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Because History repeats itself...
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Héritage Montréal issues its annual report on Montreal’s Heritage.
(PDF file)
For immediate release
June 5, 2006 – For the city’s second annual rendezvous with its heritage, Héritage Montréal announced today its list of ten threatened symbolic sites for 2006. Although some sites from last year have had a positive outcome, the task of countering the constant pressure exerted on heritage remains a vital one. The 2006 list of threatened sites is:
Eaton’s 9th floor
Redpath House
Point St. Charles Train Shops
Stairs, balconies and cornices
Sir Louis-Hippolyte LaFontaine House
Institutional properties on the southern slope of Mount Royal
The CHUM project on the Saint-Denis/Viger Block
La Ronde Antique Carousel
The West Island Lakeshore and its landscapes
Montreal Planetarium
This list shows a reality beyond the discourses and admiration that heritage inspires. Even now, despite the adoption of solid tools like the Urban Development Plan and the Heritage Policy, many sites raise issues that threaten their existence over the long term. Too many projects, both private and public (like those of proposed by hospitals and universities) ignore heritage except as an afterthought, once the “real” decisions have been made. The threat is different in other cases, for example the lakeshore and Mount Royal: here, the collective interest, memory and the protection of the urban landscape are at stake. With the carousel at La Ronde, the former rail yards in Pointe-Saint-Charles and the Louis-Hippolyte La Fontaine house, it is the lack of use and neglected state of these heritage sites that are disturbing.
Since issuing its first list in 2005, for its 30th anniversary, Héritage Montréal has followed up on those items, helping to bring about encouraging gains, including the announcement of the Minister of Culture and Communications’ intention to classify the Carmelite convent as a historical monument, UQAM’s acquisition of the Saint-Sulpice Library and the city of Montreal’s plan to redevelop its Central Library. Héritage Montréal chose to hold its press conference at the Central Library in order to highlight this heartening decision. Guarantees of the long-term vocation of some of these icons have made it feasible to remove them from the threatened list. However, others remain under observation or have been carried forward to the new list.
The list for 2006 is not exhaustive but serves to illustrate the challenges confronting Montreal’s heritage.Talk is cheap and Héritage Montréal hopes to raise the awareness of the public as well as decision-makers and landowners. The organization also expressed to these its willingness to work with them to develop or expand on the solutions already in place. This appeal is also aimed at all residents of Montreal, who are invited to join the organization as a way of protecting and preserving Montreal’s characteristic and unique features even more actively.
Since 1975, Héritage Montréal has worked to defend and enhance the heritage of Greater Montreal, its neighbourhoods and its communities by encouraging the active participation of its citizens in the debates and challenges involved in protecting heritage. Héritage Montréal’s commitment and independent, informed actions contribute to sustainable urban development.
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To become a member: (514) 286-2662
Press information and interview requests: Benjamin Maréchal (514) 286-2662, ext. 26
Website: www.heritagemontreal.qc.ca
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