Last weekend we wandered in and out of some of the attractions of Portes ouvertes design Montreal. There were lots of highlights: I was very impressed with the augmented reality work of Moment Factory. But recycling was big this year and a number of architecture, design and fashion outfits trumpeted their ecological approach. One such architecture firm, Rayside, had a pile of old plans on offer for visitors to take away, including a rather lengthy redevelopment plan for Saint-Marie.
They list the neighborhood as bordered by the river on the south, Papineau on the west, Sherbrooke on the north and train tracks east of Wurtele and Florian on the east. There are also maps of open and closed schools, empty blocks slated for development, and planned community facilities. There are plans to promote the history and unique local character of the area. Of course, the document is from 2006 so it is already out of date, but revisiting our old neighborhood yesterday as part of our design tour, we did see lots of new construction.
So I guess we should stop telling people we lived in Hochelaga-Maisonneuve for three years, except that it signifies better than Sainte Marie (when it signifies at all–if you want to know how social class and language interact, the small number of Anglos who have heard of Hochelaga-Maisonneuve could tell you a lot).
Hey thanks for writing this piece – I am definitely going to check out this architechtual firm a bit more. Ron Rayside was actually part of this weekend’s Forum Citoyen Centre-Sud and did a great deal of work showing old maps of the area. About 50-100 years ago (not sure of the exact timeline) Hochelega started at about Iberville so it explains a lot why some locals still call it Hochelaga. Anyhow, I was truly inspired by the forum and really want to support the city’s efforts so I am definitely sticking to “Sainte-Marie”. Anyhow, thanks for the info!