Contemporary architecture and nostalgia are defining elements of new MAA Condominiums & Penthouses
It’s hard not to feel nostalgic while listening to William Atkinson talk about the glory days of the Golden Square Mile as well as the history of the country’s oldest athletic club, the Montreal Amateur Athletic Association (MAAA), which was created in 1881 in Westmount. “MAA Condominiums & Penthouses is firmly anchored in the soul of the neighbourhood, and it will offer a new chapter in the life of the legendary sports club,” he said. “We plan on using a lot of old club material, like sports artifacts and historical documents, in a contemporary way to help residents connect with the history of the club.” Atkinson is the architect for Devimco’s $150-million mixed-used 33-storey project being built on the site of the Club Sportif MAA, which moved to Peel Street, just south of Sherbrooke Street, in 1905. It will feature an elegant mix of condominiums, executive suites and penthouses as well as a completely renovated club. Its façades on Peel Street and in the adjoining alley will undergo extensive renovations to restore them to their original appearance, preserving the MAA’s history while also providing a new, stateof-the-art environment that respects the club’s original character for its 2,800 members. “We’ll be working with architects Lemay Michaud as well as the city of Montreal, Heritage Montreal and the Ministère de la Culture et des Communications to ensure that every step of the project respects its illustrious history,” Atkinson said. “A consultant in historical preservation was also hired for the project.” The original MAAA first came to fame in 1893, when its hockey team won the first Stanley Cup ever, and again in 1904, during the summer Olympics in St. Louis, Mo., when a Montreal police officer named Étienne Desmarteau who trained at the club won the country’s first gold medal, in weight throwing. After that, the club helped produce a series of swimming, speed skating, track and field, and football champions, among others. The revitalized 45,000-square-foot gym will house an indoor, semi-Olympic pool, two training rooms, a multipurpose studio, half basketball court and three squash courts as well as dance, yoga and Pilates studios, plus a spinning room. A health-care clinic with massage rooms, a spa and steam bath are also planned for the club. As for the architecture, an elegant blend of frosted glass and noble materials will be used in the highend, contemporary tower built to highlight the cachet — and opulence — of the façade of the existing building. “We want to distance ourselves from the standard glass monolith that we’re seeing in projects of similar calibre. There’s a lot of glazing, of course, for the views, but there’s also a nice grid of Stanstead granite cladding, which is a very noble material that’s present in a lot of iconic buildings in the neighbourhood, like the Sun Life Building, down the street,” Atkinson said. “These days, in New York City and even in London, very high-end, exclusive projects are featuring masonry, not just glass walls. Not in a heavy way, of course, but in a very contemporary way.” The existing MAA building was built in the Beaux-Arts architecture style that was inspired by classical Greek and Roman forms and that was popular in Montreal at the end of the 19th century and early 20th century. The new building, which is set to house over 300 condos, will be heavily influenced by its predecessor in a variety of ways. “One of them is the windows and the way they’re structured, with the mullions. We took similar proportions of the divisions of the original windows, and used them for the windows of the tower,” Atkinson said. “Also, the existing building is mainly made of masonry, with architectural ornaments that are either pre-cast concrete or stone masonry, in a very light grey, so we’re using that colour for the tower as well.” Between its striking light stone, meticulously designed form and revamped Club Sportif MAA, the new MAA Condominiums & Penthouses tower, which is scheduled for completion in 2021, will stand proud as a modern work of architecture as well as a nostalgic footprint representing the city’s — and club’s — history.
We plan on using a lot of old club material, like sports artifacts and historical documents, in a contemporary way to help residents connect with the history of the club WILLIAM ATKINSON, ARCHITECT The revitalized 45,000-square-foot gym will house an indoor, semi-Olympic pool, two training rooms, a multipurpose studio, half basketball court and three squash courts as well as dance, yoga and Pilates studios, plus a spinning room.