5.3
Ensure and promote the presence of major academic and health care institutions in the Centre
Academic and health care institutions make an exceptional contribution to the economic and social development of Montréal, notably by stimulating the knowledge economy.
Their concentration within the Centre fosters synergy among research, teaching and service delivery activities and serves to attract a broad range of related services. For example, the presence of major hospitals attracts medical laboratories, research centres and specialized clinics.
Access to these institutions is greatly facilitated by the quality of public transportation, giving the Centre a distinct locational advantage over outlying areas, which are not as well served by infrastructure and are largely residential.
The presence of institutional complexes in the vicinity of residential neighbourhoods can generate many inconveniences. The City is firmly committed to the harmonious development of major institutions. Though their growth is eminently desirable, their integration into the surrounding environment is often a challenge. Generally of large size, institutions are also major trip generators and may have undesirable impacts on neighbouring living environments.
Several institutional properties in the Centre, especially those located on the slopes of Mount Royal, are located in valuable heritage settings. Their growth should include not only architectural and functional considerations, but also attest to a concern for natural, built and landscape heritage.
The City favours the preservation and expansion of the Centre’s major institutions. To this end it recommends an approach that allows these institutions to anticipate, in collaboration with the Ville de Montréal, their future needs in order to avoid, for example, hasty recourse to their expropriatory powers.
In the specific context of the planned construction of the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC) on a part of the Glen site, the City prefers that buildings changing vocation in Montréal’s Centre be put to institutional or public uses.
Implementation measures
- Confirm the Centre as a preferred location for metropolitan or international institutions.
- Launch concerted planning efforts with the City’s institutional partners
(see Objective 10).
- Favour the consolidation or expansion of university hospitals and their affiliated research centres in the Centre. In the case of buildings no longer used by university hospitals, the City favours their reuse for institutional or public purposes.
