MARY LAMEY
The Gazette
Tuesday, November 06, 2007

A coalition of community groups yesterday unveiled plans for a five-storey project to be built according to sustainable principals in downtown Montreal.

The $23.7-million maison du développement durable will be built at the southwest corner of Clark St. and Ste. Catherine St., next to the Théâtre du nouveau monde. The 15,000-square foot lot, valued at $1.3 million, was donated by Hydro-Québec. It will feature retail space and a café, offices, conference rooms and daycare centre and an interpretation centre offering information on green building techniques. Construction is expected to begin in 2009, with a 2010 delivery date.

The building will be constructed using recycled and local materials and will feature environmentally friendly technologies like geothermal heating and cooling, a green roof and an indoor planted green wall to improve air quality. Steel shipping containers are among the recycled items the project's backers expect to incorporate into the building's exterior.

"The number of unused shipping containers piling up in North America is growing because we are importing more from China than we are exporting. To send empty containers back to China would simply be too costly, so there is a big surplus," said Sidney Ribaux, co-founder and co-ordinator of Équiterre, one of the groups sponsoring the project.

Architects Menkès Shooner Dagenais LeTourneux designed the 60,000-square-foot project, which is being built according to Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design principals, aiming toward earning LEED Platinum certification. Only three projects in Canada have earned that distinction.

The project will be an incubator for the latest green building techniques, an educational facility and a revenue generator for the seven community groups that will co-own the building.

Some will occupy offices on the site, while space will be rented out at between $15 and $19 a square foot.

First, however, the organizations will have to raise $14.5 million for their capital campaign. The project has been promised funding by all three levels of government and has commitments from the Canadian Federation of Municipalities, the Daniel Langlois Foundation, the Caisse d'economie Desjardins, the Kresge Foundation and others.

mlamey@thegazette.canwest.com

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