Montauk Sofa reclaimed this aging building on an up and coming portion of St-Laurent Boulevard in downtown Montreal into an upscale boutique furniture retail outlet and showroom. From conception the project sought to expand the idea of retail development into an urban amenity for the mutual benefit of both business and the urban context. 

The building had been constructed in many phases with many renovations, for many uses, over many years. Three of the buildings four stories, as well as the basement, covered the entirety of the lot on St. Laurent with a smaller fourth story at the back. There was very little original documentation or information about the building.

The building is located on a section of St. Laurent where, at the time, the boisterous urban atmosphere of St. Laurent was just beginning to take hold. Montauk and the design team sought to take advantage of and contribute to the further expansion of the lively and successful neighborhood. To this end, a fundamental aspect of the project was the creation of an urban forecourt garden to serve as both urban amenity green space and iconic threshold for the retail showroom. The forecourt gives the neighborhood a pocket garden greenspace, draws the urban fabric into the project increasing the showrooms exposure within the city and affords Montauk an amenity space to participate in the liveliness of St. Laurent.

Approximately 40 feet of the buildings 145’ depth was carved out of the buildings first 3 stories and basement to create the forecourt. The city required that the existing building façade on the street front be retained and restored as part of the development approval process. The result was that of a re-imagined architectural ruin reclaimed. In order to recover some of the floor area given over to the forecourt Montauk wanted to reclaim the dilapidated and shallow basement into functional showroom space.

Open space and natural light are integral to the project so that each of the four showroom floors, including the basement would open out on to the forecourt through expansive full height glass façade. A portion of the garden was left un-filled to allow bring light into the basement and allow it to look out over a garden fountain. Each of the showroom floor was denuded of as many partitions and rooms as possible to ensure full view across the entire depth of the space. The showroom levels are bookended by a four-story light well at the back of the space. This allows the entirety of the showroom levels to have visible access to the garden. The wide shallow spaces overlooking open garden provide striking progression through the retail showrooms. 

With deceptively simplicity the project convincingly rejuvenates an otherwise forgettable building into a beautiful showroom gallery. The project continues to breathe new life into a historied and boisterous area of Montréal, reinforcing an active urban environment for the mutual benefit of the project and city.