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Wellington Basin Master plan
By : Stantec
GRANDS PRIX DU DESIGN – 16th edition
Discipline : Landscape & Territories
Categories : Concept / concept in landscape and/or urban development : Bronze Certification
Categories : Urban Design / Urban Design Plan : Silver Certification
Since the departure of the Expos in 2004, the desire to bring back a Major League Baseball (MLB) team to Montreal has been widely circulated in the business community, among fans and in political circles. This desire would involve the construction of a new stadium to meet the requirements of Major League Baseball.
Just a short distance from the central business district and Old Montreal, the unstructured site of the Wellington Basin appears to be the site of choice for this new stadium. Aligned with the initiatives of the City of Montreal and the Public consultation office of Montreal, the project would present a unique opportunity to contribute to the revitalization of the Bridge-Bonaventure sector. Aware of the urban planning challenges involved in the construction of a sports facility of this scale, the development of a new stadium had to be considered on a sufficiently large scale to ensure that the facility would be properly integrated into a truly promising urban project for the city and for Quebec.
In this context, Stantec was mandated to develop an inspiring vision for the Wellington Basin site. The multidisciplinary team was able to develop a structuring vision, based on a detailed and realistic understanding of the site, taking advantage of the sector’s strengths and potential while limiting the negative impacts on the surrounding environment. The vision proposes the development of a new attractive living environment integrated into the urban landscape of the Lachine Canal, at the core of which is an innovative baseball stadium, designed for year-round use, and benefiting above all the local community.
The spatial organization of the development concept follows the logic of the orthogonal grid that corresponds to the classic Montreal archetype. Respectful of the history, the vestiges and the founding routes of the site, the project reinterprets the original characteristics of Montreal’s central neighborhoods by proposing human-scale templates while allowing for the density of development in the sector.
The proposal also demonstrates the willingness of the partners to collaborate with the public authorities and eventually with the various stakeholders concerned to carry out a coherent, responsible, and exemplary project at the heart of which Montreal’s culture would have the opportunity to be reborn and to flourish in a sustainable manner within the artistic, sports and cultural spheres of the City of Montreal.
Collaboration
