côte-des-neiges-notre-dame-de-grâce Théâtre Empress

[mtlurb]

Je ne savais pas trop où mettre ce sujet, il y a un fil sur les rénovation, mais je crois qu'il devrait avoir une catégorie complète la dessus. Alors je lance cette proposition au admin.

 

faire revivre le Cinema V sur la rue Sherbrooke en centre culutrel.

 

The Gazette Source

 

There's new hope for old building, Empress Cultural Centre executive says

 

Will we ever see a sequel to landmark movie house?

 

Its exterior is adorned with the faces of Egyptian nobility, enshrining a grandiose Hollywood pedigree, yet the former Cinema V movie house on Sherbrooke St. and Old Orchard Ave. in Notre Dame de Grâce seems unloved these days, and even more entombed in snow that the rest of us. The art deco building, first opened in 1927 as the Empress Theatre, was last used as a cinema in 1992. Following last month's $225,000 grant from the Côte des Neiges/Notre Dame de Grâce borough, the Empress Cultural Centre, as it is now called, might become the new home to the Black Theatre Workshop and the McGill Conservatory's Community Program, part of the Schulich School of Music at McGill University. The $6.5-million project includes a 300-seat theatre, rehearsal space and two medium-size halls for music, dance and theatre lessons. If Quebec kicks in the rest of the funding, the grand reopening could be in 2010. But will it actually happen? Businessperson and microbrewer Peter McAuslan is on the board of the Empress Cultural Centre.

 

Gazette: Why should this plan succeed any more than previous ones?

 

McAuslan: Because we finally have credible partners like the Black Theatre Workshop and the McGill Conservatory of Music. Until now, we had raised between $200,000 and $300,000 ourselves, but that was pretty much it. Now, the city has matched it (and a technical plan for the project has been agreed upon). The Black Theatre Workshop (as a performance production company) can apply for the grant from Quebec.

 

Gazette: Some board members really went out on a limb (at one point cashing in their RRSPs to pay some back taxes on the property). Why was it so important to them?

 

McAuslan: It's an elegant building and it's important to Montreal. The architects (Alcide Chaussé and Emmanuel Briffa) really reflected the public's fascination with art deco and with Egypt after King Tut's tomb was discovered in the 1920s. People came there to see movies and escape the blues of the Depression. It really became part of the fabric of the N.D.G. community, even more so later with the Cinema V. It's a place in time.

 

Gazette: Why go to so much

 

trouble relocating cultural groups? Aren't they just fine where they are?

 

McAuslan: There is a huge synergy when you move several cultural groups, like music and theatre, into a shared space. The crossover between the disciplines is a benefit to everyone. This is the way of the future for the arts, trying to integrate instead of staying separate. In a shared space, other (smaller) arts groups also get access they wouldn't have otherwise. There will be vernissages and spinoffs. The centre will become part of the lifeblood of the local community, and not be shaped by a massive bureaucracy. N.D.G. is a very grassroots-oriented place.

 

Gazette: Why is it taking so long?

 

McAuslan: There has always been money available from governments, but there is a Byzantine application process and I don't really understand it. Now, we have people (involved in the project) who do understand how the machine works. You know, the Empress has never been designated as a heritage building. It's just had some good people, including the city (which bought it in 1999 for $571,000, and granted ownership to the corporation that became the Empress Cultural Centre) looking out for it. It's taking a long time, like many other arts projects in the city. But it is grinding its way to reality.

[ProposMontréal]

[mtlurb]

Quelqu'un a des nouvelles?

 

---------------------------------------

 

Le mercredi 6 février 2008

L'ancien Cinéma V revitalisé

La Presse

 

 

Le Centre culturel Empress, situé dans les bâtiments de l'ancien Cinéma V, dans le quartier Notre-Dame-de-Grâce, devrait faire l'objet d'importants travaux de revitalisation.

 

Le futur centre devrait accueillir les artistes professionnels et de la relève des arts de la scène et des arts visuels. Le Centre comprendra entre autres une salle de spectacles de 300 personnes, une salle de répétition et de création de 100 personnes ainsi qu'une galerie d'art.

 

Ce projet, un partenariat du Centre Culturel Empress, du Black Theatre Workshop, et du conservatoire de McGill, a reçu lundi l'aval du Conseil d'arrondissement de Notre-Dame-de-Grâce.

 

Le Black Theatre Workshop doit maintenant déposer une demande d'aide financière auprès du gouvernement. Le coût du projet est estimé à 6,5 millions.

[monctezuma]

More madness Montreal style

August 17th, 2010

 

City of Montreal taking back the Empress

Heritage building; Failed as cultural centre, needs many repairs

 

Decorative elements from the Empress building on Sherbrooke St. W. are crumbling, the roof needs repairs and there are other problems the city will tend to when it takes possession in November.Photograph by: John Kenney, The GazetteMONTREAL - Ownership of the crumbling remains of the Empress Theatre (Cinema V) on Sherbrooke St. W. will revert to the city of Montreal in November.

 

Eleven years after the site was purchased by the city and ownership given to a group that hoped to create some sort of community centre for the performing arts, the key will go back to the city centre -and with it the bills.

 

"Essentially, the work cannot be done by the community. The roof needs repairs, there are electrical issues, and there are other problems with this old heritage building," said Arnold Bennett, board member of the Empress Cultural Centre Inc., the not-for-profit group that is trying to resurrect what was once a thriving theatre and cabaret venue.

 

A decade of frustration and bad luck has dogged the folks who have been trying to turn the former movie complex into a performance venue for local troupes, and so before the building becomes a sorry wreck like the privately owned Seville, it will go back to the city.

 

When the provincial government's culture and communications ministry turned down a funding request in December 2009, and a similar request was also refused by Ottawa, the board members realized that they could not raise the estimated $10 million to $11 million needed to refurbish the place.

 

"We were certainly demoralized when Quebec said no," Bennett said.

 

The board also couldn't allow the building to deteriorate further.

 

"Temporarily, it's game over, but all kinds of discussions are going on looking for a solution," Bennett said.

 

"No. 1, the city is taking the building back to do the necessary repairs, No. 2, the borough will continue to work with the community," Bennett said.

 

While plans are up in the air, what will not happen is a conversion of the property to condos, Bennett said most emphatically.

 

"Even if the building is owned by the city, conversion to condos will not be tolerated by the borough," he said.

 

"There has been no decision made about the building. We are waiting to hear from the board," said city of Montreal spokesperson Darren Becker.

 

"The city has also been paying some of the costs on the upkeep of this building," Becker added.

 

Said Bennett: "Unless a solution is found to put money into this place, the building will sit empty, which is not in anybody's interest."

 

asutherland@thegazette.canwest.com

 

© Copyright © The Montreal Gazette

 

 

Read more: http://www.montrealgazette.com/City+...#ixzz0x55dV400

Modifié 25 août 2010 par monctezuma

[monctezuma]

CTV Montreal

 

City agrees to repairs on Empress Theatre

 

 

The government of Quebec rejected a request last year to fund repairs on the Empress Theatre, and city officials said they won't foot the entire bill.

 

Updated: Tue Aug. 17 2010 11:20:02 PM

 

ctvmontreal.ca

 

The city of Montreal has agreed in principle to begin some of the work on an $11-million restoration project on the Empress Theatre in Notre-Dame-de-Grace, Empress board members said Tuesday.

 

The board members say the city has agreed to repair the roof and the electrical system on the Sherbrooke St. W landmark, which have both significantly deteriorated.

 

Built in 1928, the former Cinema V has long been treasured for both its colourful façade, and its colourful history, including burlesque and vaudeville performances.

 

The theatre is now begging for renovations, the biggest concern being water infiltration resulting from a leaking roof and corroded pipes.

 

Board members said they attempted to keep the roof from falling apart, but ran in to several stumbling blocks.

 

"We had the roof done and the roofer proved to be incompetent and then went bankrupt on us, so we were operating on donations and city money. We ended up losing about $100,000," said board member Arnold Bennett.

 

City won't foot the full bill

 

The government of Quebec rejected a request for funding last year, and city officials said they won't foot the entire bill to restore the theatre.

 

"Everyone wants something to happen, but there has to be some other levels of government financing as well. The city can't do everything on its own," said city spokesperson Darren Becker.

 

Opposition councillor for the NDG district Peter McQueen agrees.

 

"I think a larger entity with larger resources and more expertise is needed to seal up the building," he said.

[monctezuma]

Du nouveau ! Merci à Mtlskyline sur SSP:

 

 

Curtain to rise on $6-million Empress Theatre revival

Would include film, live shows and more

 

By Marian Scott, THE GAZETTE

May 9, 2012 6:44 AM

 

 

MONTREAL – The Empress Theatre would be reborn as a venue for Montreal’s vibrant music scene, an institute for analog film heritage and a gathering place where Montrealers can drink, dine and enjoy a breathtaking view from a green rooftop terrace, under a proposal from an N.D.G. community organization.

 

“We’re pretty excited about the proposal,” said Jason Hughes, treasurer and board member of the Empress Cultural Centre.

 

On Wednesday evening, the centre will unveil a $6-million plan to revive the theatre at 5560 Sherbrooke St. W. as a self-financing cultural complex.

 

The group is submitting the scheme to the Côte des Neiges-Notre Dame de Grâce borough, which has called for proposals for redeveloping the heritage theatre facing Girouard Park.

 

Several unnamed investors are behind the proposed redevelopment, which must be self-financing under rules set by the borough, Hughes said.

 

The proposal reflects broad input from local residents, he said.

 

“It’s been interesting to hear people’s hopes for that place, and to say, yeah, we should have that kind of live performance space, that we can support that kind of thing,” Hughes said.

 

Last year, the C.D.N.-N.D.G. borough took back the Egyptian-style theatre, built in 1927, from the Empress Cultural Centre, saying the centre had failed to come up with a viable plan to redevelop the building in the 12 years it had been in charge of the aging landmark.

 

But organizers protested that the centre’s new board, elected in September 2010, had not had time to bring the project to fruition.

 

In January, the borough called for proposals for the building. Proposals must focus on a cultural vocation and be financially self-supporting, Borough Mayor Michal Applebaum said.

 

The heritage theatre offers exciting possibilities for tapping into Montreal’s cultural effervescence, said award-winning architect Talia Dorsey, who conceived the Empress Cultural Centre’s proposal.

 

Dorsey, a Montreal native who trained at Princeton and MIT, worked under famed architect and urban theorist Rem Koolhaas in the Netherlands on projects including modernization of the Hermitage museum in St. Petersburg.

 

She noted N.D.G. is one of Canada’s most artistic districts, after the Plateau, Outremont and Old Montreal, according to a 2005 study by Hill Strategies Research Inc. N.D.G. has five times as many people working in the arts as the national average, she noted.

 

The study found Montreal is Canada’s most creative city, with five of the country’s 10 most creative neighbourhoods.

 

The Empress, the only surviving Egyptian-style theatre in Canada, is the ideal setting for a cultural venue serving the entire west end of the city, Dorsey said.

 

“On a cultural level, there’s real appreciation for that kind of aura and authenticity,” she said.

 

Under the centre’s proposal, the revitalized theatre would house both live performance and film screenings, serve the city’s thriving recording industry as a venue for live recordings and commemorate the age of the silver screen as a showcase for and research institute on analog (celluloid) film.

 

An in-house restaurant and café would promote urban agriculture projects by featuring local products.

 

A rooftop garden would include a terrace for small weddings and other events. Musicians and other visitors could rent short-term accommodation on upper floors of the renovated theatre.

 

Remembered by many as the Cinema V repertory theatre, the long-vacant art deco building was bought by the city in 1999.

 

In February, Héritage Montréal listed the Empress as one of the city’s 10 most important endangered heritage sites.

 

François Puchin, a borough communications officer, said officials will not comment on any of the proposals before the winning design is selected. The deadline for submitting proposals is Friday.

 

An evaluation committee will choose the winning proposal on June 1 and the borough council will approve the choice on June 26.

 

The Empress Cultural Centre will unveil its proposal at a meeting Wednesday at 7 p.m. at the Coop La Maison Verte, 5785 Sherbrooke St. W.

 

mascot@montrealgazette.com

© Copyright © The Montreal Gazette

[LindbergMTL]

Bravo si ca se matérialise! J"aime l'idée qu'ils continueraient à faire des projections de films, en pellicule!

[jesseps]

Nice to see this will be spared and revitalized. There is so many old theatres that have been destroyed or gutted for other things.

[Fortier]

Théâtre Empress

(Photo de Memphis 22)

Sujet sur la rénovation du théâtre Empress.

http://plus.lapresse.ca/screens/8ab67fbd-16b2-40a8-9a58-684d27e76677__7C___0.html

[Memphis 22]

Ce magnifique immeuble est dans un état de délabrement avancé. Il est urgent d'agir pour sauvegarder ce joyau de notre patrimoine urbain.