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Montreal's new botanical garden entrance pavilion was designed to disappear into the environment

2024-06-04T15:24:00-04:00

Montreal-based firm Pelletier de Fontenay has designed a new entrance pavilion at the Montreal Botanical Garden. This project comes alongside the revitalization of the Garden’s insectarium and the entrance to the surrounding Parc Maisonneuve.

Image: James Brittain

The pavilion was developed in collaboration with a team of landscape architects from the City of Montreal’s Urban Parks Division and the firm Lemay. The main challenge of the project was to better orient and guide visitors towards the insectarium and botanical garden, while respecting the cultural heritage of the site.

Image: James Brittain

The firm drew inspiration from 18th- and 19th-century English gardens, specifically the romantic image of the overgrown ruin and how it reflects a close relationship between the built and natural world. The pavilion, purposefully limited in scale, will progressively blend into its surroundings, becoming an infrastructure for greenery, insects, birds, and small animals.

Image: James Brit...

Lemay completes major redesign of Montreal’s 1950s Théâtre de Verdure

2023-08-29T13:55:00-04:00

Montreal-baed Lemay has completed a redesign of the city’s Théâtre de Verdure. The original 1956 development has been enhanced with what the firm calls a “4-season concept that redefines the relationship between theatre and park, architecture and landscape, and the built and the natural.”

Image credit: Adrien Williams

The redesign sought to make the outdoor theater’s presence felt throughout the adjacent La Fontaine Park, maximizing views of both the stage and surrounding greenspace. Designed to address both visitors and passers-by, the form “invites discovery, both inside and outside the site” with a “new green, modern, and lively public space that offers a vibrant place for lovers of arts and culture to witness unforgettable moments.”

Image credit: Adrien Williams

"Throughout the project, we were keen to reaffirm the theatre's heritage identity, and we took care to develop new interventions compatible with the memory of the site," explained Marie-Ève Parent, Associate and Discipline...