BAnQ – Gilles-Hocquart Building

Country Canada
City Montréal
Customer Société immobilière du Québec
Surface area 13,000 m²
Year 1999

As the custodian and primary source for our society’s collective memory, the National Archives has a mission to conserve and provide access to heritage documents.

The site was originally home to three buildings from different, yet significant, periods in our history. Two of the buildings are deemed to have heritage value. The project concept was developed along the horizontal axis of one of the existing buildings – the classic composition of the former École des hautes études commerciales – and around two vertical spaces, an inner atrium and an outdoor courtyard.

The four-storey atrium anchors the spatial composition of the entire complex. A mezzanine level, connected to the outdoor courtyard, offers both a place to pause and a transition point to the main public areas: the reading rooms, the auditorium foyer, and the meeting room.

The expansion project harmoniously incorporates the existing buildings and provides coherent functional links among all the components. The existing buildings were renovated according to current document conservation requirements and incorporate strict atmospheric controls. A continuous, dynamic barrier wall, which contains dry air, protects the existing envelope.

Architecture

Provencher_Roy / Dan Hanganu Architectes

Electromechanical

Dupras Ledoux

Structure

Géniplus

Contractor

Gespor

Photography

Michel Brunelle

Distinctions

Médaille du Gouverneur Général en architecture Institut royal d'architecture du Canada 2002
Prix d'Excellence-Conversion ou reconversion Ordre des architectes du Québec 2000
Prix Orange-Patrimoine Sauvons Montréal 2000