The creation of a new public square in the heart of the borough of Plateau-Mont-Royal converted the site of a former service station into a greenspace. The project represents a new way to design public space, leveraging its potential for the in-situ management and treatment of runoff in an urban area, making it one of the city’s first water squares. In addition to being a space with built-in resiliency to flooding linked to climate change, the space brings to life and pays tribute to the song “Les fleurs de macadam” (“pavement flowers”) by Jean-Pierre Ferland, whose father operated the service station on the site in the 1950s. It is the result of a four-year participatory process led by the Castor et Pollux firm, including a series of temporary designs that informed the design process for the peaceful yet lively site. An immersive programmable rain fountain that alternates between real and metaphorical rain depending on the weather, a ribbon of strategically varied benches arranged to encourage quiet contemplation, along with suspended luminous art all change with the seasons, making this an irresistible space.
