Art & Architecture

This splendid station occupies 50,000 square metres of the surface of Parc Angrignon, including a large bus terminal serving southwest Montreal and the West Island, as well as Exo buses to the South Shore.

The key to this station’s appeal is light. As soon as a train arrives at the station, it flashes from the dark tunnel into brilliant daylight, even brighter than at Jolicoeur metro two stations away.

This is the only station whose trainroom is not entirely underground. Grassy slopes attractively planted with trees and shrubs sink from street level down to the platforms, allowing natural light to enter through long glazed curtain walls at either end of the station. As a result, both the sunlight and the presence of the park are felt throughout. Near each staircase is a striking circular window, although unfortunate renovations have seen flat windowpanes installed instead of the charming hemispherical bubbles that used to jut out from these windows. 

At the centre of the platforms, the overlook from the ticket hall above admits sunlight, filtered through a grid of concrete beams.

The huge headhouse, which includes the ticket hall, is covered in rows of semi-cylindrical transparent plastic domes; the walls are also almost entirely glazed. This use of curtain walls is permitted by a framework of concrete beams, and gives the building a feeling of insubstantiality, almost like a bazaar or exposition pavilion. This effect is supported by the fact that the domes, as well as the scaffolding-like framework, extend beyond the walls for a wide overhang. The windows and domes were renovated starting in 2014 to eliminate ongoing problems with water leakage.

The central pier of the bus depot, to the north of the station, is covered by rows of domes repeating the same structures as the pavilion’s roof. These both protect passengers from the weather and visually link the terminus with the station itself. Some other sheltered walkways, built later, are in a different style.

On either end of the headhouse, walkways installed directly on the roof of the trainroom below lead outward to Boulevard des Trinitaires and to the park. The walkway at the southwestern end of the station is flanked by two huge but whimsical ventilation shafts, bevelled cylinders in bright orange, suggesting the funnels of a steamship. A park-and-ride lot, a kiss-and-ride loop, and a taxi rank, as well as an additional bus loop, are located south of the station.

Besides the glass and concrete, the colour scheme consists of warm, vivid hues. The windows and roof domes are framed by red-orange mullions, to strongly complement the green of the park; the wooden benches and the terra cotta floor tiles add to this effect. In the non-windowed central portion, a bright lemon-yellow compensates in part for the reduced brightness, while the grilles over the ventilation shafts—bevelled cylinders like their outside counterparts—are in red, mauve, and blue.