The City of Montreal Municipal Nursery in L’Assomption is a 77 acre farm that produces trees and shrubs for city streets and municipal parks. Originally an experimental farm operated by the federal government, the property and its existing buildings were purchased by the City of Montreal in 2001.
The City of Montreal Municipal Nursery in L’Assomption is a 77 acre farm that produces trees and shrubs for city streets and municipal parks. Originally an experimental farm operated by the federal government, the property and its existing buildings were purchased by the City of Montreal in 2001.
A first master-planning phase for the entire farm was followed with the design and construction of a new service pavilion. The master plan redefines points of access to the site, integrates parking with the landscape and reorganizes pedestrian and vehicular movement throughout the farm. Ecologically sensitive areas of the site were identified and long-term strategies for their conservation were elaborated.
A linear steel warehouse facing a country road on one side and open farmland on the other has been expanded and repurposed as the nursery’s new service pavilion. Administrative and service areas are organized into a rectangular volume that cuts across the existing building, piercing it on both sides. The extruded volume on the road becomes the pavilion’s main entry and the extension on the farm side houses an employees’ lunchroom and lounge. The pavilion provides offices, lockers, washrooms and showers for the farm’s horticulturalists and is linked to farm equipment garages, a greenhouse, and a refrigerated warehouse used for training saplings.
Inserted into the steel frame of the existing warehouse, the new volume is a wood structure with faceted ceilings modelled to open up generous views of the countryside. Polished concrete floors and concrete block walls throughout the pavilion provide a neutral counterpoint to these expressive wood ceilings.
