Montreal Tower

Background & Project Details:

The Olympic Installation Board (La Régie des Installations Olympiques), the agency that oversees operations and maintenance of this large urban park, has repeatedly tried to find a new purpose for the tower’s vacant space for the last 30 years.

When the offices of the Desjardins Group, the leading financial cooperative group in Canada, showed interest in occupying nearly 80% of the available space, the Olympic Installation Board decided to upgrade both the interior and exterior of the tower. With an ambitious $100 million renovation budget, the architect team at Provencher_Roy was able to retain the original design, conceived by architect Roger Taillibert, with prefabricated concrete panels. They also designed the project for a new purpose (to convert the premises into office space) and there was a strong desire to allow more natural light into the building to enhance occupant comfort and well-being.

Desjardins had been looking for a space to bring together their online services employees, previously spread over three sites, and offer them an innovative and stimulating workplace. They chose the Montreal Tower due to its location, access to public transportation (including two metro stations), and a range of services for employees. The Tower is now home to over 1,000 employees of the Desjardins Group.

Why Somfy?

The main objective for Provencher_Roy was to remove the prefabricated concrete panels and windows from the original design and install a curtainwall that would blend into the building, so that more natural light would penetrate into the interior spaces. The tower is said to be the world's tallest such inclined structure, at a 45-degree angle, and after 30 years of the building standing tall, the new design has allowed increased visibility of the interior tower structure. The major challenge in converting the space to office use was the removal of the concrete panels to make way for the glass curtainwall, which now covers 60 percent of the façade.

Somfy has built its motorization solutions using the quietest and strongest motors on the market for window coverings. Utilizing Somfy's quiet and high torque 120V AC motors, the team was able to achieve automated shading that covers 25,761 square meters of curtainwall, utilizing a total of 230 motors. If the project had been completed using low voltage motors, it would have required double or perhaps even triple the quantity of motors, controls and power infrastructure for automated shading.

The Tower stands tall at 165 meters and receives an ample amount of sunlight, with windows facing east, south, and west. This project utilized Somfy’s animeo IP automated solar management control system for dynamic shade control. The animeo IP solar shading system took into consideration all weather conditions as well as sun intensity to help manage the glare and direct sun exposure into the office space.

The Team

Sylvain Lamy, owner of Stores J. Fauteux, a very knowledgeable and experienced commercial roller shades dealer within the Montreal, QC territory, secured the project and worked directly with Pomerleau (General Contractor) all the way from the tendering stage to project completion and handover to the client. Somfy's partner in fabrication and local specifications support of the motorized roller shades system was Laurent Alepins (Architectural Team Lead) at Altex who supported Provencher_Roy, Bouthillette Parizeau (M&E Firm). Teams from Somfy on the commercial business specifications and project services teams assisted in supporting wire details, the sequence of operations for control functionality, and commissioning services to all parties involved on this project.