CASE STUDY

Initial Research by: Vincent Rara

Edited by: Samantha Miller & Nicole Brekelmans

Case study compiled in 2019

 

Project: Bonaventure Project 

Type of Urban Strategy: Ecological Infrastructure

Type of Project: Urban Reconstruction 

Location: Montréal, Québec

Date Designed/Planned: 2011

Construction Completed:  2017

Designer: Groupe Rousseau Lefebvre

 

The Bonaventure Project marked Montréal's 375th birthday and served as a gateway that invites the world to downtown Montréal. The site was once the location of an elevated expressway that had visitors travel over Griffintown, a neighbourhood that consisted of blue-collar workers. After WWII the neighbourhood would experience population numbers as low as 1,000 residents. Slowly, the fate of Griffintown began improving. The condo boom of the early 2000s attracted residents, and today the median income for a condo buyer in the area is higher than the median income of those buying homes in other parts of the city. The elevated expressway is now a ground-level boulevard. The Bonaventure Project has brought much needed green public space to the area and has also begun correcting traffic circulation issues the area had been experiencing for years. Griffintown has now become reintegrated into the urban fabric of the city due to the success of the Bonaventure Project.