McGill expansion will create new downtown lookout, Mount Royal access

On the mountain’s southern side, the old Royal Victoria Hospital is being transformed into a university hub. But the public will also be welcome.

Article content

As spring approaches, there are more trucks, more construction workers and more road and sidewalk closures around the former Royal Victoria Hospital.

Next month, demolition crews will move in to dismantle two buildings and part of a third.

Article content

On Mount Royal’s southern side, a steep climb up University St. from bustling downtown Montreal, a new university hub is taking shape.

Advertisement 2

Article content

The Quebec government took over the 17-building, 35-acre site after the McGill University Health Centre moved operations to its Glen site in Notre-Dame-de-Grâce.

Parts of the old hospital complex are being turned into a place of learning that will one day be swarming with young people.

Other Montrealers will also benefit: New public spaces — a rooftop lookout over downtown and improved access to Mount Royal — are in the works.

Here’s what’s planned:

New McGill complex

An artist rendering shows McGill's New Vic project with Mount Royal in the background
Artist rendering of McGill’s New Vic project. Two buildings built in the 1950s will be replaced with new structures that are 15 metres shorter. Image: McGill University

McGill’s New Vic project is a northern expansion of its downtown campus. The university is taking over the main Royal Vic buildings, with Quebec contributing $620 million of the $870-million price tag. McGill is signing a 100-year, $1 lease for its portion of the site, which amounts to 15 per cent of the property.

Construction is to be completed in 2028, with the complex up and running in 2029, adding almost 23,000 square metres to the downtown campus.

Two buildings and part of a third are being demolished: the medical and surgical pavilions, built in the 1950s, and the rear of the administration building.

Advertisement 3

Article content

With the decontamination and gutting of those buildings almost complete, demolition is scheduled to start in May, said Pierre Major, executive director of the New Vic project.

New buildings, whose floors will line up with existing structures, will replace them. The new construction is needed to house high-tech laboratory spaces with state-of-the-art mechanical, electrical and ventilation systems, Major said.

McGill says the campus will be built to universal accessibility standards. It’s also working on a plan to include Indigenous “physical representations” at various points, including entrances and inside the complex, Major said.

Archeological digs are taking place during construction. The Mohawk Mothers, a group from Kahnawake, say the bodies of Indigenous children may have been secretly buried on the grounds in the 1950s and 1960s.

Academic vision

Artist rendering of McGill's New Vic project
Artist rendering of collaborative spaces planned as part of McGill’s expansion onto part of the former Royal Victoria Hospital site. Image: McGill University

The New Vic will be a research and teaching centre dedicated to sustainability systems and public policy, with an unconventional structure, said Christopher Buddle, McGill’s associate provost for teaching and academic planning.

Article content

Advertisement 4

Article content

The multidisciplinary centre will bring together academics and students based on problems to be solved rather than on the disciplines they specialize in.

Normally, “universities are structured architecturally and in general along disciplines — you have engineering, physics, health sciences,” Buddle said. “The New Vic is about connecting the different disciplines. We’re not creating a building along deep disciplinary roots, but rather across them.”

The facility will be used by about 3,000 people daily, with classrooms for about 760 students and space for 1,000 researchers.

Highlighting heritage

Clash over possible Indigenous graves at Royal Vic site
Artist rendering shows an entrance to McGill’s New Vic complex near des Pins Ave. and University St. Limestone from demolished buildings will be reused elsewhere in the project. Image: McGill University

Designed in the Scottish baronial style complete with turrets, the castle-like Royal Vic opened in 1893 thanks to the largesse of wealthy Scottish-born Montreal businessmen Donald Smith (Lord Strathcona) and George Stephen (Lord Mount Stephen).

One thousand square metres of limestone cladding is being carefully removed from the buildings to be demolished, Major said. To highlight the site’s heritage, that material will be reused elsewhere, including facades and a new underground entrance at des Pins Ave. and University St.

Advertisement 5

Article content

Artist renderings of the new buildings indicate they will blend in with restored heritage structures that date from the late 1800s.

Efforts to preserve the Royal Vic’s past were underlined when the architects behind the project — Diamond Schmitt/Lemay Michaud Architectes — won a Canadian Architect Award of Excellence.

The “sensitively inserted addition and the adaptive reuse of these historic institutional buildings is superbly done,” one of the jurors wrote. “Without compromising the integrity of the historic buildings or overly downplaying the new addition, the old buildings become much more accessible and will be given a new life.”

Green touches

Aerial view of the green new entrance to McGill New Vic
The parking lot on des Pins Ave. that once dominated the entrance of the former Royal Victoria Hospital will be transformed into walkways and green space. Image: CCxA

Keeping with McGill’s efforts to cut campus parking, the design eliminates space previously devoted to cars — a former parking lot on des Pins Ave. above two levels of underground spots.

The space will be transformed. Above ground, a landscaped entrance at des Pins and University will feature walkways and grass. Below, large classrooms and event space will be built, with natural light from skylights.

The area is poorly served by public transit. McGill is working with the city of Montreal on the problem, Major said. A solution could include a new roundabout at the top of University St. so buses could reach the top of the street and then turn around.

Advertisement 6

Article content

McGill uses the word “deconstruction” to describe the planned demolition. That’s because three-quarters of the uncontaminated material will be recycled and not sent to landfills, Major said.

Environmentally friendly geothermal wells — about 185 of them, with a depth of 600 to 700 feet — will provide half the New Vic’s winter heating needs, Major said.

New lookout, Mount Royal access

Artist rendering shows a rooftop lookout over downtown Montreal
A staircase and an elevator will transport members of the public up to a new lookout with views of downtown Montreal and Mount Royal. Image: CCxA

The New Vic won’t just be for McGill students and staff.

Renowned landscape architect Claude Cormier helped design the New Vic’s outdoor areas, including green roofs, public spaces and a connection to Mount Royal.

For Cormier, who died last year, “it was very important that Mount Royal flows further into the city. So we are treating the roofs as a fifth facade,” essentially extending the mountain onto the campus, Major said. “There’s a lot of greening, but also space accessible to the public.”

An exterior “grand staircase” and an elevator will bring people to a “public roofscape” with a panoramic view of downtown Montreal on one side and Mount Royal on the other.

From there, visitors will take an elevated walkway to a space in front of the Ross Memorial Pavilion that will offer more views of downtown. They can then make their way to Mount Royal.

Advertisement 7

Article content

Mount Royal sightlines will also improve, Major said. McGill’s new buildings will be 15 metres lower than the ones they’re replacing, reintroducing views obstructed when the structures went up in the 1950s.

In 2022, Mayor Valérie Plante announced three swaths of land behind the Royal Vic will be ceded to the city as part of a partnership with Quebec and McGill.

Mount Royal Park will absorb the 30,000 square metres of land — two parking lots and a wooded area. The city said it’s planning a new entrance to Mount Royal Park via University St.

Cité universitaire

Map shows six buildings that could be turned into a new interuniversity hub
An annotated aerial photo shows buildings (in yellow) that could one day form a new inter-university hub. The structures were part of the former Royal Victoria Hospital. Image: Société québécoise des infrastructures

Six former Royal Vic buildings, next to and behind the main structures, could become a “cité universitaire.”

The inter-university hub would be mainly residences, with lodgings for up to 1,200 students from post-secondary institutions around Montreal, and shops and services tailored to students.

The proposed private-public initiative would help alleviate the shortage of student housing.

“The objective is to create a world-class university city and thus consolidate Montreal’s status as one of the best student cities in the world,” said the Société québécoise des infrastructures, the provincial government’s real estate arm.

Advertisement 8

Article content

Details are pending. Quebec commissioned Ivanhoé Cambridge, the real estate arm of the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, to complete a feasibility study by January 2025.

Allan Memorial Institute

Aerial view of the former Royal Victoria Hospital, right, and the Allan Memorial Institute, left
Aerial view of the Allan Memorial Institute, left, and the former Royal Victoria Hospital with Mount Royal in the background. Photo by Dave Sidaway /Montreal Gazette

Built in the 1860s, the Allan Memorial Insitute was known as Ravenscrag when it was the stately home of Sir Hugh Allan, a Scottish-born shipping magnate. In 1943, his family donated the property to McGill.

Located adjacent to the Vic, the Allan was converted into a psychiatric hospital. Two other structures were added in the 1950s and 1960s.

The complex, at the top of Peel St., is still home to a psychiatric outpatient clinic operated by the McGill University Health Centre. The buildings may be redeveloped at a later date, Quebec says.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

Advertisement 9

Article content

For more information:

Recommended from Editorial

[email protected]

Advertisement 10

Article content

Article content