Art & Architecture

Stunning decoration and eye-catching geometry combine in this gorgeous station.

The chief design element and the first one that leaps to view is the interplay of expanses of vividly coloured materials. A chequerboard of stark black granite, alternating between polished and matte, clothes the walls of the platforms, where it contrasts with a band of dark blue enamelled steel and especially with the unforgettable bright raspberry and black ceramic tile patterns on the floors.

The brilliant play of colours continues into the upper levels, with bright azure and black ceramic tiles on the ticket hall floor, along with black chequerboard accent walls and parapets, white metal railings, black granite floors, and white and deep blue enamelled steel highlights, against a background of pale grey limestone panels and bare concrete. The palette and patterns are based on the designs of the Memphis Group, a postmodern Italian design group of the 1980s that drew on styles such as art deco, pop art, and 1950s futurist kitsch.¹

The majority of the trainroom is built in tunnel, with a deep volume near the south end of the station housing the ticket hall mezzanine. This square volume is set at a 45-degree angle to the axis of the trainroom. This angle is the starting point for the layout and décor of the entire station, all focused on striking interplays between 90-degree and 45-degree angles.

At platform level, the angle appears in the bold black floor tile patterns, the benches, and the diagonal position of the light fixtures. The standard fixtures found throughout the system are given a flamboyant reinterpretation. Besides being set at an angle, they are painted red to match the floors, and are provided with rectangular shields that reflect the light theatrically to highlight the dramatic colours on the walls and floor, as well as creating a unique gradient effect on the fixtures themselves.³

The platform stairs are also set at a 45-degree angle, and are emphatically framed by the wall cladding, each staircase seeming to recede into a monumental black cube. The stairs lead to the mezzanine hosting the ticket hall, which continues the geometry by jutting out over the platforms like the prow of a ship. While less conspicuous than the rest of the décor, the concrete underside of the mezzanine also features interesting forms including a series of sawtooth shapes above the platform edges.

Throughout the ticket hall and upper levels, the ceiling beams form deep square coffers at the same 45-degree angle, producing a sculptural effect that strongly reinforces the station’s geometry. The deep, shadowy recesses of the ceiling coffers and especially of the ventilation opening beyond the end of the mezzanine create an impressive contrast with the brilliant colours below.³

The exit staircase from the mezzanine leads to a landing located at the foot of the stairs to the eastern (Beaumont) headhouse; the landing is supplied with a light shaft integrated into the headhouse above. From here, a low-ceilinged tunnel makes a U-turn from the axis of travel to pass under Boulevard de l’Acadie and reach the smaller, western (De l’Acadie) exit. This walkway, seemingly isolated from the rest of the station, actually runs along the south edge of the main volume, and features two discreet openings that turn out to allow surprising perspectives onto the ticket hall from high above. The platforms’ red and black floor tiles make a reappearance here.

The headhouses, too, follow the angular lozenge-in-a-square pattern in their footprint and the shapes of their roof coffers, as well as the Beaumont exit’s deep roof overhangs. The somewhat narrow but striking concrete buildings are clad in the main volume’s pale grey limestone panels with bold stripes of pink and black granite. The teal and dusty rose window muntins repeat, albeit in muted form, the bright colours of the station below.

Two of the station’s artworks straddle the line between furniture and sculpture. A high point of the station’s Memphis Group inspiration is the sculptural tall clock with integrated benches by Météore Design, located in the ticket hall and imagined as a meeting point (its title is Lieu de rendez-vous). The central shaft, clad in granite and bright blue porcelain steel, is accompanied by two stainless steel benches that are shaped and arranged like clock hands on a circle in the floor.

Similarly, the bold black and red platform benches (and a modified one in the Beaumont headhouse) were designed by industrial designer Michel Morelli to suit the station’s visual context with their colours and lines, while also giving a nod to the history of public transit—the red gratings on either side of the seats recall the luggage racks in old railway cars and Montreal’s former tramways.³

Moving up, white ceramic panels on the walls of the main stairwell and the walkway between the two entrance buildings are printed with photos by Jean Mercier, depicting people flying, swooping, and somersaulting in mid-air. The weightless, whimsical, and ethereal feeling of these murals emphasizes the transition from the strictures of the ordered, geometric underground environment to the free air.