Art & Architecture

Like its neighbour De l’Église, this station’s width was restricted by the presence of soft shale in the surrounding bedrock. Following the cave-in during the excavation of De l’Église station, the plans for both stations were drastically changed in the middle of construction.² To minimize the strain on the weak bedrock over the station vaults during construction, the stations were changed from the usual side-by-side plan to half-width trainrooms with stacked side platforms. However, at Charlevoix, both platforms are on the same side of the tracks, and the link between the platforms is via a simple staircase, set in the middle of the curved tunnel linking the platforms with the stairwell to the surface. The traveller’s path is therefore much less complicated than at De l’Église.

The walls are clad in glazed red-orange brick. Recessed and omitted bricks create diamond-shaped patterns along the tracks. The benches consist of simple polished granite blocks, arranged in groups of six.

This station is the deepest in the network, with its lower platform reaching 27 metres below the surface. However, unlike Lucien-L’Allier, for example, the ceilings above the main stairwells have been kept relatively low to soften the sensation of depth—at least when descending. There are two stairwells: one from the headhouse down to the wide ticket hall, and a second down to the upper platform. Each features three escalators and no fixed stairs.

More strikingly, the architects also chose to bring sunlight deep into the station via a light shaft, which also provides ventilation to the platform levels. This shaft is located at the centre of the station excavation, with the stairwells, ticket hall, and headhouse wrapped around it.

As well as a large window over the attendant’s booth in the ticket hall, the light shaft illuminates a pair of brilliantly coloured abstract stained-glass windows by Mario Merola and Pierre Osterrath, entitled Octavie (upper) and Nicola Corrado (lower) after Merola’s parents.^4, 5 The station’s undisputed highlight, these windows’ gorgeous swirls of colour dispel any underground gloom, enlivening both main stairwells as much as the sunlight they admit.

Part of the light shaft’s opening is formed by a slanting portion of the headhouse roof; the diagonal roofline is repeated in the shape of the headhouse’s windows. The headhouse is a low, nondescript concrete building, with exits leading to Rue du Centre and to the adjacent bus loop. The headhouse is joined at its exterior to a social housing tower that extends over the bus loop.