Port of Montréal Grand Quai

Located on an exceptional site, the pier is one of the principal docks built in the early 20^th century, a time when Montréal ranked among the world’s busiest ports for the export of cereal. Measuring 305 metres long by 91 metres wide, the pier originally housed four huge, two-storey hangars.

In 1967, the Iberville terminal, not particularly suited to pedestrian circulation, was reserved for automobile traffic, a situation exacerbated when the hangars were converted into parking lots. Despite significant investments for its maintenance over the past 10 years, this infrastructure, located in the heart of Old Montréal, showed advanced signs of aging and operational obsolescence that was compromising its ability to keep providing the expected services.

Thanks to its complete redesign, the maritime terminal now welcomes passengers at ground level rather than at the Port of Montréal’s Grand Quai’s upper level.

This allows the rationalization of vehicular traffic patterns as well as the pedestrianization of spaces. Meanwhile, the landscaping of the ground level enables more fluid movement, thus considerably simplifying vehicle access to the port facilities and the parking spaces still available in the old hangars.

Today, pedestrians are drawn to an inviting landscaped esplanade located on the roof of the port facilities.
This path completes the Old Port’s network of public spaces and rebuilds, in admirable fashion, the ties between the city and the Saint Lawrence River.