The buildings canted volumes maximize daylight, while opening views to St. Patricks Basilica on the adjoining parcel.PROJECT HEC Montral Hlne-Desmarais Building, Montreal, QuebecARCHITECT Provencher_RoyTEXT Olivier VallerandPHOTOS Ema PeterMontreal-based Provencher_Roy has long demonstrated its aptitude for creating dynamic education facilities and university buildings, dating back to one of their breakthrough projects, UQAMs J.-A.-De Sve building (1998). The lessons learned from this wealth of work are brightly visible in the Hlne-Desmarais Building, the new centre for Montreals post-secondary business school, HEC, in the heart of the citys commercial core.Led by then-partner Alain Compra, Anne Rouaud, and Gerardo Prez, the architect team transformed an odd-shaped downtown site into a building that feels at once intimate and on-brand with HECs executive-oriented profile. The design takes inspiration from HECs role as an early-twentieth-century institution of the primarily French-speaking side of downtown: in 2000, its original building on Square Viger was transformed in the Bibliothque Nationale du Qubecs Archives Centre, by Dan Hanganu and Provencher_Roy. Since that time, the institution has operated from two buildings at the Universit de Montral campus, on the other side of the mountaina Brutalist one designed by Roland Dumais and recently renovated by Provencher_Roy, the other a new-build by Dan Hanganu and Jodoin Lamarre Pratte architectes. The new space repositions the school closer to the economic centre of the city, in a historic setting neighbouring Saint Patricks Basilica.While the building has a complex siteboth in its irregular shape and steep slopeinternal clarity is achieved with two circulation axes, which afford views of the stacked program elements.The design process built on models of collaborative learning and experimentation developed by the business school itself, which HEC had iteratively explored in its previous buildings. Working in collaboration with HEC research group Mosaic, Provencher_Roy undertook a co-design process that included a full-day workshop with HEC faculty and students, neighbours (including church members), heritage experts and creative professionals, followed by regular discussions with these groups. This process allowed the team to understand neighbours fears about the occupation of an empty space owned by the basilica. They worked closely with stakeholders, as well as with engineers, city staff, and government representatives, to develop a shared framework and vision for a contemporary addition to the city that would be integrated in the urban fabric.ScreenshotThe building occupies a comb-shaped site created by the combination of land ceded by the church and two privately owned lots. Throughout the design process, the team had to adjust their design, as HEC didnt know which private owners would accept to sell their lots. Reacting to the buildings sitinganchored in the heart of a city blockthe team imagined it as forming a campus with the basilica to the north, at the top of the comb. The teeth of the comb, popping out onto Beaver Hall, mask the service sides of adjacent buildings. A planned next phase of the lot redevelopment will redesign the basilicas forecourt, resulting in better connections to both the new HEC building and De la Gauchetire Street.A skylit central atrium bisects the building from north to south.To further complicate the design, the site sits on a steep slope, with nearly nine metres (two full floors) of height difference between Dela Gauchetire to the east of the building and Ren-Lvesque Boulevard to the west. This is negotiated by introducing a main circulation axis that steps up from De la Gauchetire, dividing the overall massing of the building into two sections. These volumes were further refined by thinking of the roof as a fifth faade, visible from the tall buildings surrounding it. Mechanical elements are carefully screened, and the top of the facility treated as a landscape of green roofs and terraces accessible from different floors. More shaping occurred in response to the Churchs requests that views be protected, and neighbours access across the site preserved. The resulting sculptural form creates a diversity of viewpoints and experiences both inside and outside. This renders it impossible to fully comprehend the building at a glanceand yet, easily understandable as one circulates through it.The atrium includes a sculptural feature staircase.The interior clarity is achieved by two horizontal circulation axes. These visually connect the interior to the city, and provide for clear views of the vertically stacked program elements: a restaurant on the lower floor, conference and lecture rooms above, followed by classrooms, floors dedicated to continuing education, and foundation and administration offices at the top. Throughout the building, circulation areas and informal collaborative working spaces are positioned along the faades. The composition is anchored by a monumental stair on the first floors, connecting to a more contained sculptural stair on the upper floors. Contrasting black and white walls on each side of the feature stair subtly divide the space. This constellation of events and nodes, all consistently linked to views of the city, make wayfinding easy, despite the buildings unusual shape.U-shaped classrooms allow for close interaction between teachers and students.Walking through all the informal working spaces is enough to make anyone jealous of HEC studentseven before going into the classrooms. These are carefully planned, based on many years of experimentation in HECs other buildings, and informed by lessons learned during the Covid disruptions. The classrooms and formal meeting spaces integrate hybrid teaching and collaborative tools, including webcams and screens on every wall of many rooms. U-shaped fixed configurations and modular tables allow for close interaction between teachers and students. In addition to a traditional 300-seat main auditorium with glazed walls to the circulation spaces, the building includes a deconstructed auditorium designed to teach entrepreneurial communication skills, mimicking situations in which students might be asked to work during their professional careers.A collaboration area is tucked alongside the east faade next to the basilica.Throughout the building, shiny stretched ceilings and mirrored walls provide a visual sense of expansiveness. Fritted glass similarly creates continuity between walls and faades on the white side of the building. The fritted glass doubles as passive shading, playing a role in the buildings energy efficiency strategyan important requirement from HEC even before the adoption of the most recent building code, with its more stringent energy-savings measures. Instead of curtain walls, highly insulated composite walls were designed and prototyped; the resulting modular system helped with the rationalization and constructability of the buildings sculptural form. A geothermal system results in smaller mechanical equipment needs, increasing the accessible areas of the buildings roofscape.A student lounge enjoys prime views of downtown Montreal.Subtle gestures are integrated throughout, connecting with both the history of the site and of the institution. For instance, maple links the new building to HECs other facilities in Montreal. Trees from the site, which had to be removed during construction, were reused in furniture for the facility. Outdoor furnishings were designed using stones from the former St. Bridget shelter, a building demolished in the late 1970s, whose foundations are inscribed on the ground floor of the new building.The west-facing entrance adjoins historic buildings on Beaver Hall.Provencher_Roys site-responsive design promises to become, with time, a central meeting point for the Montreal business community, and an important chapter in the schools proud architectural history. Once again, HEC teaches here the importance of investing in architecture: both for fostering the collaborations that are at the heart of business, and for expressing the institutions longstanding role as a civic leader.Olivier Vallerand is an Associate Professor at the cole de design, Universit de Montral.CLIENT HEC Montral | ARCHITECT TEAM Alain Compra (FIRAC), Anne Rouaud, Gerardo Prez, Claude Provencher (FIRAC), Henry Cho, Jonathan Blisle, Olivier Chabot, Guillaume Martel-Trudel | STRUCTURAL/CIVIL Consortium SDK/MHA | MECHANICAL/ELECTRICAL Pageau Morel/Bouthillette Parizeau in Consortium | LANDSCAPE Provencher_Roy | INTERIORS Provencher_Roy | PROJECT MANAGER WSP Canada | CONTRACTOR Magil Construction | AREA 24,000 m2 | BUDGET $160 M | COMPLETION September 2023ENERGY USE INTENSITY (PROJECTED) 105.5 kWh/m2/year | WATER USE INTENSITY (PROJECTED) 0.46 m3/m2/yearAs appeared in theSeptember 2024issue of Canadian Architect magazineThe post Lessons learned: HEC Montral Hlne-Desmarais Building, Montreal, Quebec appeared first on Canadian Architect.