De Maisonneuve Boulevard - History

History

De Maisonneuve was created as a single street in 1966, following the construction of the Montreal Metro. From west to east, De Maisonneuve took the route of: Western, from Decarie to Atwater Street; St. Luc, from Atwater to Guy Street; Burnside, from Stanley Street to Union Street; Ontario Street, from Union to Jeanne-Mance, and De Montigny, from Saint Laurent Boulevard to du Havre. Today, Ontario Street still remains, as does a small section of de Montigny, from Saint Laurent to Saint Urbain Street.

The downtown portion of De Maisonneuve Boulevard, between St. Hubert Street and St. Mathieu Street, lacks its a distinct identity even though its official creation was relatively recent. Rather, it is wedged between two well-known streets: Sherbrooke Street to the north and St. Catherine Street to the south.

During the last 20 years, the multifunctional character of De Maisonneuve Boulevard increased. Institutions already located along the street such as the Université du Québec à Montréal, Place des Arts and Concordia University have built new buildings. Other institutions have also built new buildings on the street such as the Grande Bibliothèque, the Cinémathèque québécoise and the Salle Pierre-Mercure.

In the central business district, residential condominium buildings, such as Le Roc Fleuri and Le 1200 Ouest (Tours Lépine), have been constructed in the mid-2000s between the office towers which were built in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

However, De Maisonneuve Boulevard's multifunctional character still lacks uniformity limiting it to a transportation corridor. To solve this problem, the City of Montreal has undertaken a major project in 2005 to reconfigure the boulevard.