The Twin Towers of Griffintown

All the noise about Devimco's Griffintown project may have diverted attention away from the fact that there is another area project on the table, writes Henry Aubin.

The "other" project drawn up by local developer Roland Hakim, involves two glass tower buildings of 60 stories each - much higher than anything else in Montreal at the moment (and certainly exceeding Devimco's project's tallest building at 22 stories).

The buildings would be positioned right next to the entrace to the city via the Bonaventure Expressway. The interesting thing, however, is not so much the height or the location as the purpose of the buildings. One tower would be of mixed use: hotel, offices, residential - nothing extraordinary. The other would be a gigantic private hospital.

Questions arise on whether the required 800 doctors would effectively further drain Quebec's public system which is already short on doctors and nurses.

Sources and Links

• Private hospital would change the face of downtown (Henry Aubin, Montreal Gazette; Thursday, March 20 2008)
• U.S. firm plans private hospital in Griffintown (Jason Magder, Montreal Gazette; Wednesday, February 06 2008)

The area map for "The Twin Towers of Griffintown"