Old Port of Montreal

The new design for Montreal's Old Port proposes to reconnect the former industrial harbor with the Old City and to re-establish the area as a vital urban district. By connecting the outermost edges of the original piers, traffic through the area would be diverted to the perimeter of one large waterfront zone encompassing the 18th-and 19-century structures of the Old City, two landmark civic buildings, the piers, and the river. The currently abandoned harbor area would be re-inhabited by a relatively traffic-free network of public open space and mixed-use development. Links between the piers would dam the inner harbor, raising the water level to reduce the large drop between the city's edge and the level of the St. Lawrence River. In addition, the piers, warehouses, and grain elevators would be restored as parks, converted housing, markets, museums, and other public facilities; certain portions of the landfill would be removed to restore the civic stature of the original waterfront buildings.