Discipline : Landscape & Territories
: People's Choice Award
Categories :
Landscape Architecture / Landscape Architecture - Public Space
: Gold certification
Categories :
Urban Design / Civic Design Project
: Gold certification
The parc des Gorilles, inaugurated in the fall of 2024, offers Montrealers a new atypical green space. Its name alludes to the idea of a jungle, evokes a dense and wild landscape, and pays tribute to a citizens' movement born in 2013, without which this new park would never have come into existence.
The shape of the park, a site composed of a diagonal strip running behind old industrial buildings, recalls Montreal's former rail network, still well embedded in the collective memory. Some former railway tracks have been gradually reclaimed by spontaneous vegetation, as was the case with parc des Gorilles.
After an illegal deforestation of the site, the land was expropriated by the City in 2017 and designated as a future park. The the AmiEs du Parc des Gorilles group was officially recognized by the City of Montreal as representing the community and actively participated in the co-design process.
Today, residents can stroll along the former railroad line, take a break at the lost railway car, meet on the sawtooth terrace, or participate in community activities under the shelter, located in the heart of the park. Made of wood and Corten steel, the installations pay homage to the industrial history of the site.
In a very urbanized sector, the park integrates intense greening, which unfolds a new plant heritage based on the principles of micro-forest with the planting of more than 1,500 trees and 1,400 shrubs. A bioretention basin manages the runoff water of the entire park and Waverly Street to the west, while being an attractive installation. Conceived as a haven of nature, its programming encourages the discovery of flora and heritage, exchanges among citizens from all backgrounds, and the celebration of a renewed connection with nature.
Client: City of Montréal, Urban Planning and Mobility Department
