ARCHITECTS
Jodoin, Lamarre, Pratte, & Co; Cayouette & Saia

 ARTISTS
Yves Trudeau
Éric Lamontagne

 OPENING DATE
3 November 1986

Looking up the stairs from the transept

Mezzanine
Transept, seen from above

This is an efficient and modern space whose forms symbolize the swiftness and movement of the passengers and vehicles. The forms of the mezzanine and the transept are raked around in wide semicircles, representing the fluidity of the motion and also making traffic flow more efficient.

Unfortunately, the very narrow stairways to the bridge are unequal to the traffic flows that obtain in a terminal station. These might be explained by the fact that this station was not originally intended as a terminus.

Human traffic jam in the stairways toward the bridge
Tiled semi-circles indicating the position of train doors. ;) to Peter Nicoll.

The walls and floors are done in a variety of neutral materials, terracotta on the walls and earth-toned granite and sandstone tiles. To brighten the space, the lighting elements are lemon-yellow. At platform level, tiled semi-circles on the floor indicate the position of the trains' doors.

Overview of the platforms

The kiosks are of attractive, angular design. There are a total of three. The two southernmost ones, barely more than shelters for staircases, are linked to the mezzanine by a long, rather narrow corridor.

Côte-Vertu Sud kiosk
Corridor to Mac Donald and Côte-Vertu Sud kiosks
Mac Donald kiosk, serving the bus terminus
Côte-Vertu Nord kiosk

The southernmost entrance serves the bus terminus located behind ch. de la Côte-Vertu. This exit formerly served an STM, STL, and AMT bus terminus; however, it was quite unequal to this task, and the STM bus lines have been moved to a large new terminus built around the large Côte-Vertu Nord entrance just above the mezzanine.

Terminus Côte-Vertu Nord

Relief, négatif positif, by Yves Trudeau As for art, the bridge runs between two complementary murals by Yves Trudeau, on the walls of the transept. They feature crumpled stainless-steel surfaces belted by a yellow stripe that runs along all the walls. The yellow ribbon symbolizes a trace, like Ariadne's thread from the myth of Theseus, allowing passengers to find their way through the underground world represented by the exposed bedrock-like faces. The works are entitled Relief, négatif positif.

L'Homo urbanus, by Éric Lamontagne L'Homo urbanus, by Éric Lamontagne, detail

The new terminus brought with it a new work of art, as part of the government of Quebec's 1% for art program. This mural sculpture, L'Homo urbanus, represents a crowd, shown as a set of tiny photos, turning its back to avoid seeing violence. Its highly polished metal reflects the real crowd's movements. This work is located in the new north wing of the Côte-Vertu Nord pavilion, leading to the buses.

 MATT'S RATING
Three metros-not bad!Three metros-not bad!Three metros-not bad!