Sainte-Marie Mercredi 16 juin, Salle du conseil, 888, boul. De Maisonneuve Est, 5e étage District Saint-Jacques Lundi 12 juillet, Collège de Montréal, salle L’Ermitage, 3510, ch. de la Côte-des-Neiges District Peter McGill Lundi 13 septembre, Salle du conseil, 888, boul. De Maisonneuve Est, 5e étage District Saint-Jacques Mardi 12 octobre, Maison de la culture Frontenac, 2550, rue Ontario Est District Sainte-Marie Lundi 8 novembre, Collège de Montréal, salle L’Ermitage, 3510, ch. de la Côte-des-Neiges District Peter McGill Mercredi 15 décembre, Salle du conseil, 888, boul. De Maisonneuve Est, 5e étage District Saint-Jacques 2550, rue Ontario Est Page d'erreur

Nom: District Griffin Hauteur: 18 étages (tour bureaux/hôtel) et 20 étages (tour résidentielle) Coût du projet: Promoteur: DEVIMCO et Groupe Cholette Architecte: Emplacement: Young/Wellington/Peel/Smith* Début de construction: Printemps 2011 Fin de construction: Été 2013 Site internet: http://www.districtgriffin.com Lien webcam: Autres informations: *La portion bureaux est loué à 97.7% (septembre 2013) *La tour résidentielle aura front sur Smith *La tour bureaux/hôtel aura front sur Wellington *188 condos, *Hôtel Alt 154 chambres *100 000 pied carré d’éspace de bureau *50 000 pied carré d’espace commerciale *6 Restaurants *1 garderie Ancienne version :

LAVAL, QC, le 7 août 2014 /CNW Telbec/ - Habitations Trigone s'apprête à démarrer son premier projet de développement résidentiel sur le territoire lavallois. Le projet nommé « District Concorde » sera situé au coin de l'avenue Léo-Lacombe et François-Souillard. Celui-ci sera à moins de 700 mètres de la station de métro et de la gare de train De La Concorde. Habitations Trigone est fière d'inaugurer un autre projet de type T.O.D (développement orienté vers le transport en commun) qui s'accorde parfaitement avec la philosophie de la compagnie. District Concorde offre une grande variété de produits qui saura combler les besoins des futurs propriétaires. Le projet compte 480 unités de condos réparties dans 9 bâtiments incluant un stationnement hors sol avec toit vert ainsi qu'un stationnement souterrain. Ce projet innovateur favorisera un mode de vie actif puisque les résidents pourront marcher afin de se rendre au métro ou au train. Le premier bâtiment devrait être complété d'ici le printemps 2015. Le projet District Concorde s'insère dans le cadre d'une volonté de la ville de Laval à vouloir revitaliser le secteur de la station de métro concorde. La ville prévoit revoir complètement le concept d'aménagement afin de créer un milieu de vie de qualité pour les futurs résidents. De plus, un crédit de taxe sera accordé par la ville aux nouveaux propriétaires de ce secteur. Nous sommes heureux d'annoncer que l'ouverture du bureau des ventes du projet aura lieu ce samedi 9 août dès midi sur la rue François-Souillard à Laval. Habitations Trigone est une entreprise active dans le secteur de la construction domiciliaire depuis près de 25 ans, ayant à son actif plus de 10 000 unités construites sur la Rive-Sud et Rive-Nord de Montréal. C'est la réputation de qualité et d'intégrité d'Habitations Trigone qui a permis à cette entreprise de se hisser aux premiers rangs de la construction domiciliaire au Québec. Notre passion de construire est toujours aussi vivante et nous continuerons à développer des projets innovateurs, localisés sur des sites de choix, pour des espaces de vie accessibles à tous. Condo neuf a vendre a Laval-des-Rapides, District Concorde | Habitations Trigone

Viger Project Montreal, Quebec, Canada Step 1: 2008 Step 2: 2010 Viger will be a 19-story, 828,000 square foot mixed-use project consisting of a 225,000 square foot hotel, 185,000 square foot of retail space, 385,000 square foot of residential space with parking for 1,400. The hotel portion includes the redevelopment of a 150,000 square foot historic chateau-style hotel. SUMMARY Address 710 Rue Saint-antoine E Montreal, Quebec, Canada Location Located in Montreal, Quebec Canada Hines' Role Development Manager Net Rentable Area Hotel: 225,000 sq. ft. (20,902 sq. meters) Residential: 385,000 sq. ft. (35,766 sq. meters) Retail space: 185,000 sq. ft. (17,186 sq. meters) The renaissance of Viger Square Phil O'Brien Senior advisor Telemedia DevelopmentI Inc. Mr. Philip O'Brien will be conducting a presentation about the Viger site on the eastern edge of Old Montreal. He will discuss the history of the site: the building of a grand hotel and railway station in what was then the central core of Montreal, its prominence as a prestigious address for business elites, and its cultural significance for the city of Montreal. The context of its decline during the 20th century will be outlined: from the changing economic conditions in the 1930s and its demise to its current state in the urban environment, resulting from the expansion of the railway yards, the digging of the open trench of the Ville-Marie expressway, and the demolition of a vast number of houses to make room for the CBC project. He will then highlight the exciting potential for redevelopment in light of changing local economic conditions and redevelopment opportunities for this area of town. Thursday, April 12, 2007 from 7:30 to 9 a.m. Ritz-Carlton Montreal 1228 Sherbrooke Street W. chateau_viger.pdf

De mars 2014 à juillet 2016 J'espérais pouvoir la fin de l'Avenue mais ça n'a pas été possible Les tours que l'on peut voir monter: - Tour Deloitte - Lowney sur Ville - Roccabella - Tour des Canadiens - L'Avenue - District Griffin - Icône (brièvement @ 0:52) Allez-y plein écran HD, l'image s'améliore après une trentaine de secondes...

Ahead: A brighter horizon for Cabot Square Plans due; Downtown area in search of an identity Source: The Gazette Cty councillor Karim Boulos is standing in the Canadian Centre for Architecture, airing his optimism over a scale model of what is known as "the Cabot Square area" - a part of the Peter McGill district he represents. But the Cabot Square area is also a stretch of Ste. Catherine St. that makes many Montrealers wince. The thoroughfare between Lambert Closse and Chomedey Sts. has been this city's version of a picture of Dorian Gray, a pastiche of boarded-up storefronts, crumbling facades and grafitti that seems to have spread while other neighbourhoods renewed themselves. However, by this time next Monday, Boulos and the rest of the city will get a bigger glimpse of what might happen to the piece of downtown that's been in search of an identity for nearly a generation. That's when three teams of architects and urban planners will submit their versions of what should be done to revive the Cabot Square area. Boulos, Ville Marie borough mayor Benoit Labonté and members of an alliance of neighbourhood businesses and residents met the press yesterday to detail the attempts to revitalize the neighbourhood. The planning teams were formed after a collection of 25 business, property owners and residents' associations started the Table de concertation du centre-ville ouest. "The properties may be empty but the owners are still paying taxes," Boulos said. "They haven't left, they're waiting to see what's going to happen." The plans submitted by the teams will be judged by a jury that includes architect and Harvard professor Joan Busquest, Dinu Bumbaru of Heritage Montreal and founding director Phyllis Lambert of the Canadian Centre for Architecture. The successful submission will form the basis for an urban plan that will produced by the borough and submitted to public consultations. Boulos suggests that if everything goes well, changes in the district might begin "by this fall." And for Lambert, whose architectural centre sprawls across the neighbourhood's southern edge, change is what's needed for a district that spent decades losing more than it's gained. "Over the last years, this area has deteriorated miserably," she said. "There used to be the Forum and all those stores where the Faubourg (Ste. Catherine) is. ... But it just goes down the drain further and further. "Then there's the block ... just to the east of the Forum with the (Seville) theatre on it, which has been boarded up for years. "And this just destroys the whole area. People have no respect (for the neighbourhood), and why would you? People just walk down the street and it's so miserable." Lambert's nephew, Stephen Bronfman, is chairman of Claridge Inc., an investment company that owns the Seville Theatre block. Asked in October about the condition of the block, Lambert told The Gazette: "It is coming along. Slowly, but we are working closely with the city and other landlords in the area. It takes time to do properly." Labonté says a development project for the Seville block is under study by the borough's urban committee. Boulos has said in earlier interviews that a private investor plans to turn the block into student residences. "What I can tell you about this project," Labonté said, "is that that there will be lots of room for students - especially for Concordia University - and the design of the building will be quite impressive. ... I'm pretty confident this project at the Seville Theatre will start the renewal of this leg of Ste. Catherine St." A decision by the borough on which development plan will be used is expected in May. But final approval will rest with the city's executive committee. In the meantime, Montrealers and the people who own the storefronts that make them wince wait to see what's going to happen.

With Festival Season Underway, Montreal Reflects on 10-Year Cultural Plan BY GREG SCRUGGS | JUNE 17, 2016 Summery electronic beats floated through the air alongside fragrant cheese and the occasional whiff of marijuana. Picnic blankets laden with pâté and baguettes commingled with flowing bottles of beer and wine. Families parked strollers, millennials lounged near their bikes, and techno tourists went gaga for Swedish DJ and producer Peder Mannerfelt. The occasion for such a languid Saturday afternoon earlier this month in downtown Montreal was MUTEK, a festival dedicated to electronic music and digital arts that held its 17th edition this year. Its free programming at the Parterre, a simple plaza easily converted into a performing arts venue, is just a small sampling of the festival overload that takes hold every summer in the city’s Quartier des Spectacles, a downtown cultural district that hosts most of the outdoor fêtes. Even as the 40,000 MUTEK attendees, roughly half from outside the metropolitan area, fluttered among a handful of the Quartier’s sleek venues, workers were busy maneuvering lighting trusses and erecting stages on downtown streets to accommodate the 500,000 that came for Les FrancoFolies, a French-language music festival that wraps up Friday, and the 2.5 million expected for the Montreal Jazz Festival, which starts June 26. Montreal is North America’s undisputed festival capital, with 200 annual medium- to large-size events downtown that generate over 1,000 festival days, according to the city’s Bureau of Cinema, Festivals, and Events. “For the size of Montreal, that’s pretty astounding,” says the bureau’s director, Daniel Bissonnette. The metro area of 4 million has a comparatively low GDP per capita, he points out, but through a combination of dedicated cultural infrastructure and savvy marketing, it punches well above its weight. Cities have come knocking at his door to ask what’s in Montreal’s secret sauce, he says, most recently Los Angeles. At the end of June, Bissonnette will travel to Kraków, Poland, for a meeting of a nascent, as-yet-unnamed international network of festival cities that also includes the likes of Adelaide, Barcelona, Berlin and Edinburgh. But as the city’s international festival acclaim grows, it must also continue to nurture the local cultural community, whose public arts funding is in limbo as the provincial government plans to cut back while the federal government has pledged to increase support. Plus, next year concludes the scope of the city’s 10-year cultural plan and the city council is poised to adopt a new strategy. While it’s still early for any concrete details, the bustling summer scene downtown offers some clues as to what the future might hold. The square-kilometer patch of the eastern edge of downtown Montreal demarcated as the Quartier des Spectacles was once the city’s red light district and a popular cheap housing option for artists. But it was also the home to the symphony and opera halls, a clutch of theaters and music venues, and the Museum of Contemporary Art — now MUTEK’s annual home base. First proposed in 2002, the Quartier des Spectacles came together over the last decade through a series of demolitions, rehabs and new constructions. The artists living there were, by and large, kicked out — whether by eviction or escalating housing costs as new condos came into the neighborhood. Some affordable live-work space was built in the Mile End neighborhood in exchange for the loss, but the artistic community who created the cachet for the neighborhood to become the Quartier des Spectacles was not compensated directly. While some of Montreal’s infamous strip clubs remain, it’s hardly the red light district it used to be — though red illumination on many of the Quartier’s sidewalks pay homage to its seedier days. And new construction continues apace, from outdoor spots like the Parterre and the Place des Festivals to new anchors like a fresh home for the Montreal Symphony Orchestra and next year’s planned arrival of the National Film Board of Canada. The result has been a resurgence in downtown living by a more well-heeled crowd attracted to the city’s cultural offerings, which mirrors trends across North America. But while cities like Philadelphia have managed at best an Avenue of the Arts, Montreal has taken over a whole neighborhood and it continues to grow. “The Quartier des Spectacles is not a finished thing,” notes MUTEK Director Alain Mongeau. Chantal Fontaine opened a bistro two years ago in the heart of the quarter along Boulevard Saint-Laurent, which is pedestrianized during the summer festival months. “The golden age of the red light district passed a long time ago,” she says, dismissing any nostalgia for the neighborhood’s previous incarnation. Also an accomplished comedienne, Fontaine lives three blocks away and notes that she can walk out the front door of her condo at 7:45 p.m. to make an 8 o’clock show. She envisions the Quartier as the city’s answer to Broadway in New York and hopes that the city’s new cultural strategy will reflect that ambition. “International renown, that Montreal becomes an incubator of shows that tour the world,” she says. “We must value our local culture abroad, we have the talent for that.” MUTEK, meanwhile, is already doing that and downtown is essential to its identity. “If we moved to another neighborhood we’d have to remap the whole discourse of the festival,” Mongeau says. “We feel like we’re contributing to the brand of the city.” Blending culture and commerce doesn’t sit well with everyone however. “Western society is pushing us to be entrepreneur artists,” laments Ghislain Poirier, a DJ/producer and a fixture on Montreal’s music scene who has played at MUTEK in past years. In 2010, he wrote an open letter to the mayor complaining that the city was kowtowing to new condo dwellers’ noise complaints and shutting down music clubs — the very venues that made the neighborhood appealing for real estate developers in the first place. That issue has since quieted down, with Bissonnette pointing out new building codes requiring triple-pane windows, policies governing the timing of outdoor amplified sound during festivals, and municipal noise inspectors who will come to a complainant’s home to objectively measure interior sound. “That’s the price you pay to have the excitement downtown,” he says. “A park far away from downtown? That’s not how Montreal works.” Nevertheless, Poirier is convinced that the cultural geography of the city has changed as a result. “Downtown is more for performing, it’s not a place of creation,” he says. “Before it was lofts and artists. Now it’s venues and festivals, mass culture and Hollywood big events.” At the same time, such bookings are valuable and Poirier looks forward to the fat paycheck from festival gigs in the Quartier des Spectacles, which help him pay Montreal’s still affordable, but nevertheless rising, cost of living. While the trend of displaced artists is hardly unique to Montreal, the phenomenon of cultural gentrification is atypical — newer, fancier forms of culture displacing older, scruffier types. As the city prepares to plan ahead for the next 10 years, it may be time to put on the brakes, Poirier says. “There are almost too many events. We’re coming to a saturation point.” https://nextcity.org/daily/entry/montreal-festivals-10-year-cultural-plan

http://mentalfloss.com/article/72661/detroit-named-americas-first-unesco-design-city

Désolé, j'aurais bien aimé vous présenter une belle tour. Il s'agit plutôt de la rénovation des bâtiments situés au coin de Wellington et du Shannon, l'îlot 12 du projet District Griffin. Visiblement, ça sera un Pharmaprix. Sur Centria : Avant : Après :

Bay Street still has Canada’s most expensive office space http://renx.ca/bay-street-still-canadas-expensive-office-space/ Bay Street in Toronto has the most expensive office space in Canada, and no other city comes close to matching the $68.52 per square foot average rent that’s being asked for in the heart of the country’s financial district. JLL Canada recently released its “Most Expensive Streets for Office Space” report, which ranks Canadian cities by their highest asking rents. It shows many companies are still willing to pay a premium for the most expensive spaces, and competition is growing to get into prominent financial, retail and government hubs. “The most significant trend that we are seeing across major markets is that there are a large number of new developments underway,” said JLL Canada president Brett Miller. “Although we have only seen minor changes to the top market rents thus far in 2014, we anticipate that as the new inventory comes to market, overall rents will decrease in the older class-A stock whilst headline rents in new developments may raise the top line rents.” Here are the most expensive streets in nine major Canadian cities 1. Bay Street, Toronto, $68.52 per square foot Bay Street held strong in first place for the fourth year running. It features the headquarters of major Canadian banks and is home to many investment banks, accounting and law firms. Brookfield Place, at 161 Bay St., continues to command the highest office rents of any building in Canada at $76.54 per square foot. The average market rent in Toronto is $34.82 per square foot. (Bay St. looking north from Front St. shown in the image,) 2. 8th Avenue SW, Calgary, $59.06 per square foot 8th Avenue SW again has the highest average gross office rents in Calgary. Large vacancies and availabilities along this corridor typically account for significant activity and command market-leading rates. Large oil and gas companies have historically clustered around the central business district in this area. The top rent on the street is $64.40 per square foot and the average market rent in Calgary is $46 per square foot. 3. Burrard Street, Vancouver, $58.87 per square foot Burrard Street has dropped to third place despite a slight increase in average asking rent from $58.47 in 2013. Approximately 18.3 per cent of downtown class-A office supply is located on Burrard Street between West Georgia Street and Canada Place. The vacancy rate in these six buildings sits at 1.6 per cent, which justifies this location commanding some of the highest rental rates in the city despite the impending influx of new supply that’s putting downward pressure on rents throughout the central business district. The top rent on the street is $66.06 per square foot and the average market rent in Vancouver is $38.81 per square foot. 4. Albert Street, Ottawa, $52.10 per square foot Albert Street remained in fourth position with average rents decreasing slightly from $53.40 per square foot. Albert Street is mainly home to government-related office towers, including numerous foreign embassies, and a few of the largest Canadian business law firms. There seems to be a wait-and-see approach in anticipation of the 2015 federal election regarding the government’s intentions to lease or return more space to the market. The top rent on the street is $53.54 per square foot and the average market rent in Ottawa is $30.90 per square foot. 5. 101st Street NW, Edmonton, $46.71 per square foot The average asking rent dropped from $48.19 per square foot, but 101st Street NW is expected to remain the most expensive in Edmonton with the recent commitment to build the arena district, a large-scale, mixed-use project incorporating the city’s new National Hockey League arena. This is expected to revitalize some of the most important corners on the street. The top rent on the street is $54.15 per square foot and the average market rent in Edmonton is $28.30 per square foot. 6. René-Lévesque W, Montreal, $44.28 per square foot The average gross rent on the street hasn’t changed significantly year over year, but the total value of tenant inducement packages has nearly doubled. The most expensive building on the street (1250 René-Lévesque W) rents for $52.76 per square foot but has seen some downward pressure of two to four dollars on its net rent due to 170,000 square feet of vacant space left behind by Heenan Blaikie. The average market rent in Montreal is $30.38 per square foot. 7. Upper Water Street, Halifax, $36.42 per square foot Upper Water Street has maintained seventh place despite its average asking rent dropping from $36.65 per square foot last year. New construction coming on stream is expected to put downward pressure on rents in existing office buildings. The top rent on the street is $36.62 per square foot and the average market rent in Halifax is $27.44 per square foot. 8. Portage Avenue, Winnipeg, $35.67 per square foot Portage Avenue held strong in eighth place, with its average rent increasing from $35.17 per square foot. The class-A market remains tight and is expected to remain so through 2015. The top rent on the street is $37.32 per square foot and the average market rent in Winnipeg is $23.62 per square foot. 9. Laurier Boulevard, Québec City, $27.50 per square foot Laurier Boulevard held its ninth-place position despite the average rent dropping from $28.14 per square foot. There’s been no notable increase in the average gross rent and the vacancy rate on the street remains low at 5.2 per cent compared to the rest of the market’s 7.8 per cent. The top rent on the street is $28.98 per square foot and the average market rent in Québec City is $21.89 per square foot. JLL manages more than 50 million square feet of facilities across Canada and offers tenant and landlord representation, project and development services, investment sales, advisory and appraisal services, debt capital markets and integrated facilities management services to owners and tenants.

L'église Saint-Joseph situé au 550 rue Richmond devriendra le Salon 1861 dans les plans du Quartier de l'Innovation. LE SALON 1861 ET LE LABORATOIRE DE CULTURE URBAINE Riche de son histoire et des nombreux artistes qui y ont habité, le territoire qu’occupe le QI continue d’accueillir de nombreux joueurs de la scène culturelle montréalaise : espaces de diffusion, galeries d’art et studios, notamment. Le Laboratoire de culture urbaine du QI profitera de cette effervescence et de l’expertise universitaire dans le domaine des arts afin de créer des occasions d’échange entre artistes, professeurs, étudiants et résidents du quartier. Le Laboratoire s’installera au sein du QI, dans le Salon 1861, qui pourra accueillir des projets de recherche collaborative, des expositions, des événements, des ateliers d’artistes et des organismes communautaires, tout en favorisant l’échange avec la communauté. Piloté par : Will Straw, professeur, Département d’histoire de l’art et d’études en communications, Université McGill et Natalie Voland, présidente, Gestion immobilière Quo Vadis. Ce site explique l'histoire de cette église : http://avantlautoroute.com/2011/01/10/leglise-st-joseph-rue-richmond/ Article sur la transformation : SALON 1861: THE AFTERLIFE OF L’ÉGLISE ST-JOSEPH Mark Twain has said of Montreal, “this is the first time I was ever in a city where you couldn’t throw a brick without breaking a church window”. Quebec’s history has left the city with a wealth of beautiful churches that are now threatened due to lack of funds for upkeeping. The Église St-Joseph, located in Montreal’s Little-Burgundy neighbourhood, is an example of how the city is rapidly evolving while preserving its communities’ heritage. Starting this summer, Quartier de l’innovation, a McGill University and École de technologies supérieures initiative, will be working in partnership with Gestion Immobilière Quo Vadis to transform l’Église St-Joseph into The Salon 1861, which will host the Laboratory of Urban Culture while still remaining a fixture in the community. Conversion of churches to preserve the architecture and heritage is not uncommon in Montreal. In the city, there are many churches that have been given a second life and yet continue to create value for the community. The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts converted the Erskine and American United Church on Sherbrooke West into a Canadian Art pavilion, completed in 2011, and a successful reinvention of the museum took place to integrate the church into its exhibits. Chic Resto Pop is the site of another converted church in Montreal accessible to surrounding residents. The former Saint Barnabé-Apôtre Church was sold for $300,000 in 2002 and converted into an affordable cafeteria large enough for 300 people. Le Saint-Jude spa opened in fall 2013 is the site of another converted church in the Plateau Mont-Royal district. The spa and health club was renovated into the century old church costing 2.65 million dollars and won the design excellence award in 2013 from Canadian Architect magazine. Soon the Laboratory of Urban Culture will be amongst the list of churches in Montreal that receives a prolonged existence and continues to benefit Montrealers. "a gathering for social or intellectual distinction through discussions, exchanges and ideas of all sorts." The idea for the Laboratory of Urban Culture emerged from a study mandated by the Quartier de l’innovation (QI) in 2012 to study the arts and cultural needs in the district. The QI is an innovative ecosystem located in Montreal’s historic Southwest district – Griffintown, Saint-Henri, Petite Bourgogne and Pointe Saint-Charles. It aims to increase collaboration between academia, the private sector, and the community, as well as encourage research and industrrial projects for social and cultural innovation. QI seeks to address needs and face real challenges, in order to improve the quality of life in its district. A collaboration between École de technologie supérieure (ÉTS) and McGill University, since June 2013, the QI has developed into a non-profit organization that continues to develop impactful projects for the district. map of QI The zone marked in red is the area of QI The inception of the Laboratory of Urban Culture was a result of the study completed by Professor Will Straw, Director of the McGill Institute for the Study of Canada. The direct conclusion was the need to create “a YMCA of culture”: or a neutral space in the community for the intersection of academia, arts and culture. The Laboratory of Urban Culture is establishing an accessible link between different stakeholders to promote arts and culture in the community. Around the same time, Natalie Voland, President of Gestion Immobilière Quo Vadis, had just made quite an astounding purchase: a church! Initially intended for conversion into condominiums, Voland sought efforts to maintain its heritage having realized its priceless architectural value. Built in 1861, l’Église St-Joseph is one of the oldest catholic churches in Montreal with a heritage value close to that of the Oratoire St-Joseph. Having visited the church, the awe factor makes anyone who has seen the interior eager to preserve it. Voland then began a search for ways to preserve the Église St-Joseph. After learning about the purchase of the church in the QI, Isabelle Péan, Project Director of QI at McGill, met with Voland to present the vision of the Laboratory of Urban Culture. Soon after, a collboration was established between QI and Quo Vadis to host the Laboratory of Urban Culture within the Église St-Joseph, now called the Salon 1861. The name “Salon 1861”, comes from old French, meaning a periodic gathering for social or intellectual distinction through discussions, exchanges and ideas of all sorts. The Salon 1861 will be a socially responsible project put together by the synergy of diverse partners. The historically significant heritage building of l’Église St-Joseph will be maintained and transformed into a modern representation still carrying out its intended purpose, a place for civic community, culture and collaboration. In the coming months a McGil Arts doctorate student will finalize programming of workshops, lectures and concerts in the Laboratory. The Laboratory of Urban Culture will be an important aspect of the creative ecosystem, which will be established in the Salon 1861. Other elements of this ecosystem include an art gallery, event spaces and a co-working space in the church’s basement targeted at social economy and arts entrepreneurship. Students will have a variety of opportunities to get involved with the Laboratory and the Salon 1861. Currently, Mark Ramsey, a graduate student in architecture from McGill University, is working with Quo Vadis on the legacy and patrimonial work of the church before reconstruction begins. More internships and projects for students are currently being established within this framework. Essentially, the Salon 1861 will become an ecosystem where different components will mutually complement and benefit the community. Natalie Voland has said “The concept of the Salon 1861 has really been inspired by the QI’s vision. The Salon 1861 will be at the heart of the community and will be a real destination for cultural and social innovation in the District”. To stay connected with the developments of QI, including the progress of the Laboratory of Urban Culture, follow them on Facebook or Twitter! WRITTEN BY ZOEY TUNG IMAGE BY SAM GREGORY

8850, avenue Dubuisson (parc Clément-Jetté Nord) Actuellement en construction, la piscine offrira bientôt aux résidents de Mercier-Est une infrastructure moderne et accessible aux personnes à mobilité réduite. Ce projet de 12,9 M $ est entièrement financé par l’arrondissement de Mercier–Hochelaga-Maisonneuve. L’ouverture au public est prévue en avril 2014. Descriptif de la piscine Bassin intérieur de 25 m x 15,4 m sans plongeoir : 6 couloirs de natation de 2,2 m de largeur chacun Accès à l’eau en pente (rampe) pour personne à mobilité réduite avec fauteuil roulant Profondeur variant de 1,097 m à 2,5 m (8’) Capacité d’accueil : 205 personnes Glissade d’eau dans la partie profonde Bassin récréatif (pataugeoire) ± 175 m2 Jeux d’eau Plage d’accès progressive Profondeur variant de 0 m à 0,6 m (2’) Capacité d’accueil : 119 personnes Salles (vestiaires) avec accès pour personne à mobilité réduite Hommes Femmes Familiale avec salon d’allaitement Bâtiment à critères de construction « LEED OR » (développement durable) avec récupération d’énergie. Localisation : Parc Clément-Jetté Nord, dans le district de Tétreaultville. Accès par le stationnement de l’aréna Clément-Jetté et la rue Joffre. Stationnement de la piscine : 36 places. Professionnels : Consortium Thibodeau/Poirier Fontaine Architectes/cima+/s.e.n.c/nacev consultants inc.

19 Novembre 2012 [ATTACH=CONFIG]5781[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=CONFIG]5782[/ATTACH]

Photographies de l'arrondissement : Photographies de Habitations Laurendeau

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/9133399/Paris-to-trump-Londons-Shard-with-Europes-tallest-buildings.html Paris to trump London's Shard with Europe's tallest buildings The two skyscrapers will 40ft taller than the Shard, which is currently under construction in the British capital. Planning permission for the French project called Hermitage Plaza - designed by British artchitects Foster and Partners - was granted by Paris officials this week. The two buildings - which will house offices, luxury apartments, a shopping complex and a hotel - will dominate the skyline in the western business district of La Defense. Work began on the Shard at London Bridge in February 2009 and it is already Europe's highest construction project at a cost so far of around £450 million. The 87-storey building is due for completion in May this year, when it will stand at 1,017 feet tall and offer uninterrupted 360-degree views of London for 40 miles in every direction.

Nicolas Van Praet, Financial Post · Jun. 6, 2013 | Last Updated: Jun. 6, 2013 2:23 PM ET MONTREAL • Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Inc. is revamping its Canadian manufacturing operations in Montreal as investors savour a tripling in the company’s shares over the past year. The Waterbury, Vt.-based company, which bought Quebec coffee chain Van Houtte in 2010, will announce Friday a $40-million to $50-million investment to modernize its plant in Montreal’s Saint Michel neighbourhood with new packaging equipment, two sources said. More than 100 new jobs will be created in the move. It’s all part of a larger effort by Green Mountain Canada President Sylvain Toutant to fortify and grow the company’s presence in Montreal since the $915-million takeover three years ago. Building on initial moves to purchase property around the company’s Van Houtte coffee facility in the city’s north end and to occupy a new country head office, Mr. Toutant is now expanding the Montreal manufacturing operations. “This is really a great piece of news for a neighbourhood that badly needs it,” said Frantz Benjamin, the municipal councillor representing the district, adding the company’s modernization is only the first phase of what could be a larger economic development project for the neighbourhood. Related “In the medium term, we’d really like to develop an entire Quartier du Café (Coffee District) in the area,” anchored around Green Mountain, he said. Montreal has other geographical clusters of business activity, but this one in Saint Michel’s industrial district would be among the more remote. The coffee maker sought financial support from the Quebec government for the manufacturing modernization, which it is believed to have won. The funds would be used to add a production line in Saint Michel and diversify commercial activities, the company said in a filing with Quebec’s lobbyist registry. Shares of Green Mountain rose 3% to $74.68 in Nasdaq trading Thursday. They’ve more than tripled over the past year. In December, Mr. Toutant articulated a three-year plan for Green Mountain’s Montreal site to add 50,000 square feet of production space, boost the payroll by 150 workers to 1,000, and refurbish the roasting plant. The site currently encompases the head office, a roasting factory and two distribution warehouses. Green Mountain dominates the single-serve coffee market in the United States with its Keurig-brand coffee makers and K-Cup pods, making money from most of the coffee sold for those machines. The company lost more than two-thirds of its market value during the year ending last October, but has since staged a remarkable recovery, proving that despite the expiry of its K-Cup design patents it can still generate earnings growth. Green Mountain’s product innovation will be an important performance driver in the years ahead, Imperial Capital analyst Mitchell Pinheiro said in a research note Thursday, initiating coverage on the shares with an outperform rating and $95 price target. “We believe the company’s potential on the cold beverage side of the at-home beverage category could create an opportunity that is as large, if not larger, than its current coffee, tea and hot cocoa segment,” Mr. Pinheiro said, forecasting earnings per share growth of 15-25% over the next three years. http://www.nationalpost.com/Green+Mountain+boost+Montreal+operations+with+much+investment/8490304/story.html

The Saudi capital is unlikely to become an alternative to Dubai any time soon May 11th 2013 | RIYADH |From the print edition THE glass-clad skyscrapers are reaching ever higher into Riyadh’s dusty sky. The first tenants are due to move to the King Abdullah Financial District in the Saudi capital’s north-west later this year. But they may well find it a lonely place: enthusiasm is clearly lacking for the development, which boasts 42 buildings and 900,000 square metres of office space—similar in scale to London’s Canary Wharf. Granted, new office districts often take time to come to life. Canary Wharf had to battle against sceptics for many years before becoming the success it is today. But it is unclear how Riyadh’s new district will develop into what it is meant to be: a sober Saudi alternative to Dubai’s exuberant International Financial Centre. To date just 10% of the district’s office space has been leased; tenants will include the country’s stockmarket regulator, the Capital Markets Authority, and one large local bank, Samba. A further 10% is under negotiation, according to sources close to the developers of the project. A big problem is its size. The Saudi economy may be doing well on the back of high oil prices, but not so well that its businesses could easily digest all the extra property. The new financial district has three times as much high-end office space as the rest of Riyadh. In other words, even if every company in the city’s plusher offices moved to the new district it would still be two-thirds empty. Costs are another hurdle. “It might be prestigious but why should I pay an arm and a leg to be there?” asks a local executive. Some banks, like Arab National Bank and Al Rajhi Bank, are building new towers elsewhere. Even the Saudi central bank is thought to be staying where it is. But if banks do not fill the space, then who will? Accountants, lawyers and insurance firms are not nearly numerous enough. They also remain to be convinced of the development’s merits. “There’s going to be all those towers, but for what? It looks like an overbuilt proposition,” says a Riyadh lawyer. Nor are foreign firms likely to be of much help. Riyadh may be the centre of the region’s biggest economy, boasting more people and oil revenues than anywhere else. But unlike Dubai, as a financial centre the city is inward-looking, with banks largely servicing the domestic economy. That, as well as a lack of cultural life, prevent it from becoming a regional financial hub. Yet at some point the new district may still serve its purpose. The owner has pockets deep enough to take the long view. The project was the brainchild of the Capital Markets Authority, with support from the Public Pensions Agency. One of the agency’s subsidiaries, the Rayadah Investment Company, has taken over the development, which is estimated to cost between $7 billion and $10 billion. More important, so many near-empty buildings will be a political embarrassment, in particular since the new district carries the king’s name. Authorities may yet lean on the banks to move. Optimism and market forces alone will certainly not be enough to fill all the space. From the print edition: Finance and economics http://www.economist.com/news/finance-and-economics/21577424-saudi-capital-unlikely-become-alternative-dubai-any-time-soon-empty?frsc=dg%7Cc

Un excellent regard sur la densité. Ceux qui s'intéressent à l'urbanisme, à l'architecture et la conception des villes aimeront cet article! Bref, la densité, ce n'est pas une question de tours.

Est-ce que l'article ci-dessous et un avertissement pour la préservation hyperactive de l'architecture Montréalaise? Preservation Follies http://www.city-journal.org/2010/20_2_preservation-follies.html New York’s original Pennsylvania Railroad Station opened its doors in November 1910, with its towering Doric columns and a 150-foot-high waiting room based on the Baths of Caracalla in Rome. “As the crowd passed through the doors into the vast concourse,” the New York Times reported, “on every hand were heard exclamations of wonder, for none had any idea of the architectural beauty of the new structure.” But in the mid-1960s, the Pennsylvania Railroad tried to make up for falling revenues by razing the Beaux Arts structure—over the protests of architects and editorial boards—and replacing it with today’s drab station, the new Madison Square Garden, and rent-bearing office towers. The beloved old station became a martyr for the preservationist cause. In 1965, Mayor Robert Wagner signed the law establishing the Landmarks Preservation Commission. Initially, the move seemed like a harmless sop to the activist architects. But the commission’s power soon grew, partly because it was charged not only with protecting beautiful old structures but also with establishing large historic districts. Today, New York City contains just 1,200 individually landmarked buildings, far fewer than the 25,000 buildings within its 100 historic districts. And in these districts—1,300 acres’ worth in Manhattan alone—almost every action that affects a building’s exterior must pass muster with the commission, from installing air conditioners in windows to mounting intercom boxes next to front doors. A tree can grow in Brooklyn, but not in SoHo, unless the commission decides that its leaves are no affront to that neighborhood. It is wise and good to protect the most cherished parts of a city’s architectural history. But New York’s vast historic districts, which include thousands of utterly undistinguished structures, don’t accomplish that goal. Worse, they impede new construction, keeping real estate in New York City enormously expensive (despite a housing crash), especially in its most desirable, historically protected areas. It’s time to ask whether New York’s big historic districts make sense. According to a law passed in 1965, to bestow historic-district status on a neighborhood, the Landmarks Preservation Commission must hold public hearings, vote, and then submit its proposal to the city council, which must approve the designation. Once that happens, the commission has enormous powers over the new district: it may “specify the nature of any construction, reconstruction, alteration or demolition of any landscape feature which may be performed” within that district. The commission began landmarking speedily after the law was passed. From 1966 to 1981, it created 20 historic districts in southern Manhattan, at a rate of about 38 acres per year. (By “southern Manhattan,” I mean the island below 96th Street—the most expensive land in the city and some of the most expensive in the world.) The largest of these districts was Greenwich Village, which was landmarked in 1969. The plan to submit the Village to the commission’s oversight was embraced by most of its residents, despite their well-known history of fighting the government’s use of eminent domain to seize their property outright. Mayor Wagner said that he was “deeply concerned and sympathetic with the people of the West Village neighborhood in their desire to conserve and build constructively upon a neighborhood life which is an example of city community life at its healthiest.” Mayor-elect John Lindsay and mayor-to-be Ed Koch, a Village resident himself, also favored making the Village a historic district. Two property owners did file a lawsuit against the city, and large property-owning institutions like the New School and Saint Vincent’s Hospital also didn’t want their future building options curtailed. But in the end, the proposal passed, and a similar groundswell helped establish the SoHo Cast Iron District in 1973. In 1978, the U.S. Supreme Court allowed governments to landmark commercial areas without compensating the owners, giving the Landmarks Preservation Commission a green light to expand farther into areas that had many nonresidential properties. The largest of these was the Upper East Side. Once again, effective organizers, like New Yorker drama critic Brendan Gill, rallied a sophisticated community behind the districting plan. Opponents of the Upper East Side Historic District mounted a spirited defense, challenging the notion that this large swath of Manhattan had any kind of architectural unity, but they were overwhelmed. Paul Goldberger, writing in the Times, noted that the decision put the Koch administration “squarely on the side of preservation, rather than development, of some of the city’s most expensive real estate.” The Upper East Side Historic District was the high-water mark of preservationism in the age of Ed Koch. From May 1981 to May 1989, the commission added just five new districts in southern Manhattan, a rate of 2.82 acres per year. Perhaps the commissioner during much of this period, Gene Norman, didn’t believe in expansion as much as his predecessors did. Perhaps the commission was busy fighting other battles, like landmarking the Broadway theaters and preventing Saint Bartholomew’s on Park Avenue from erecting a tower. Or perhaps it was the spirit of the expansive eighties, when New York’s growth seemed like a pretty good thing. But then Norman resigned, and suddenly, perhaps coincidentally, historic districting soared. Between May 1989 and December 1993, 509 extra acres were added—a pace of over 100 acres per year. Tribeca, Ladies’ Mile, and the Upper West Side—a vast collection of extremely heterogeneous buildings, many of them with little architectural distinction—were just a few of the major districts brought under the commission’s control. The bulk of this districting occurred during the mayoralty of David Dinkins. Again, that may be the result of happenstance, or of Dinkins’s appointments to the commission, or of their sense that their decisions wouldn’t be overruled. But it’s worth noting that the districting explosion stopped as soon as Rudy Giuliani became mayor. Since 1993, the pace of historic districting in southern Manhattan has averaged about seven acres per year. Only one-tenth of the 1,200 acres that are now part of historic districts in southern Manhattan have been added since 1993. The Giuliani and Bloomberg administrations, including their commission chairs—Jennifer Raab, Sheridan Hawkins, and Robert Tierney—have shown far more restraint in increasing their sway over Manhattan than most of their predecessors did. Nevertheless, the damage has been done. Not counting parks, southern Manhattan contains about 7,700 acres of potentially buildable area. Today, nearly 16 percent of that land is in historic districts and therefore subject to the commission’s authority. This preservation is freezing large tracts of land, rendering them unable to accommodate the thousands of people who would like to live in Manhattan but can’t afford to. To get an idea of the way that historic districts can freeze a city, consider two recent episodes. In 1999, Citibank sold a one-story branch bank on the corner of 91st and Madison Avenue to a developer who planned a 17-story tower for the site. But the corner was within the prestigious Carnegie Hill Historic District, whose distinguished residents didn’t like the idea of another tower in their neighborhood. Woody Allen made a short video protesting the plan. Kevin Kline recited Richard II: “How sour sweet music is, / When time is broke and no proportion kept!” No New Yorker who grew up hearing Kline play Henry V in Central Park can fault the commission for being swayed by his eloquence. It told the developer to limit the building to nine stories—even though one of the few limits to the commission’s power, explicitly stated in the New York City Administrative Code, is that “nothing contained in this chapter shall be construed as authorizing the commission, in acting with respect to any historic district or improvement therein, . . . to regulate or limit the height and bulk of buildings.” A few years later, the developer Aby Rosen wanted to erect a 22-story glass tower atop the old Sotheby Parke-Bernet building at 980 Madison Avenue, in the heart of the massive Upper East Side Historic District. Even though the building itself wasn’t landmarked, Rosen and his architect, Lord Norman Foster, proposed keeping the original building’s facade intact and letting the tower rise above it, much as the MetLife building rises above Grand Central Terminal. Once again, well-connected neighbors didn’t like the idea and took their complaints to the Landmarks Preservation Commission. Tom Wolfe, the brilliant chronicler of the foibles of New York and the real-estate industry, penned a 1,500-word piece in the New York Times insinuating that if the commission approved the project, it would betray its mission. Wolfe won, and nothing was built. Replying to his critics (of whom I was one), Wolfe wrote in the Village Voice that “to take their theory to its logical conclusion would be to develop Central Park. . . . When you consider the thousands and thousands of people who could be housed in Central Park if they would only allow them to build it up, boy, the problem is on the way to being solved!” But building high-rises in dense neighborhoods means that you don’t have to build in green areas, whether they’re urban parks or undeveloped areas far from the city. In fact, a true preservationist should realize that building up in one area reduces the pressure to take down other buildings. Once the landmarks commission decides that a building can be knocked down—as was the case in the Battle of Carnegie Hill—it should logically demand that its replacement be as tall as possible. Does turning a neighborhood into a historic district actually discourage new construction, as these stories suggest? To find out, I couldn’t simply use data from the U.S. Census to see if regular districts boasted more housing growth than historic districts did, because historic districts don’t match up exactly with census tracts. So I have made comparisons among three kinds of census tracts: those that have no territory within a historic district; those that have some; and those with a majority of land in a historic district. During the 1980s, the mostly historic tracts added an average of 48 housing units apiece—noticeably fewer than the 280 units added in the partly historic tracts and the 258 units added in the nonhistoric tracts. In the 1990s, the mostly historic tracts lost an average of 94 housing units (thanks to unit consolidation or conversion to other uses), while the partly historic tracts lost an average of 46 units and the nonhistoric tracts added an average of 89 units. In short, census data show that there has indeed been less new housing built in historic districts, even though they are some of the most attractive areas in New York. A different approach to measuring new construction is to use consumer websites to look at high-rise buildings, which make the biggest contributions to the city’s housing stock. According to Emporis.com, just five residential buildings with more than 15 stories have been erected in historic districts in southern Manhattan since 1970; that’s an average of 0.004 buildings per acre, less than half the rate in nonhistoric southern Manhattan. Nybits.com, another website, lists 234 over-15-story residential buildings built in southern Manhattan since 1981. Of these, just 6 percent were built in historic districts, even though historic districts cover 16 percent of southern Manhattan. Neither website includes every new building erected in the city, but there’s no reason to suspect that they are disproportionately missing new buildings in historic districts. Again, we see that less new housing is built in historic districts—which shouldn’t be much of a surprise. The laws of supply and demand aren’t usually subject to legislative appeal: when the supply of something desirable is restricted, its price will typically rise. To find out whether prices have risen more quickly in historic districts than elsewhere, I have used data on more than 17,000 Manhattan condominium sales by the First American Corporation. The data cover the years between 1980 and 2002, avoiding the extreme price increases that occurred during the last eight years, and they include the addresses of the condos, making it possible to link them to historic districts. From 1980 through 1991, the average price of a midsize condominium (between 800 and 1,200 square feet) sold in a historic district was $494,043 in today’s dollars. From 1991 through 2002, that price was $582,671—an 18 percent increase. The average price of a midsize condo outside a historic district, meanwhile, barely rose in real dollars, from $581,865 in the first decade to just $583,352 in the second. In other words, even though condos within historic districts were cheaper than those outside historic districts in the 1980s, they had become equally expensive by the 1990s. Over the entire 1980–2002 period, prices each year rose $6,000 more in historic districts than outside them. The results tend to get stronger if you look at price per square foot, use statistical techniques to control for unit size, or expand the sample. For example, if you include units between 500 and 1,500 square feet, you’ll find that price per square foot increased by only about $5.50 outside historic districts from the first decade to the second (again, in real dollars)—but that within historic districts, the price per square foot rose from $530 to $596. The increasing cost of property in historic districts remains even if you control for those districts’ amenities, like proximity to Central Park, and if you allow that proximity to become more valuable over time. Restricting new construction in historic districts drives up the price of housing, then. This, in turn, increasingly makes those districts exclusive enclaves of the well-to-do, educated, and white. Census data about southern Manhattan show that in 2000, average household income in census tracts that were primarily in historic districts was $183,000 (in current dollars), which was 74 percent more than that of households in tracts outside historic districts. Almost three-quarters of the adults in the mostly historic tracts had college degrees, as opposed to 54 percent in tracts outside historic districts. And people in the majority-historic tracts were 20 percent more likely to be white. This alone isn’t surprising: architectural beauty is a luxury good, so one would expect that the prosperous would be willing to pay more to enjoy it. What’s disturbing is that historic-district status itself seems to make areas more exclusive over time, as limits on new development make it more difficult to build for people with lower incomes. In 1970, families in tracts that would eventually be located at least partly within historic districts had incomes 29 percent higher than families living outside such districts. By 2000, that gap had widened to 54 percent. Similarly, in 1970, people living in areas that would become historic districts were 4 percent more likely to be white than those outside these areas, as opposed to 15 percent 30 years later. Tracts in historic districts have also seen their share of residents with college degrees increase significantly faster than that of tracts outside historic districts. In The Death and Life of Great American Cities, Jane Jacobs argued that “cities need old buildings” because “if a city area has only new buildings, the enterprises that can exist there are automatically limited to those that can support the high costs of new construction.” Jacobs was surely correct that cities benefit from having some less expensive real estate—but restricting the construction of new buildings doesn’t achieve that end. Prices stay low not when the building stock is frozen but when it increases to meet demand. Preservation doesn’t make New York accessible to a wider range of people; it turns the city into a preserve of the prosperous. As if it weren’t enough that large historic districts are associated with a reduction in housing supply, higher prices, and increasingly elite residents, there’s also an aesthetic reason to be skeptical about them: they protect an abundance of uninteresting buildings that are less attractive and exciting than new structures that could replace them. Not every city, it’s worth adding, has restricted construction in its most valuable areas. Chicago has allowed an enormous number of high-rise buildings with splendid views of Lake Michigan. The result is a city with a great deal of affordable luxury housing. It’s hard to fault the Landmarks Preservation Commission for stopping development in historic districts. That’s its job: to “safeguard the city’s historic, aesthetic and cultural heritage,” as the city’s administrative code puts it. The real question is whether these vast districts should ever have been created and whether they should remain protected ground in the years ahead. No living city’s future should become a prisoner to its past. Research for this article was supported by the Brunie Fund for New York Journalism. Edward L. Glaeser is a professor of economics at Harvard University, a City Journal contributing editor, and a Manhattan Institute senior fellow. He is grateful to Kristina Tobio for heroic research assistance.

Voici un très beau projet qui nous a échappé en 2010 : *** Publié le 4 Mai 2010 Jean-Guy Ladouceur RSS Feed Deux mois plus tôt et une économie de 4 M $ Sujets : Sûreté du Québec , école Le Manoir , Mascouche , District de Montréal-Laval-Laurentides-Lanaudière , Québec C’est avec beaucoup de plaisir que les différents intervenants ont inauguré le nouveau quartier général du district de Montréal-Laval-Laurentides-Lanaudière de la Sûreté du Québec à Mascouche, vendredi dernier. Ce bâtiment est le premier de la Sûreté du Québec, et parmi les premiers du gouvernement du Québec, à détenir la certification LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design). Il occupe une place stratégique à l’intersection des autoroutes 25 et 640 et possède sa propre voie de sortie sur l’autoroute. L’établissement abritera principalement le bureau de l’administration, le centre de gestion d’appels d’urgence (entre 600 000 et 700 000 par année), les bureaux de la surveillance du territoire, le bureau régional d’enquêtes, les locaux de détention et d’entreposage, l’escouade régionale mixte et le bureau du commandant. Au cours de l’année qui vient, les policiers installés un peu partout dans la région, et principalement à l’école Le Manoir, intégreront leurs nouveaux locaux graduellement. Des policiers y ont d’ailleurs pris leur premier quart de travail le 12 avril à midi. En tout, il y aura plus d’une centaine de policiers sur place, sans compter autant de membres civils. En l’absence du ministre Jacques Dupuis, le sous-ministre de la Sécurité publique, Robert Lafrenière, a été délégué à la cérémonie. Caractère particulier Le commandant du poste, Jacques Beaupré, a fait un court historique de cet accomplissement et indiqué que les attendant du 11 septembre 2001 ont eu un effet déclencheur sur ce projet. Il était très fier de confirmer que «…le nouveau QG a été livré deux mois plus tôt que prévu et sa réalisation a coûté 4 M$ de moins que prévu». Celui-ci considère que les nouvelles installations assureront une meilleure cohésion entre les divers services de la SQ. Richard Deschênes, directeur général de la Sûreté du Québec, a avoué que «cette réalisation représente un beau moment de ma carrière. C’est un lieu visible et rassurant pour la population». «Il y aurait toute une histoire à raconter sur ce sujet. Il a fallu beaucoup de coordination. Je peux vous assurer qu’il s’agit d’un joyau d’exécution. Qui aurait pensé qu’un jour on aurait eu un investissement institutionnel d’une telle envergure à Mascouche», a dit le maire Richard Marcotte, visiblement très fier de cette réussite. Le sous-ministre était également fier de cette construction qui peut recevoir éventuellement des agrandissements, et même, résister aux tremblements de terre. http://www.hebdorivenord.com/Economie/Affaires/2010-05-04/article-1077844/Le-quartier-general-MLLL-de-la-SQ-a-Mascouche-inaugure/1

http://www.montrealgazette.com/travel/this+architectural/6201759/story.html

"The 2010 Shanghai fire was a 15 November 2010 fire that destroyed a 28-story high-rise apartment building in the Chinese city of Shanghai. The fire began at 2:15 p.m. local time (06:15 UTC),[5][6] and at least 53 people were killed with over 100 others injured. China's Xinhua News Agency reported that the building, at the intersection of Jiaozhou Road and Yuyao Road in Shanghai's Jing'an District [7], was being renovated at the time of the fire.[8] Shanghai residents were able to see smoke from the fire several kilometres away.[9] The ages of those injured in the fire range from 3–85, with the majority (64.5%) over the age of 50. [...end of excerpt from article.]" > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_Shanghai_fire

There are an article in The Gazette (which I shall put after this post) that speaks about Montreal embracing open data. Also, anybody every been to Ottawa, Quebec? lol How Open Data Initiatives Can Improve City Life by Aliza Sherman Major city governments across North America are looking for ways to share civic data — which normally resides behind secure firewalls — with private developers who can leverage it to serve city residents via web and mobile apps. Cities can spend on average between $20,000 and $50,000 — even as much as $100,000 — to cover the costs of opening data, but that’s a small price to pay when you consider how much is needed to develop a custom application that might not be nearly as useful. Here are a few examples of initiatives that are striving to make city governments more efficient and transparent through open data. 1. Apps4Ottawa – Ottawa, Quebec Careful to adhere to security and privacy regulations for their open data program, the City of Ottawa started sharing data in several areas: geo-spatial (roadways, parks, runways, rivers, and ward boundaries); recreation facilities; event planning; civic elections data; and transit, including schedules. Other data the city is pursuing includes tree inventory, collections schedules for garbage, recycling and compost, and bike and foot paths. Ottawa aligned their first open data contest, Apps4Ottawa, with the school year (September 2010 to January 2011 ) to involve colleges and universities as well as residents and local industry. Categories for the contest included “Having Fun in Ottawa,” “Getting Around,” “Green Environment/Sustainability,” “Community Building,” and “Economic Development.” The winner is scheduled to be announced later this evening. Guy Michaud, chief information officer for the City of Ottawa, said their open data efforts have already spurred economic development and is meant to be good for local entrepreneurs. The city receives no revenue through the apps, and the developers can sell what they create. In turn, Ottawa residents get improved services from applications that are created, with better access to city data and more user-friendly formats and platforms. 2. CivicApps.org – Portland, Oregon After tracking Vivek Kundra’s efforts at the federal level with data.gov, Portland, Oregon launched CivicApps.org, a project initiated out of the mayor’s office to bring a more localized approach to the open data movement. Skip Newberry, economic policy advisor to the mayor, say that the project’s main objective is to improve connections and the flow of information between local government and its constituents, as well as between city bureaus. To call attention to the release of public data, they also launched an app design contest, highlighting the tech talent in Portland’s software community. According to Rick Nixon, program manager for the Bureau of Technology’s Open Data Initiative for the city of Portland, CivicApps.org took a more regional approach to cover the multiple layers of local government: County, Metro, TriMet, and the City of Portland, all of which collect and maintain various kinds of public data. Data sets released include regional crime, transit, infrastructure (i.e. public works), and economic development programs. Additional projects, such as the PDX API, have been launched in order to make the raw data from CivicApps more useful to developers. In addition to developer-specific apps, a number of transit related apps — bike, train, bus, mixed modes — were also developed. A very popular and established transit app, PDXBus, was re-released as open source under the rules of the CivicApps contest. Other popular apps helped provide residents greater awareness of their surroundings such as where to find heritage trees, where to find urban edibles, and where to locate each other during disaster relief efforts. 3. CityWide Data Warehouse – Washington, DC For years, the District of Columbia provided public access to city operational data via the Internet. In keeping with the mayor’s promise to be transparent, the program CityWide Data Warehouse was launched, and provides citizens with access to over 450 datasets from multiple agencies. The first two datasets released were service requests from the mayor’s call center, including trash pickup, pot hole repair, street light repair, snow removal, parking meter issues and crime data. According to David Stirgel, program manager for Citywide Data Warehouse, the project looks for data that be of interest to the widest possible audience and which will remain reusable over time. Some of the applications that have come out of the program include Track DC, which tracks the performance of individual District agencies, and summary reports that provide public access to city operational data. Some of the applications built by companies and individuals using the data include Crime Reports and Every Block. In 2008, the District Mayor’s office, the District of Columbia’s Office of the Chief Technology Officer, and digital agency iStrategyLabs launched Apps for Democracy, an open code app development contest tapping into District data that cost $50,000 and generated 47 apps. The contest was repeated in 2009. Over 200 ideas and applications were submitted, and the winner was an iPhone and Facebook app called Social DC 311. It could be used to submit service requests, such as reporting potholes and trash problems. An honorable mention was given to FixMyCityDC. Unfortunately, neither app is maintained today. 4. NYC Data Mine – New York, NY NYC BigApps 2.0 is part of an initiative to improve the accessibility, transparency, and accountability of city government. According to Brandon Kessler, CEO of ChallengePost, the company and technology powering the NYC BigApps 2.0 Software Challenge, Mayor Bloomberg challenged software developers to use city data from the NYC.gov Data Mine to create apps to improve NYC, offering a $20,000 in cash awards to the winners. The second annual challenge closed its call for submissions at the end of January 2011 and opened the vote to the public. Voting ends on March 9. Requirements included that the software applications be original and solely owned by the entrants, that they use at least one of the datasets from the NYC.gov Data Mine, and be free to the public throughout the competition and for at least one year after the challenge. The panel of judges reads like a “who’s who” of New York tech luminaries, and includes Esther Dyson of EDVenture, Fred Wilson of Union Square Ventures, Jack Dorsey of Square and Twitter, and Kara Swisher of All Things Digital. One of the first year’s winning apps was WayFinder, an augmented reality Android app which allows users to point their phone in a direction and see which subways and Path trains are in front of them. 5. DataSF – San Francisco, California Like other city governments, San Francisco’s goal for their DataSF program was to improve transparency and community engagement as well as accountability. Ron Vinson, director of media for the city’s Department of Technology also stated potential for innovation in how residents interact with government and their community. With an emphasis on adhering to privacy and security policies, the city can stimulate the creation of useful civic tools at no cost to the government. Before launching, they reached out to Washington, DC to identify the most popular datasets, and learned that 20% of the datasets represented over 80% of the downloads. With this information, they went out first with crime, 311, and GIS data. They also allowed the public to request data through a submissions mechanism on the website where others could vote on their suggestions. This input is now required reading for the city administrator thanks to an executive directive and open data legislation. Since launching in August 2009, DataSF has accumulated over 60 applications in its showcase. According to Vinson, the city stays engaged with their tech community by participating in local unconferences and meetups. http://mashable.com/2011/02/15/how-open-data-initiatives-can-improve-city-life/

I’m a big fan of the Grands Chantiers section of Montreal 2025. I’ve always been someone who believes the public sector should lay out the general framework and the ground rules for an area – the master plan – and that once that is complete it’s then the private sectors time to shine and help implement that plan through various firms' fields of expertise. That being said what happens when the majority of the various elements of Montreal’s “Quatre Grands Chantiers” are approved and are well into the development stage. What’s next? I have several suggestions I will be posting in the near future. Here is the first. I’d love it if others posted their own ideas as well. Grand Chantier: LES ABORDS DE L'AUTOROUTE 720 This is not so much a district as much as it’s the meeting point of several districts; an area with lots of development opportunities and potential for improvement: Such as: -Les Diamants -Le Mackay -1175 Mackay -1300 René-Lévesque Ouest -The development of the Overdale lot -1500 René-Lévesque Ouest -The Hotel Maritime redevelopment -The redevelopment of 1800 René-Lévesque Ouest -The redevelopment of the Franciscans property -The redevelopment of the Montreal Children’s facilities once it leaves for the Glen Yards -The redevelopment of the Dow Planetarium -La Cité du commerce électronique - Place III -The Cadillac Fairview - Gare Bonaventure project. -The creation of a new square in commemoration of Chaboillez Square near Griffintown -Covering the side of the 720 facing Saint-Antoine west of Lucien L’Allier with ivy or some other type of greenery to make the streetscape more appealing for area residents Just to name a few