Art & Architecture

The decor of this station’s tunnelled trainroom is unspectacular but sleek, with dark grey granite and attractively designed angular benches. Like the stepped contours of the headhouse windows and stained glass works, the shapes of the benches recall some of the characteristic forms of the Art Deco movement of the early 20th century.

At its east end, the trainroom is crossed at right angles by a transept tunnel that extends about 70 metres southward, housing the ticket booth and turnstiles and ending in the stairwell leading to the western exit. At right angles to this, a low tunnel crosses from the ticket hall area under Chemin de la Côte-des-Neiges to the eastern exit.

The station’s most notable feature is its large abstract backlit stained-glass murals depicting beautiful cybernetic-looking networks in enchanting shades of pink, white, and cyan. The larger of the two murals created by Claude Bettinger is at the far end of the transept over the platforms; the smaller is in the Côte-des-Neiges Ouest headhouse.

The futuristic feeling is reinforced by a framework of metal beams overhead. Running the whole length of the transept/ticket hall vault and also found in the stairwells up to the exits, it serves to hold fluorescent lighting and conceal the concrete vaults.

The blocky, imposing main entrance on the west side of Chemin de la Côte-des-Neiges was planned as a “sculpture” by the architects.¹ It recalls the mausoleums in the nearby Notre-Dame-des-Neiges cemetery, and also suggests the lines and tower of St. Mary’s Hospital behind it. The portico over the entrance is repeated by similar shapes surrounding the two entrances to the tunnel between the Côte-des-Neiges Est access and the ticket hall.

The secondary entrance, on the opposite side of the street, is integrated into a building. A short, low-ceilinged stairwell descends to a landing and leads to a much larger, wider, and deeper stairwell, the largest volume in the station, which stands out slightly incongruously between the cramped entrance and the low tunnel leading to the ticket hall.

On the landing in this entrance, a ledge next to the stairwell is decorated with a row of four small, pleasant abstract sculptures in aluminum and bronze by Bernard Chaudron. There are three free-standing pyramid-shaped modules on the low wall and a cross-shaped wall-mounted one. The sculptures’ shapes suggest a row of beehives and a bee; stamped with tiny human figures and other shapes, they call to mind the ‘swarming’ of busy metro passengers.