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Aménagement de la rue Saint-Paul
By : Stantec
GRANDS PRIX DU DESIGN – 16th edition
Discipline : Landscape & Territories
Categories : Landscape Architecture / Landscape Architecture - Public Space : Gold Certification
Categories : Landscape Architecture / Pedestrian Street / Shared Street : Platinum Winner
Based on the concept developed by Quebec City in 2021, Stantec and Quebec City collaborated on the redevelopment of rue Saint-Paul.
Saint Paul Street is in the Historic District of Quebec City. The targeted section, between Côte du Colonel Dambourgès and Rue Sault-au-Matelot, is relatively short (200 m). This portion of the street benefits from an exceptional historic built environment.
The mandate includes the rehabilitation of underground infrastructures, the remodeling of surfaces and a new lighting network.
The rehabilitation of the infrastructures is an opportunity for the City of Quebec to rethink the street in terms of the dynamics between pedestrians and cars. The development concept designed in collaboration with the city is mainly focused on improving the existing obsolete facilities.
It should be noted that this portion of Saint-Paul Street is known for its businesses and restaurants. It is therefore very busy with pedestrians in the summer and fall, especially during the peak periods when cruise ships disembark.
The street is also a major thoroughfare for automobile traffic and winter conditions are an important issue to consider in the design of the development. The narrowness of the streets makes snow removal operations very difficult.
To integrate all of these uses, the design decision was to opt for greater flexibility. To do so, the use of the surfaces varies according to the season. The traffic lane was narrowed to allow for the enlargement of the sidewalk on the business side. The pavement of precast concrete pavers and granite curbs extends into the street and allows for the expansion of the sidewalk in the summer and the installation of temporary terraces for restaurant owners. This enlargement is controlled by removable bollards installed in summer and removed in winter to allow on-street parking and facilitate snow removal.
Since St. Paul Street is in Old Quebec, the furniture had to meet the standards of the area and the Stantec team had to develop a removable bollard system based on the cast iron model used in the area.
The other major challenge was to match the existing elements. With the new street profile, each of the historic building entrance thresholds had to be evaluated. All entrances were designed on a case-by-case basis with new granite steps. The interface with the FAO plaza was consciously thought out to recover the existing pavers since the pattern was discontinuous.
All the structural elements, furniture, lighting, vegetation, granite was installed and sized according to the pattern of the concrete pavers. A rigorous follow-up was carried out on site to ensure that no cuts were made in the paving stones and that the ensemble respected a regular, organized rhythm that was perfectly integrated into the built context.
The development of Saint-Paul Street is a project of rehabilitation and integration of new uses in a very strict historical framework. The objective being mainly to respond soberly and elegantly to functional and technical problems, we can affirm that the redevelopment project of Saint-Paul Street is a success.
Collaboration
