Design
- See also Montreal Metro artists.
The design of the Metro was heavily influenced by Montreal's winter conditions. Unlike other cities' metros, nearly all station entrances in Montreal are completely enclosed; usually they are in small, separate buildings with swivelling doors meant to mitigate the wind caused by train movements that can make doors difficult to open.
All separate entrances are set back from the sidewalk; as well, several stations in Downtown Montreal are directly connected to buildings, and thus have several entrances inside existing buildings and street-level entrances, making the Metro an integral part of Montreal's underground city despite its lack of elevators. Several metro entrances are also located within building facades. Only three stations have open entrances, which are prevalent in other cities. During the past six years several stations have been upgraded with lifts to accommodate passengers with disabilities; such stations include Henri-Bourassa through Montmorency, Berri-UQAM, Lionel-Groux, and Côte-Vertu.
Montreal's metro is renowned for its architecture and public art. Under the direction of Drapeau, a competition among Canadian architects was held to decide the design of each station, ensuring that every station was built in a different style by a different architect. Several stations, such as Berri-UQAM, are important examples of modernist architecture, and various system-wide design choices were informed by the International Style.
Along with the Stockholm Metro, Montreal pioneered the installation of public art in the metro among capitalist countries, a practise that beforehand was mostly found in socialist and communist nations (the Moscow Metro being a case in point). More than fifty stations are decorated with over one hundred works of public art, such as sculpture, stained glass, and murals by noted Quebec artists, including members of the famous art movement, the Automatistes.
Some of the most important works in the Metro include the stained-glass window at Champ-de-Mars station, the masterpiece of major Quebec artist Marcelle Ferron; and the Guimard entrance at Square Victoria station, like the famous metro entrances designed for the Paris Métro, on permanent loan since 1966 by the RATP to commemorate its cooperation in constructing the metro. Installed in 1967 (the 100th anniversary of Guimard's birth), this is the only authentic Guimard entrance in use outside Paris, although reproductions using original moulds were given to Mexico City (Metro Bellas Artes on line 8), Chicago (Van Buren Station on the Metra network), Lisbon (Picoas station on the yellow line) and Moscow (Kievskaya station on the Arbatsko-Pokrovskaya).
Read more about this topic: Montreal Metro
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—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)