Page 5 - Société d’habitation et de développement de Montréal (SHDM) - Îlot Balmoral Project

perfectly with this cultural area. Also, we were really “BOX IN A BOX”

trying to open the building at ground level to make it DESIGN APPROACH

very transparent and accessible to the public.”
Designed to be a landmark building that would
Of course, any successful building project requires
complete the refurbishment of the place des
the right tenants to complete the vision. Through
Festivals, Patrick Pretty, architect and project
the Îlot Balmoral, SHDM was able to attract the head
coordinator from SHDM, wanted the Îlot Balmoral to
office of National Film Board of Canada (NFB) as
be dramatic and out of the ordinary, and he believes
its first tenant. For the Balmoral design team, this
that mission has been accomplished. “The key
meant incorporating the NFB’s complex technical
feature of the building is what I call the red canyon.
specifications around the building acoustics into the
The red canyon separates the building in two parts.
already unusual architectural design.
This red glass composite wall starts outside and

comes inside to an open atrium. It’s quite striking.”
Julie Charbonneau, an architect with Provencher_

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