- Client
- City of Montreal
- Cost of construction
- $5M
- Area
- 41,883 ft² ( 1,186 m² )
- Year of construction
- 2013
- Contractor
- Constructions Venne & Fils Ltée
Photos: Stéphane Brügger
LEED Gold
The design of Fire Station 59 arises out of a series of complex considerations dictated by a rigid organisational scheme. Though the proposed plan conforms to logistical constraints and a number of safety regulations, it still manages to transcend mere function. The building comes together in a powerful and expressive way, shaping a framework for a valuable contribution to the booming western end of the Island of Montreal.
Fire Station 59 was designed to accommodate living quarters and four apparatus bays – latched onto a three-storey tower which, as it holds vertical circulation, also serves as a beacon, boasting a lantern-like quality by night.
It remained essential to allow for visual connections to the outdoor living space and to grant the interiors with optimal daylighting while trying to avoid foreseeable glare or any excessive heat gain. Vertical shading louvers – which also add to the project’s material expression – were thus arranged rhythmically across the west-facing side of the building, along with an elegant, yet highly functional galvanized steel canopy.
The design exceeds standard objectives of energy efficiency and fully integrates natural systems. It involves a creative reuse of salvaged materials, incorporates a greywater treatment system, promotes sustainable rainwater harvesting practices and is supplemented by a ground source heat pump which provides greater temperature stability and increases heating and cooling performances across a wide range of climatic conditions. In keeping with the aim of LEED Gold certification (unprecedented achievement for a building of this kind in Montreal), the station embodies an innovative solution-led architectural approach through which the design team was able to ensure the compatibility of functional, sustainable and aesthetic challenging demands.
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