Then-And-Now: Hi-tech meets Old Montreal

Located in the old Royal Bank space on St-Jacques street in Old Montreal, the Crew offices is a project defined by a 12,000 square foot office area for a tech start-up which would also include a café for freelance workers as well as for the public.

The project presented different design challenges originating from the client’s requirements — how to enhance architectural features while constructing boundaries between the various functional areas. Another challenge was simply to respect the context of a heritage building in an historical neighbourhood.

Architect Henri Cleinge of Montreal, Que., who was in charge of the restoration and reconfiguration of the space, could see that past renovations had made a classic bank building a bit of an eyesore in places.

“The teller stands were incredibly beautiful, but the actual Royal Bank offices just behind had 1970s-80s blue carpet and neon lighting that had to be removed,” says Cleinge. “So you had this reno that hadn’t aged very well.” Cleinge notes that white oak was installed where the carpet had been removed. “Underneath this carpet was just a concrete slab.”

The 1926 building contained remarkably crafted elements: an inlay marble floor, an ornate painted plaster ceiling along with custom suspended brass light fixtures, as well as other brass elements including the teller stands. The white oak flooring was chosen to complement the warmth of the brass finishes.

One thing that had to be changed were the locations of the electrical outlets without disturbing the inlay marble floors in the front area where the café now sits. “We ended up repairing parts of it and put on a wax-like product to protect it.”

To safely drill holes to relocate the electrical outlets, the floor was scanned with a metal detector to determine the position of the rebar in the concrete below the mortared marble. They also had to go underneath the space to find where the ducts were run, Cleinge explains. The choice could then be made for the optimal placement of the new plugs that would not blemish the original inlay marble pattern.

The conference rooms which were divided and compartmentalized with linear walls, covered with brass plated steel, and enclosed with glass partitions and a horizontal plane of a ceiling, by coincidence, ended up relating to the paper compartments within the existing free standing stands dating back to the paper days, when deposits were inscribed with pen onto paper.

Cleinge says he was serving the wishes of both the tenant, Crew, and the building owner, Gestion Georges Coulombe, one of the largest private developers in the City of Montreal. “They both love it. They are very happy with the results.”