Located at the crossroads of four distinct neighborhoods in Montreal’s downtown core, Humaniti represents its city’s first smart vertical community with exceptional mixed-use purposing. Its uniquely H-shaped structure’s architecture reflects Montreal’s rich aesthetics, diversity and energy, creating a city-within-a-city concept which intermingles private and public spaces inside and out..

At the foot of the structure, a massive archway which stitches Humaniti together covers a plaza and forms an unconventional creation of public space for as much quiet contemplation as it does social encounters. The foundation for its dramatic presence, creating a visual and tactile link to its surrounding streetscape, it is an extension of the magnificent Place Jean-Paul-Riopelle which thoughtfully acts on the project’s human, district and metropolitan scales through art, nature and recreation. The fractal detailing on the ground of the plaza and drop-off reaches upward and is echoed in the building’s façade, in a play of shapes on the entrance to the complex and an expression of users’ diverging and converging reasons to be here, their arrivals and departures, and the interconnectedness found between.

Teeming with life, Humaniti pushes the boundaries of sustainable development by providing a high quality of living. Its design was awarded both a LEED Silver certification and a WELL Silver certification for its rental condos —the first residential project to do so in Canada—through meeting stringent air and water quality criteria, the application of smart anti-glare lighting systems, promoting physical activity, incorporating inspiring artworks, biophilia, and more.

By prioritizing the mental and physical health of those who inhabit and enjoy its space, residents’ and visitors are catered to by encouraging their self-care, providing opportunities for socialization, and a maintaining a connection to nature. Designed so the barriers between its hive of retail, dining, hospitality coworking, and residences around them would be replaced by common space, the interiors throughout are richly experiential. They represent a convergence of textures, temperatures and atmospheres which captures the ebb and flow of calm and energy that makes up Montreal’s expressive character, providing more immersion than escape: Curated artwork spreads across each floor and seeps into rooms; comforts ranging from a seasonal rooftop pool and gym to generous space for socializing encourage physical and mental health and well-being; and flowing water, exterior landscapes, interior plantscapes, and abundant natural light generate a green site of richly biophilic experiences.

Marking the city skyline with a hyper-dense vertical neighbourhood, Humaniti acts a conduit of urban life that represents many things to many people. It contains not only the first place of home and the second place of work, but also the “third place” coined by American urban sociologist Ray Oldenburg—a place of society, of engagement, and placemaking.