Claire and Marc Bourgie Pavilion of Quebec and Canadian Art, Concert Hall Montreal, MMFA Building
Claire and Marc Bourgie Pavilion Montreal News
MMFA: Canadian Fine Arts Building design by Provencher Roy + Associés Architectes
22 Nov 2011
Design: Provencher Roy + Associés Architectes
Montreal Museum Of Fine Arts Unveils New Pavilion Of Quebec And Canadian Art And Concert Hall.
photograph © Marc Cramer, courtesy MMFA
Claire and Marc Bourgie Pavilion Montréal
photo © Marc Cramer, courtesy MMFA
The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (MMFA), which celebrated its 150th anniversary in 2010, has a new 59,000-gsf. Claire and Marc Bourgie Pavilion of Quebec and Canadian Art and Concert Hall. Increasing the MMFA’s total exhibition space by 20%, the new Pavilion features 18,953 nsf. of gallery space, which doubles the previous display area dedicated for the presentation of the Museum’s collection of historical and contemporary Quebec and Canadian art.
photos © Tom Arban, courtesy of PROVENCHER ROY + ASSOCIÉS ARCHITECTES
In this new award-winning building (recipient of the 2010 Canadian Architect Awards of Merit and the 2011 Award of Excellence from the Urban Development Institute of Quebec), the Museum will present a more coherent and comprehensive examination of the history of Quebec and Canadian art. Continuing the MMFA’s policy of offering free admission to its permanent collection, the new Claire and Marc Bourgie Pavilion will provide thousands of visitors, school groups, families, and tourists with the opportunity to learn more about Canada’s rich cultural heritage.
In order to foster a new dialogue between the visual arts and music, the Museum’s expansion includes the restoration, and conversion of the nave of the former Erskine and American church (1894) into a 444-seat concert hall. The new 8,095-nsf. Bourgie Concert Hall will host a full range of music performances along with a variety of museum-related public programs.
Access to the Claire and Marc Bourgie Pavilion and Bourgie Concert Hall is provided via a shared new main entrance clad in the same marble found in the Museum’s existing pavilions, while an underground gallery (pictured left) also links the two structures to the Jean-Noël Desmarais Pavilion.
Bourgie Concert Hall:
photo © Tom Arban, courtesy of PROVENCHER ROY + ASSOCIÉS ARCHITECTES
A Complex Restoration and Conversion of a National Historic Site
A critical component of the Museum’s expansion efforts involved saving and annexing the Victorian Erskine and American Church, deconsecrated in 2004 and acquired by the Museum in 2008. Designated a national historic site by the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada in 1998, the church was built by Montreal architect Alexander C. Hutchison in 1894, and inspired by the Romanesque Revival buildings of American Architect Henry Hobson Richardson (Trinity Church, Boston).
Its imposing façade, formed from an ingenious combination of heavily rusticated grey limestone and lavishly-sculpted brown Miramichi sandstone (all newly restored and cleaned), as well as Byzantine-style dome are rare in Montreal.
Bourgie Concert Hall:
photo © Marc Cramer, courtesy MMFA
According to Nathalie Bondil, the MMFA’s Director and Chief Curator, “This choice represents a major initiative by the Museum to beautify our city.” Charged with the task of designing a new Pavilion while preserving a Canadian architectural treasure, Montreal-based Provencher Roy + Associés architects, led by Claude Provencher and Matthieu Geoffrion, worked with a team of 450 professionals and craftsmen on this unprecedented, multilevel, multipurpose addition.
In awarding Provencher Roy + Associés architects with its 2011 Excellence Award, the Urban Development Institute of Quebec commended the new Pavilion for “its exceptional urban integration and its design, which brings past and future together.”
photos © Tom Arban, courtesy of PROVENCHER ROY + ASSOCIÉS ARCHITECTES
Attention to Architectural Harmony
Achieving a critical balance between the new and surrounding structures involved the use of building materials including glass and marble that were both specific to the new contemporary section and in concert with the former church and three other existing pavilions. “Nowadays I think that we have to ensure meaningful integrations of buildings… Such attempts must be contemporary, yet respectful and characteristic of their time. The example of the Pavilion incorporating the Erskine and American Church belongs to this new trend,” explained Provencher.
In order to form a cohesive whole, white marble from Vermont previously used for the Michal and Renata Hornstein Pavilion (1912, architects Edward & W.S. Maxwell) and the Jean-Noël Desmarais Pavilion (1991, architect Moshe Safdie) was chosen for the exterior of the new Pavilion. The new addition’s seamless façade is comprised of 1,500 sheets of marble cut from 27 successive slabs formed from 16 contiguous blocks from the same quarry wall. According to Geoffrion, “The marble isn’t installed on the façade like a skin, but like actual clothing.”
Emphasis was also placed on connecting users to both surrounding museum buildings and outlying structures. On the top level, a glassed-in gallery affords stunning views of Mount Royal, and the incorporation of glass walls throughout the new Pavilion and at each gallery entrance creates dynamic, light‐filled spaces that offer multiple framed views of the city.
New Pavilion Increases the Museum’s Total Exhibition Space by 20%
Some 600 works of Canadian art will now be on display, including recently restored works and many major acquisitions that were part of the Museum’s 150th anniversary campaign. The installation conceived by Jacques Des Rochers, curator of Quebec and Canadian Art, in conjunction with curators Anne Grace (Modern Art) and Stéphane Aquin (Contemporary Art), will display works chronically on six levels.
A critical aspect of this unprecedented effort by the Museum to study, exhibit, and promote its historic collection involved the restoration of one hundred works led by Richard Gagnier, head of the MMFA’s Conservation Department.
photos © Tom Arban, courtesy of Provencher Roy + Associés Architectes
Claire and Marc Bourgie Pavilion Montréal images / information from Provencher Roy + Associés Architectes
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