Updated at 12:00 p.m.
A massive mixed real estate project is under construction on former CN land in Pointe-Saint-Charles. In the end there will be 900 apartments, with social housing and a housing cooperative, but also green spaces, a public square and even the first “teal” alley in Quebec with ecological stormwater management.
The people who settle there will be lucky; Aside from being next to Building 7, they are also thanks to the collective behind the creation of the community space where you can drink a beer, repair your bike, visit a farm, but also do pottery or welding.
Above all, Building 7 is a place that symbolizes the strength of citizen power in a neighborhood that, like so many others, has become gentrified. “Building 7 has created a place for life and exchange in the district. “The solidarity too,” praises Jocelyne Bernier at the checkout in the local grocery store. Le Détour, non-profit, managed by members and volunteers.
PHOTO DOMINICK GRAVEL, THE PRESS
Jocelyne Bernier has lived in Pointe-Saint-Charles for 45 years. She is involved in the Development Corporation, which brings together community organizations in the neighborhood.
Next to the grocery store is the microbrewery Les sans-taverne, where author Anna Kruzynski recently published “Quartier en Fight,” a book in which she looks back on the two decades of “social struggle” in Pointe-Saint-Charles led to the founding of Building 7.
“Struggle” is a word we will hear often during our site visit accompanied by Caroline Monast-Landriault, responsible for external communications for Collectif 7 à nous, founded almost 15 years ago. “I joined the project in 2016. The fight started over a decade ago,” she emphasizes.
Building 7 is located on land that belonged to CN and was leased by the transport multinational Alstom until 2003. In June 2005, Loto-Québec, in collaboration with Cirque du Soleil, considered moving the Montreal Casino there. After intense citizen mobilization, the project was canceled and a symbolic flag was raised in the hope that at least a small part of the former CN land could not be privatized. After all, the former industrial area made up a third of the area of the district affectionately known as “La Pointe”.
We’re skipping steps – particularly in relation to the negotiations with the Mach Group – but in 2009 the Collectif 7 à nous was launched, which launched a large, popular development to become the seventh of the 13 listed on the property Converting buildings into one self-managed social center.
PHOTO DOMINICK GRAVEL, THE PRESS
“Before Building 7, there was no restaurant or grocery store in the southern part of the neighborhood. We wanted to create a place where you can meet people and have a drink,” explains Caroline Monast-Landriault.
[C’est] a mix of citizens, community people, anarchists, libertarians and people committed to heritage preservation.
Caroline Monast-Landriault, Head of External Communications for Collectif 7 à nous
Judith Cayer was at the center of “the fight.” A struggle that bore fruit with a place that is part of his daily life and that of his children. “I was 26 years old. I’m 42. This project was my life […] There is dignity and pride in that, she says. It is a collective pride, something that unites us and that shapes our lives and our families… It is powerful. »
PHOTO FRANÇOIS ROY, LA PRESS ARCHIVE
Judith Cayer has lived in Pointe-Saint-Charles for 22 years and has had to move five times. “Now I have the chance to be in a cooperative, but I have seen it very closely, the transformation of the neighborhood,” she says.
Last Wednesday, the release of the book “Neighborhood in Struggle” allowed us to take a step back to all the progress we have made. “We felt it in people, the idea: “Wow, it exists.” »
Factory of collective autonomy
PHOTO DOMINICK GRAVEL, THE PRESS
Collectif 7 à nous recently won another battle: it prevented the construction of a row of condominiums 12 meters from its facade. Instead, there will be a teal alley near the farmhouse seen in this photo.
It took years and endless “We’re almost there” before Collectif 7 à nous was able to take over the space, renovate it and open it to the public in 2018.
In the communal workshops in Building 7, artists, cyclists, photographers, etc. come together in a DIY spirit.
We call ourselves a factory of collective autonomy to become more autonomous and free ourselves from the need to always buy.
Caroline Monast-Landriault, Head of External Communications for Collectif 7 à nous
PHOTO DOMINICK GRAVEL, THE PRESS
Guillaume Simoneau, a trained photographer, trained at Atelier La Coulée because he wanted to perfect his knowledge of making sculptures in bronze or aluminum. “When I knew that this foundry, unlike Concordia’s, was accessible because I didn’t study there, I jumped at the opportunity and it was an extraordinary experience. »
PHOTO DOMINICK GRAVEL, THE PRESS
Éric Saindon describes himself as an “artist in residence”. It is also educational and praises the foundry’s integrative approach. “Steel jobs are not accessible to everyone. »
PHOTO DOMINICK GRAVEL, THE PRESS
In the ceramics workshop, the artist Kellyann Marie works in silence.
PHOTO DOMINICK GRAVEL, THE PRESS
The painting workshop
PHOTO DOMINICK GRAVEL, THE PRESS
The arcade where young people go while their parents drink a beer at the microbrewery Les sans-taverne.
PHOTO DOMINICK GRAVEL, THE PRESS
The bicycle workshop
PHOTO DOMINICK GRAVEL, THE PRESS
The Le Détour food market will be expanded in the second construction phase of Building 7.
PHOTO DOMINICK GRAVEL, THE PRESS
“Knowing it was only $15 an hour, I would have come to work under my truck long before,” says Luc, who works in the mechanical shop.
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On the upper floor there is a photo studio, a digital printing workshop and a youth arcade managed by Press Start Coop. But the most impressive is undoubtedly the Atelier La Coulée, where you can work metal and where there is a foundry.
PHOTO DOMINICK GRAVEL, THE PRESS
A second development phase is planned.
However, so far only part of the old industrial building has been used. A second phase of development will include a daycare center, the Pointe-Saint-Charles art school and the Action Gardien development company, which brings together community organizations in the neighborhood.
In the words of Judith Cayer: Do you feel it, “the deep community fabric” that watches over Pointe-Saint-Charles?
A great opportunity to discover Building 7: the Lëon Market, which takes place on December 2nd and 3rd.