L'Adresse Symphonique, Montreal's new concert hall on Place des Arts that opened in September has won one of three gold awards from the Canadian Council of Public Private Partnerships.
The striking $259-million, 19,187-m2 glass enclosed venue was Quebec's first public-private partnership in the cultural sphere. It was built as a consortium between the province and SNC-Lavalin. SNC-Lavalin also did the civil, structural, mechanical and electrical engineering and is now the building operator. Diamond and Schmitt and Aedifica were the architects.
The "shoebox" auditorium has curved walls for acoustical purposes, contains 1,900 seats, with three balconies. It is designed primarily for orchestral music performances and will eventually include an organ by Casavant Freres. The P3 process reportedly saved $46.8 million in construction costs. The construction took two years.
The other two gold award winners in the CCPPP awards were the Sea to Sky Highway, a $600-million project to improve 95 kilometres of Highway 99 from West Vancouver to Whistler, B.C., and the Surrey Pretrial Services Centre, a $90-million LEED Gold correctional facility in B.C.