NEW VISION FOR VIGER SQUARE
Agora structure gets partial reprieve
After Montreal presented a hastily conceived redesign for the unloved Viger Square in June that called for the demolition of the expansive Agora art structure, the city was met with a concerted hue and cry from dozens of urbanists, heritage activists, museum directors and the artist’s family. They called the city’s concept an unimaginative vacant lot that would create a heat island and showed an utter disrespect for Montreal’s artistic heritage.
In July the city announced it was rethinking its plans.
On Friday, the administration of Mayor Denis Coderre presented a vastly different vision for the park that will retain several elements of the Agora, add numerous trees and green spaces, and remove the dark corners and shelters that served as home for the city’s homeless and deterred members of the general public from venturing into the park for decades.
“I think it meets our wishes of combining a respect of the spirit of the artwork while adding a contemporary feeling to the space, making it accessible, convivial and safe for all,” Coderre said. “And with a vision to bring the park back to what it was ultimately meant to be.
“The fact that it was called Agora (Greek for gathering place) means it was meant to belong to the people. But if you don’t feel good about going there, that spirit is a bit tarnished.”
In the 1980s, the city commissioned three artists to design three parks stretching over three city blocks to create a revitalized Viger Square in a downtrodden part of town near Old Montreal.
On his block, artist Charles Daudelin created the Agora, a vast stretch of open concrete in multiple levels dotted with 22 concrete pergolas with greenery cascading from their sides and a moving fountain meant to provide a sense of motion to a static space. Basins of water fed by the fountain would encircle raised platforms to be used for music and theatre presentations.
The city never watered the plants, the fountain broke in a few weeks and was never repaired, and within months the site was shunned and widely maligned in the media, much to Daudelin’s enduring dismay. Homeless people moved in, and for 30 years the general public was scared to venture there.
The city’s new plan — developed in two months by architects Christian Thiffault and Eric StPierre, who work for private firms — sought to open the insular park to its surroundings, creating clear sightlines that will allow people to see and be seen, increasing the sense of security.
Half of the box-like concrete pergolas will be removed, as well as the raised concrete planters, cement walls and low-lying shrubbery that cut views. Fifty-five new trees with high canopies will be planted on the northern and southern reaches of the park, giving shade and concealing the unsightly ventilation towers that provide air to the Ville-Marie Expressway running underground below it. A café, bike repair shop and public restrooms are envisioned.
The concrete basins will be replaced with grass and paving stones, and Daudelin’s imposing Mastodo fountain will remain, adding a water element to the centre of the park. Ten of Daudelin’s pergolas will remain, spread through the park.
While Daudelin’s family was not involved in the redesign, they were shown the new concept before it was revealed. In a communiqué issued Friday, they gave it their blessing, saying they “saluted the work of the city administration.”
Work on the $28.3-million project is supposed to start in November after a call for tenders is launched. It’s expected to be completed by summer 2017, for Montreal’s 375th birthday, as long as Quebec’s Transport Department, which owns much of the land because of the expressway underneath, gives its OK. Coderre assured it would.
The city has promised it will provide social services for the 10 to 35 itinerants who have long lived there. Some will likely return when the park reopens, Coderre said.
“Yes, they probably will be there, and it’s not a problem." The space is meant for all, he said.
Opposition party Projet Montréal said it was concerned a project that is of such importance to the city’s downtown core seemed to be rushed, and characterized throughout by a spirit of improvisation.
“Daudelin wanted not only a park but a public place, a gathering place with a public market and all sorts of activities,” said city councillor Anne-Marie Sigouin. “The city will have to do much more work if it wants it to be an animated space.”