The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (MMFA), which celebrated its 150th
anniversary in 2010, has reopened its new 59,000-total square foot Claire and Marc Bourgie Pavilion of
Quebec and Canadian Art and Concert Hall to the public. Increasing the
MMFA's total exhibition space by 20%, the new Pavilion features 18,953 nsf. of gallery space, which doubles
the previous display area dedicated for the presentation of the Museum's collection of historical and
contemporary Quebec and Canadian art.
Provencher Roy + Associés Architectes designed this new award-winning building (recipient of the 2010 Canadian Architect Awards of Merit and the 2011
Award of Excellence from the Urban Development Institute of Quebec), which will allow the Museum to present a more
coherent and comprehensive examination of the history of Quebec and Canadian art. Continuing the MMFA's
policy of offering free admission to its permanent collection, the new Claire and Marc Bourgie Pavilion will
provide thousands of visitors, school groups, families, and tourists
with the opportunity to learn more about Canada's rich cultural
heritage. In order to foster a new dialogue between the visual arts and
music, the Museum's expansion includes the restoration, and
conversion of the nave of the former Erskine and American church
(1894) into a 444-seat concert hall. The new 8,095 square foot Bourgie
Concert Hall will host a full range of music performances along with a
variety of museum-related public programs. Access to the Claire and
Marc Bourgie Pavilion and Bourgie Concert Hall is provided via a shared new main entrance clad in the same marble found in the
Museum's existing pavilions, while an underground gallery also links the two structures to the Jean-Noël Desmarais Pavilion.
MMFA pavilion and concert hall by Provencher Roy
The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts unveils new pavilion of Quebec and Canadian art and a concert hall in a transformed church nave

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- 04 January 2012
A critical component of the Museum's expansion efforts involved saving and annexing the Victorian Erskine
and American Church, deconsecrated in 2004 and acquired by the Museum in 2008. Designated a national
historic site by the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada in 1998, the church was built by Montreal
architect Alexander C. Hutchison in 1894, and inspired by the Romanesque Revival buildings of American
Architect Henry Hobson Richardson (Trinity Church, Boston). Its imposing façade, formed from an ingenious
combination of heavily rusticated grey limestone and lavishly-sculpted brown Miramichi sandstone (all newly
restored and cleaned), as well as Byzantine-style dome are rare in Montreal.
According to Nathalie Bondil, the MMFA's Director and Chief Curator, "This choice represents a major initiative
by the Museum to beautify our city." Charged with the task of designing a new Pavilion while preserving a
Canadian architectural treasure, Montreal-based Provencher Roy + Associés architects, led by Claude
Provencher and Matthieu Geoffrion, worked with a team of 450 professionals and craftsmen on this
unprecedented, multilevel, multipurpose addition. In awarding Provencher Roy + Associés architects with its
2011 Excellence Award, the Urban Development Institute of Quebec commended the new Pavilion for "its
exceptional urban integration and its design, which brings past and future together."
Achieving a critical balance between the new and surrounding structures involved the use of building materials
including glass and marble that were both specific to the new contemporary section and in concert with the
former church and three other existing pavilions. "Nowadays I think that we have to ensure meaningful
integrations of buildings… Such attempts must be contemporary, yet respectful and characteristic of their time.
The example of the Pavilion incorporating the Erskine and American Church belongs to this new trend,"
explained Provencher.
In order to form a cohesive whole, white marble from Vermont previously used for the Michal and Renata
Hornstein Pavilion (1912, architects Edward & W.S. Maxwell) and the Jean-Noël Desmarais Pavilion (1991,
architect Moshe Safdie) was chosen for the exterior of the new Pavilion. The new addition's seamless façade
is comprised of 1,500 sheets of marble cut from 27 successive slabs formed from 16 contiguous blocks from
the same quarry wall. According to Geoffrion, "The marble isn't installed on the façade like a skin, but like
actual clothing."
Emphasis was also placed on connecting users to both surrounding museum buildings and outlying structures.
On the top level, a glassed-in gallery affords stunning views of Mount Royal, and the incorporation of glass
walls throughout the new Pavilion and at each gallery entrance creates dynamic, light-filled spaces that offer
multiple framed views of the city.
Former Church Nave and Crypt Transformed
Named in honor of Pierre Bourgie, the patron and founder of the Arte
Musica Foundation, the former Erskine and American Church's nave has
been restored and transformed into a new, 444-seat Bourgie Concert Hall. Serving as the main entrance point to both Pavilion and Hall,
the former crypt has been converted into a lobby featuring ticket counter,
cloakroom and bar-boutique along with rehearsal and dressing rooms.
Ideally suited for chamber groups and other small ensembles such as
string orchestras, the new Concert Hall will host over 100 hundred concerts
annually, along with educational and cultural activities associated with
music and the fine arts, film screenings, and special events. Included among the structural improvements (Go
Multimédia for the stage and electronics, and consultants Legault Davidson for the acoustics) is the addition of
a birch shell over the stage. The hall contains 311 removable seats located on the parterre level, and 133
seats comprising the original pews on the balcony level. The Hall's interior design was developed by the
architects and designer Christiane Michaud, who collaborated with the Museum's curatorial team to ensure
that many historical details were respected.
Eighteen Tiffany windows, which are now part of the Museum's collection, were originally commissioned at the turn of
the twentieth century for the American Presbyterian Church (now demolished). They were then reinstalled in
the Erskine and American Church in 1937-38, then restored and reinstalled again in the former church and
now new Concert Hall. 17 of these windows were created between 1897 and 1904, during the heyday of the
Tiffany Glass and Decorating Company in New York. This remarkable grouping constitutes one of only two
commissions by Tiffany in Canada and one of the few surviving religious series in North America.