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1250 boulevard René-Levésque IBM Quebec Headquarters, Montreal, Canada |
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"Conspicuously
handsome and beautifully crafted...also experientially rich... The building escapes any sense of being a closed tube engineered for air
handling..." Pedersen has orchestrated a difficult whole that is formally complex, programmatically diverse, and urbanistically both grand and intimate, without making the whole appear strained or arch. Now that it has been built, the building’s complexity appears to be obvious and inevitable: its resolution and elegance make it seem effortless and even simple". Joseph Giovannini (JG is a New York based architect and critic) Designed as the Canadian Headquarters of the IBM Corporation, this building strives to represent the spirit of advanced technology. The site is at the edge of Montreal’s existing downtown core, adjacent to Winsor Station. The design strategy dramatizes the boundary between two precincts, the city centre and its surrounding context. This is accomplished by positioning the main structure against the outer boundary of the site and creating a large “urban room” facing the city. The edges of this room are animated by a pergola structure, a curved office entry and a winter garden. From a distance, the building reveals itself as a dynamic interplay of volumes. However, at the building’s base, these same elements are more symmetrically composed, establishing a smaller scale that relates to the human body. Thus, the building achieves an equilibrium between stasis and thrust. |
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