acdf architecture . photos: © Adrien Williams
Link by ACDF Architecture is a 19-story apartment building in Downtown Montreal with a precast concrete exterior that has been brought to life with a patchwork of shapes and colours that evoke the city’s charming Victorian houses. At its base are the facades of three existing heritage townhouses, which have been rehabilitated and now serve as Link’s entrance. The rest of the tower is situated at a setback from these facades to magnify the architectural features and to create a more intimate experience at street level.
Being adjacent to one of Montreal’s renowned universities, Concordia, the area is bustling with student housing, institutional buildings, and an assortment of restaurants with culturally diverse cuisines. The neighbourhood Quartier des Grands Jardins is also characterized by a vast demolition of Victorian row houses in the mid-1900s to make place for large, brutalist developments. To anchor Link to the history of the area, it was important for ACDF to build a project that was vibrant and youthful but also grounded in the last-remaining Victorian houses and offer a memory of what it used to be. Its tall, playful façade reflects the area’s long-lost history while still complementing the adjacent, rigid high-rises.
From a design challenge perspective, Link takes into account the contrasting architectural characteristics of the adjacent, mid-century concrete towers and the lower Victorian buildings. It fuses them to create a dialogue between the contrasting styles and eras. By retreating from the lower historic facades, but also joining the two buildings of great heights on both sides, the project acts as link. ACDF’s reinterpretation of these styles is the solution for integrating Link into its urban surroundings.
A combination of grey tones on the precast concrete panels relate to the adjacent 1960s concrete towers that flank Link. The hues also evoke the limestone construction of the Victorian houses. The openings puncturing the façade, which serve as windows and enclosed balconies, are the outlines of archways, gabled homes, and rectangles – all created to reference to smaller houses below. “We composed a contemporary quilt consisting of gabled dormers, low-arch dormers and rectangular dormers. The assembly of cut-out shapes celebrates the neighborhood’s rich past in a spirited way,” said ACDF’s Maxime-Alexis Frappier.
Composed like a piece of art, Link has a dark granite frame surrounding its construction to enhance its pictorial quality. The shading of the loggias, the recessed windows, and the mineral quality further develop a cinematic experience.
Link is part of the revitalization and residential densification of Montreal’s Quartier des Grands Jardins, created with developer Brivia Group. It provides housing for the city’s substantial student body and comprises 122 dwellings, from studio, one-bedroom, two-bedroom, and three-bedroom plans. It is complete with a rooftop patio, gym, and communal areas.
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