speech:23

In turning a disused planetarium into a modern startup factory, the Canadian firm Menkès
Shooner Dagenais LeTourneux Architectes has succeeded not just in repurposing this distinctively
shaped building with its massive dome, but also in preserving the nostalgic memories of millions
of citizens of Montreal.
2 3
4
© Menkès Shooner Dagenais LeTourneux Architectes
Dow Planetarium was built in Griffintown, a
district of Montreal, for EXPO 1967 to a design
by David, Barott, and Boulva. The first of its kind
in Canada and the most advanced of its time, it
quickly became one of the most popular places
for Montrealers to spend their leisure time as
families. But in autumn 2011 the building was
finally closed as ‘obsolete,’ and in spring 2013
work on building the Dow’s ‘descendant’ — the
high-tech Rio Tinto Alcan Planetarium, not
far from the Olympic Stadium — was completed.
The brutalist building of the old planetarium,
unprotected by any kind of conservation order,
stood unused for several years until it was bought
for a symbolic sum, on condition that it would be
converted for a new use, by École de Technologie
Supérieure (ÉTC), the technology school at the
University of Quebec. The new owner sees its
overarching goal as the creation of an entire
innovation cluster in this old industrial district
1 Установленная в нижней части узких
щелевидных проемов подсветка
фасадов визуально разбивает массив
кирпичной стены /
The facade lighting installed in the bottom
parts of the narrow slit-like apertures visually
breaks up the mass of the brick wall
2 Ситуационный план / Site plan
3 Поперечный разрез / Cross section
4 Продольный разрез / Longitudinal section
23 speech: object
89