Art & Architecture

In something of a Cinderella story, the smallest station of the Laval extension and the least used is also the most beautiful, a coherent, innovative and graceful work of architecture.

The station is composed of three basic geometrical elements: a cube, a cylinder, and a block. At the lowest level, the cubical main volume accents the traveller’s pause on the way into the labyrinth of the metro network.

This is a graceful, calm space, its lofty pillars and ceiling rising high above the platform and transept. Lamps on the pillars and side walls shine both up and down, providing ample illumination while casting dramatic pools of light on the coffered ceiling. The artificial light is supplemented by rows of skylights around the whole perimeter of the cube. This layout means that the movement of the sun causes the illumination to shift over the course of the day, in essence making the entire central core into a sort of massive sundial.

The tranquility is emphasized by the reliance on simple decoration: huge expanses of pale exposed concrete, glass, stainless steel, and placid sapphire-blue tiling along the platforms, most of whose length is built in tunnel.

A playful decorative detail at platform level: the protective glass barriers along the stairs extend down to the floor of the platform to enclose greatly magnified photographs of blades of grass. By giving the passenger the point of view of an ant, these images play on the station’s role as entrance to the huge underground warren of the metro system. They also evoke the landscaping above the station, as well as the metro system’s growth into Laval from its roots in Montreal. The bright green sets off the neutral materials above as well as the blue of the platform walls. Finally, the touch of nature under the sun of the skylight adds to the calm and grace of the volume.

Another striking architectural detail is the row of three large circular windows that overlook the platforms from the corridor connecting the elevator access to the ticket hall.

The transept-level ticket hall, alongside and separate from the central volume, is a relatively small space. It is the point of intersection between the cubical volume and the second of the station’s striking geometrical forms: the cylinder.

The tube containing the escalator shaft erupts from the ground just before reaching the headhouse, with the above-ground portion consisting of a large glass canopy. This dramatic architectural feature has two functions. First, it floods the escalators with light, making it easier for passengers to orient themselves towards or away from the exterior. Second, it makes the flow of passengers up and down the escalators visible from outside, emphasizing the constant stream of motion into and out of the metro.

Unique in Montreal, this striking, ultramodern shape recalls Sir Norman Foster’s famous “Fosterito” metro entrances in Bilbao.

The uppermost of the station’s forms is the elongated block that constitutes the headhouse. The front of the concrete and glass structure features a huge metro logo, an instantly visible and unmistakeable sign that firmly establishes the presence of the metro in its surroundings. This is reinforced at night, when the station’s internal illumination causes it to blaze forth like a lantern.

The area to the east of the headhouse is landscaped, with paths and gardens laced with a circuitous thread in pink slabs, and a sloping walkway down from the intersection of Boulevard de la Concorde and Avenue Ampère toward the headhouse. Amid the landscaping, the exposed roof of the cubical volume is set up as a terrace, with benches and trees, surrounded by the skylight lanterns. At night, the station’s interior lighting shines out of the skylights, like a luminous crown.