Réservoir McTavish

Country Canada
City Montréal
Customer Ville de Montréal
Surface area Site: 45,000 m² / Building: 3,770 m²
Year 2020

As one of the oldest potable water retention and distribution facilities in North America, this pumping station stands as a testament to a unique industrial heritage that contributed to the development of downtown Montréal.

Located in the Ville-Marie borough, the pumping station and the McTavish reservoir form a major complex and a strategic component of Montreal’s aqueduct network, supplying water to over 1.5 million people. The station’s upgrade project aims to modernize existing equipment to meet the strictest sanitary standards and will allow for maintenance operations without service interruptions.

The pumping station and its site are situated in the part of Mount Royal that falls under municipal protection, at the boundary between downtown Montréal and the Mount Royal conservation park, and at the apogee of the Fleuve-Montagne Promenade. The modernization project consists of two phases spanning a total of 10 years to complete:
– Phase I – Preparatory works
– Phase II – Principal works. Provencher_Roy has conducted a feasibility study for the latter

The underground infrastructure works will serve as an opportunity to review the entire design of the McTavish site and to clarify its vocation, with an eye toward the works to follow in phase II.
The team has proposed to bring to light the site’s strategic role in the city’s urbanization and to unveil its origins through the station’s various transformations since 1850, thus revealing its intrinsic qualities while also improving mobility, enhancing pedestrian permeability and, to finish off, integrating sculptor Trevor Gould’s work Le Métronome.

Five design orientations have been proposed for the necessary landscape interventions. They will help create an overall coherence for each of the interventions:
1. Developing the areas surrounding the McTavish reservoir
2. Improving the site’s permeability
3. Preserving the views of interest and enhancing additional views
4. Densifying the site’s vegetation in a coherent, strategic manner
5. Favouring the use of new inert materials

The program includes updating the pumping facilities, upgrading to building standards, rehabilitating the heritage envelope, site remediation, urban integration, and the integration of public artwork.