Massive Montreal irony: developers have been putting up skyscrapers left and right throughout the city, but this summer - perhaps for the first time since the 60s - we won't have a single structure you can go to the top of loiter and enjoy a view of the city - a feature which I argue should be made a mandatory requirement for all new construction.
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| Hotel de la Montagne: gone |
Coolopolis has repeatedly bemoaned the demolition of the Hotel de la Montagne and its magical swimming pool/ terrace (see full story below).
Meanwhile, the bar atop Place Ville Marie has gone vacant. An administrator has told me that they're trying to find another tenant to open a restaurant up there but so far no takers.
Even Ogilvy's doesn't even allow its employees access to the roof anymore either.
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| PVM rooftop terrace: kaput |
The oratory atop the mountain was supposed to get an observation deck at the top but an official told me today that they're only looking at about 2017 to get that done, as they're prioritizing the replacement of the cafeteria with something bigger, as well as increasing parking and making the belfry wheelchair accessible.
While we wait for somebody to undertake to build our own version of the Eiffel Tower or the Statue of Liberty or Empire State building, I'd call out to some rentin' rebel to lease a downtown penthouse apartment in Montreal and make an illegal speakeasy up there and invite 5,000 of your closest friends up there this summer to chillax and buy beer and admire the view.
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For those curious about what happened to the much-loved Hotel de la Montagne rooftop terrace, here's an article I wrote about its demise in March 2012 for another publication which has disappeared from the Internets.
You might note that the Selfridge's development would have been even larger had the owner of Wanda's strip club agreed to sell, as I discussed here.
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Those dreaming of sun-baked summer afternoons at the poolside rooftop terrace of the Hotel de la Montagne might be in for a disappointment. You'll have to find somewhere else to drink your Labatt from plastic cups while ogling babes in swimwear next to the stunning downtown skyline as the 30-year-old landmark hotel will soon be demolished.
At Tuesday night’s Ville Marie borough council meeting, the first of three monthly proceedings was put forward to advance a development that would see the building demolished and replaced by condos and a new hotel to be built where the hotel and an adjacent parking lot now stand. Ogilvy’s would also get two extra storeys if the $140 million plan comes through.
The plan is subject to various bureaucratic hurdles, including a public consultation on April 18, and possibly more depending on whether a sufficient number of people sign a registry.
The previous idea had been to build a 22-storey annex to the hotel, following a 2004 zoning change denounced by some heritage experts.
But after years of foot-dragging, the new demolition might move ahead faster than might be imagined, according to Heritage Montreal chief Dinu Bumbaru who was tuned into the hallway chatter at the meeting.
Bumbaru doesn’t get misty-eyed with sentimental notions of trying to save the hotel built by Herman “Sonny” Lindy in 1982 and now owned by his former partner Bernard Rageneau.
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| Rageuneau and Lindy |
Instead he makes the oft-heard complaint that it’ll dwarf adjacent Golden Square Mile mansions and bring more traffic to the already-congested street, some believe was originally named after Bishop Mountain, and now officially known as de la Montagne.
Bumbaru worries that the additional floors on Ogilvy's might also undermine another downtown gem.
But he says that the province will get the final say on the project, regardless of what the city green lights.
“Negotiations would have to take place and it’d be interesting to see if the City of Montreal handles this in a transparent manner, they don’t mention that many of these sites are under provincial oversight,” says Bumbaru.
The Toronto-based Weston family of Loblaw's fame bought Ogilvy's from a Quebec-real estate consortium last year the banner of their Selfridges corporation. Inquires about the details of the plan were redirected to the company’s public relations manager Jean Sebastien Lamoureux, who was unavailable Wednesday.
The Hotel de la Montagne was built in 1982 by Sonny Lindy, now in his mid-70s and currently cracking golf balls in Florida.
Lindy was raised in upper New York state in relative poverty before setting up a small scrap metal operation that gave him enough equity to get a toehold into the Montreal real estate market. His first restaurant, George’s was a place to see-and-be-seen in the 70s and paved the way to his Thursday’s on Crescent.
When a bank financed the 16–storey hotel, Lindy sought to put a European touch in the lobby, knwon for its black marble art deco dragonfly fountain.
Lindy chose every other piece, painstakingly combing through European markets for the perfect pieces including two large crystal chandeliers. Subsequent management have since souped it up with a hodge-podge of other decoration that leads some to describe describe the public space as rococo.
Although now-known as a primo hotspot for boozed-up Grand Prix mania, the earlier years saw the hotel attract a glitzy high-profile crowd, as Robert DeNiro, George Segal, Pierre Berton, Woody Harrelson, Pierce Brosnan and others stayed at the hotel.
“It’s a landmark place,” said Andrew Lindy, who beheld his father’s passionate commitment to creating the hotel. “It was like a boutique hotel before those existed in Old Montreal. My dad would come home and party with people like Lee Majors and Paulie from the Rocky movies, they’d all hang out.”
Lindy brought in Bernard Ragneuneau as partner, who eventually took over the hotel as the duo split ways in the 80s but remain good friends.
Details of the new project are still scant but for the moment they include a new hotel and condos and underground parking. Some might doubt, however that the same summer moments of lofty poolside splash and trash could be duplicated in whatever comes next.