La étrange vie après la mort architecturale de Joseph-Arthur Godin

A stroll through Montreal is a journey through a museum of landmarks. When you’re downtown, towers like Le 1000 De La Gauchetière, La Tour McGill, and Complexe Desjardins overlook the crowds; turn your head at the right time, you can spot the Farine Five Roses sign or Olympic Tower through buildings. Mount Royal looms over the island, with Saint Joseph’s Oratory peeking out at you from the mountainside. These are all parts of a backdrop to day-to-day life here.

L’Édifice Joseph-Arthur-Godin at the corner of Saint-Laurent Boulevard and Sherbrooke Street is one of these landmarks, greeting partygoers as they meander into the Plateau at twilight. The concrete Art Nouveau building stands out with its curved walls and picturesque balconies looking out onto the city’s thoroughfare.

Joseph-Arthur Godin, the architect behind it, has designed a handful of structures across the city. Although his impact is subtler than the Oratory or the Olympic Stadium, his work is a thread in the city’s tapestry.

Woven in

Born in 1879, the Montreal architect studied at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris before returning home and joining the Province of Québec Association of Architects at only 19. While he was prolific at a young age, Godin’s career trajectory was about as straightforward as the curved walls of l’Edifice Godin—which is to say not at all. His time as an architect would only last until he turned 40.

While controversies surrounding the construction of a police station tarnished Godin’s name in 1908, what halted his career was the eponymous l’Edifice Godin. In 1914, it was one of the three apartment buildings that pushed the designer into debt, making him disappear for 20 years.

In 1940, Godin re-emerged as a city councillor, sporting the name Arthur Gaudin. His reason for the change was simple: while visiting France, Gaudin felt more in tune with the French identity. Still, that didn’t put him above scrutiny, with the Montreal newspaper Le Canada calling Godin out for discarding his name and the troubled history attached to it.

Despite his murky character, Godin’s work is omnipresent throughout the cityscape and sphere of municipal politics; he is everywhere and nowhere all at once. Recognized but uncelebrated, his name only adorns his own building. Yet, with the city as his atelier, he created oeuvres that still play a role in the lives of Montrealers today. Godin’s life mirrors the history of his buildings, blending the tragic, wonderful, unreal, forgotten and memorable.