Urban meadow honours women of Montreal

Project: Place des Montréalaises 

Award: Future Projects – Urban Design, Gold, 2022

Location: Montreal, Canada

Architect: Lemay + Angela Silver + SNC-Lavalin

Client: City of Montreal

The Place des Montréalaises will feature an urban meadow, built over part of the motorway in the heart of the city of Montreal. Designed to symbolically honour 21 women from the city who have experienced great struggles and made strides for both its past and future, it features 21 circles of indigenous plants that will flower sequentially with the changing seasons. Each one represents a female Montrealer of influence. It also forms part of the city’s greening strategy by working as a pollinator garden.
The Miroir des Montréalaises, a cylindrical mirrored surface standing on the site, features the names of the women in perforations across its surface.
A multi-disciplinary team with backgrounds in architecture, landscape architecture and art worked together on the site which is located between the heritage and history of Old Montreal at one end and the modernity of the downtown area on the other. It will offer a means to safely walk directly between the two areas.

Design highlights

The site is intended as a space for residents of the city to visit and make their own. It’s an act of powerful recognition as well as a place for serene reflection. Visitors will discover distinct areas in each corner of the site: an urban amphitheatre, a multifunctional esplanade, a commemorative staircase and a forest. Rainwater will be recovered to irrigate the meadow and forest. 

Photo credit: Lemay + Angela Silver