Concerns grow over possible 38-storey tower on top of heritage building

Surrounded by glass and steel towers, a heritage building in downtown Montreal could soon become the base of a 38-storey construction project that includes 256 housing units.

The four-storey building at 1050 De la Montagne St., was erected in 1888, and according to the Ville-Marie borough's urban planning consultation committee, displays "remarkable architectural quality."

Now, with the spectre of a new towering building emerging, some in the community are worried the neighbourhood's cultural heritage and livability may be compromised.

According to a committee recommendation in December 2022, signed by president Robert Beaudry — who was unavailable to be interviewed by CBC — the project was initially rejected in April 2022.

However, when a second proposal included modifications — like changing the concrete's white tint to grey — the committee changed course and in August 2022 gave real estate developer, Swimko Construction, the go-ahead for the project, with some conditions.

'Forest of steel and glass'

Maryse Chapdelaine, a project manager for the Peter-McGill Community Council, described the building's surroundings as a "forest of steel and glass."

Chapdelaine wasn't surprised when she saw project plans. "Heritage buildings in Peter-McGill are disappearing really fast. This building in particular is just a symptom of what is happening in this neighbourhood," she said.

According to Dinu Bumbaru, policy director at Heritage Montreal, the proposed building is "generic," reminiscent of other buildings across the city and continent.

"It's not a particularly bad or great building. It's just a big tower with the kind of window detail you find all over the place," he said.

While Bumbaru applauds the setting back of the building to reduce its prominence over the heritage building underneath, he is not certain the heritage won't be overshadowed.

"Is it successfully done? I'm not sure because frankly the building's still crushed, it's amalgamated in a tower, it becomes a bit like the toes of a shoe at the bottom of a giant," he said.

In a statement, the borough said the heritage building will be preserved in its entirety. The borough's urban planning committee asked the developer to rework its initial plans to take into account the "optimal integration" and preservation of the building's heritage, it said.

Housing and density

Aside from preserving the building's historical and cultural heritage, Chapdelaine is focusing her attention on whom the building project will serve.

"In Peter-McGill we have so few social housing [units] and we need more," she said.

"Studios and one-bedroom apartments are not what we want at the moment. But that's mainly what is being built right now, especially in this area."

A representative from Swimko told CBC the units in the new building would be for rent but did not specify if they would include social housing and affordable housing or if the company would instead choose to pay fines for not complying with the mixed metropolis bylaw which came into effect in April 2021.

That bylaw forces developers to include social, family, and in some places, affordable housing units, to any new projects larger than 4,843 square feet (about five units) — or pay out.

For its part, Heritage Montreal is calling on the city of Montreal to reduce building heights and re-think its approach to density to safeguard the livability and character of neighbourhoods, said Bumbaru.

"The notion of densification is something that is valuable from an environmental point of view. When you look at the footprint of urbanization, it's a good idea to stop wasting land. But if it's to generate towers full of Airbnbs and not livable … communities, that's just densification in numbers, not in quality," he said.

Downtown Montreal used to look like a "bombed out city," filled with vacant lots, according to Bumbaru, but he said the trend has shifted to density for density's sake.

"The pendulum is swinging in a way where it's going to create an unlivable environment, just pleasant for people who love statistics in terms of housing per cubic kilometre, but that's not the way you want to build a city."