Passerelle from hell

>> Proposed Notre Dame air bridge either an eyesore or a lifesaver

by KRISTIAN GRAVENOR

Photo by Jason Felker

A proposed passerelle—an elevated pedestrian air bridge—over Notre Dame west of Peel intended to link campuses of the fast-growing École de Technologie Superieur (ETS) has experts arguing over whether the pedestrian span would save time and lives or simply make for a sky-blocking urban eyesore.

ETS, Canada’s seventh largest engineering school, moved from the Plateau to the former Dow Brewery in Griffintown in 1997 and recently bought a 75,000 square-foot piece of the field across the street on the site many had hoped would house a baseball stadium. According to the school, every hour up to 2,000 students will cross Notre Dame between the current building and a new five-storey building slated to open late next year. The school has begun the process of seeking city approval for the glass-covered bridge designed by architects Régis Côté and Serge Talbot.

School official France Beaulieu says that ETS opted to build a bridge rather than use a currently existing tunnel that links the two sides because, “If the students have to take an escalator to the basement, it will waste a lot of time going all the way down and across.” Montreal has no official ban on air bridges, but it’s a device long frowned upon by past civic administrations. With the exceptions of a short span at the Palais de Congrès and an uncovered walkway to the Château Champlain, Montreal has none of the flashy elevated walkways that have gained popularity in other cities.

“Cities like Calgary have at least 15 kilometres of air bridges, as do many American cities which include many that don’t have to deal with the extremes in temperature we have here,” says Beaulieu. She points out that in its previous incarnation the ETS building featured a technical bridge, an industrial air bridge spanning the same spot until that was demolished in 1994.

Without an elevated pedestrian bridge, argues Beaulieu, students will jaywalk over the busy boulevard rather than use an underground tunnel to cross Notre Dame, with potentially dangerous results. “We think we’re better off making a passerelle than having five or six students a year getting hit by cars,” she says.

NDG city councillor Jeremy Searle, who has been appointed the task of improving conditions for pedestrians, dismisses the notion that student lives would be endangered if denied the chance to cross overhead. He says such a footbridge would make the street more dangerous for pedestrians. “If you try to separate the pedestrians from the traffic then you indirectly reduce pedestrian safety because it encourages bad motorists to think that the road is only for them,” he says. Searle notes that he initially became involved in city politics in the mid-’80s to oppose a proposed concert hall that included a passerelle over Mansfield.
Heritage Montreal’s Dinu Bumbaru describes the ETS air bridge proposal as “shocking” and “inappropriate.” “These raised bridges block the street and obstruct the city skyline,” he says. “In Montreal we connect buildings underground where you can combine the pleasant element of the street and the functionality of the underground. Imagine putting air bridges up after 30 years of making the underground city that puts Montreal on the map. It shows that we still have to educate the educator.” :