The urban meadow rewriting the map and memory of Montreal

Nine years ago, the City of Montreal made a quiet announcement that signalled a major shift: a new civic space would be built to honour 21 women who helped shape the city.

Not with statues or street signs, but with something alive that could grow, change, and be experienced: The Place des Montréalaises, a sprawling inclined meadow and civic plaza that floats above the Ville-Marie Expressway, reconnecting Old Montreal to the downtown core and offering a corrective on what remembrance looks like in the city.

21 women, names engraved

“The project has different layers of appreciation at the scale of the city, the space, and the user,” explains the design team at Lemay. “We carefully developed the concept to create a dialogue with the monumental context, while offering a space of respite in the city.”

And that’s exactly what it feels like walking through the site: part belvedere, part urban bridge, part open-air monument. It’s a place for people to stop and sit, for flowers to bloom in subtle succession, and where the noise of traffic—once a defining feature of this space—is silenced by design.

“We really wanted to make the cars disappear,” the team adds. “In a fully accessible gesture, the idea was to reunite and repair. The inclined plane became the central formal gesture to reunite and take presence in a bold solution.”

That boldness is understated. It doesn’t announce itself with grandeur—it reveals itself slowly. Step by step, literally. The names of 21 women are engraved into a sweeping staircase, each one paired with a carefully selected native plant species. As the months pass, the flowers bloom one after another, each getting their moment in the sun.

“The meadow design represents a symbolic tribute through nature,” they explain, “with each of the 21 plant varieties specifically selected to honour one of the influential Montréalaise being commemorated. These plants bloom sequentially throughout the year, so the meadow evolves continuously with the seasons.”

Somewhere between a park and a poem

The project asks its visitors to walk, sit, look closely.

“There are about 84 perforations planted to create the overall meadow. This space becomes a belvedere offering a new perspective of the city and a place for collective remembrance.”

But Place des Montréalaises repairs as much as it remembers. For decades, the Ville-Marie Expressway has severed the historic quarter from the modern downtown core. The inclined plane, floating above the traffic, becomes a literal act of reconnection.

“The inclined plane fulfills both symbolic and functional purposes: it repairs the urban fracture in the cityscape left by the Ville-Marie Expressway… while transforming into a place of contemplation and gathering, a belvedere to view the City of Montréal.”

That bridge is more than metaphor. It’s meticulously engineered to be accessible for all, with gentle slopes, strategically placed rest areas, and integrated lighting for both visibility and safety: “Because the project is grounded in ideas of inclusion and representation, it was imperative the design embedded universal needs and realities.”

The concept of safety—especially for women and marginalized communities—is central. Visibility, openness, and thoughtful landscaping all play a role.

“The commemorative content, spatial openness, lighting and vegetation choices were all guided by a desire to create an inclusive and non-threatening environment.”

Underneath the architectural poetry, the project is a feat of logistics and coordination. “The biggest technical challenge was to seamlessly bridge over the Ville-Marie Expressway in a way that conceals its presence completely.” Soil depth, structural spans, column placement, even supporting vegetation above the métro tunnel—each detail had to be handled with surgical precision.

Public space of care, resilience, and recognition

But it’s the philosophical ambition of the site that may leave the most lasting mark. In a city where fewer than a quarter of public places are named after women, Place des Montréalaises offers visibility as well as permanence.

“We are certainly hoping women will be more predominant in the future of the city’s toponymy. We need to create equality in our city’s representation… create a feminine city.”

What’s striking is how the space moves beyond the commemorative. It’s as much about remembering the 21 women named on site as it is about embedding their legacy in the daily rhythm of the city. It’s about making public space that speaks to care, resilience, and recognition.

“We also have to talk more about celebration and pay homage,” the team says. “It is not just to remember but to make it part of our day to day life… a vibrant and thriving legacy.”