Westmount: How to reconcile densification and heritage?

Héritage Montréal closely Héritage Montréal the City of Westmount's efforts to develop a new Special Planning Program (SPP) for the Southeast sector, where the Atwater Library, a historic and community site of great value, is located. 

This library, more than a heritage building, plays an essential role as a third place in the collective life of the neighborhood and beyond. We stress the importance of designing a PPU that preserves not only the architectural integrity of this emblematic site, but also its presence in the urban landscape and its function as a space serving the community. 

Any densification envisaged in this area must be balanced, respectful of human scale and the needs of the local community, while enhancing the heritage and identity of the neighborhood. All the more so as Ville de Montréal has chosen to grant significant height privileges to private developers on the site of the former Children's Hospital, despite public consultation.

We share the concerns and objections expressed about the trends shown by the consultants and the City, notably the proposal to allow a 25-storey tower on the site immediately adjacent to the library. Such proposals simply repeat the model of over-densification that Ville de Montréal has accepted in Griffintown and Square Cabot, rather than the human-scale densification that this area allows. 

Héritage Montréal for an approach focused on human-scale densification, rather than a generic, quantitative model of condo towers. Applicable elsewhere, this model would serve private interests more than collective ones by devaluing the living heritage that is the Atwater Library without contributing to the vitality or humanity of Cabot Square or Sainte-Catherine Street West.