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Viger Square

Squares in MontrealVille-Marie, Montreal
Agora Daudelin 02
Agora Daudelin 02

Viger Square (officially in French: square Viger) is an urban square in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It was greatly changed by the construction of the Ville-Marie Expressway in the 1970s. The square is divided into three sections. It is bordered to the west by Saint Denis Street, to the east by Saint André Street, to the north by Viger Street, and to the south by Saint Antoine Street.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Viger Square (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Viger Square
Autoroute Ville-Marie, Montreal Ville-Marie

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Geographical coordinates (GPS)

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N 45.5126 ° E -73.554 °
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Autoroute Ville-Marie
H2L 2P5 Montreal, Ville-Marie
Quebec, Canada
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Agora Daudelin 02
Agora Daudelin 02
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Place Viger
Place Viger

Place Viger was both a grand hotel and railway station in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, constructed in 1898 and named after Jacques Viger, the first Mayor of the city. Although combined stations and hotels were common in the United Kingdom in the late 19th century, Place Viger was the only such combination in Canada. Place Viger was designed by Bruce Price for the Canadian Pacific Railway, and was built near what was then the central core of Montreal, in proximity to the financial district, the city hall, the port and the court house. The mayor of Montreal, Raymond Préfontaine, strongly encouraged its construction in an area central to the French Canadian élites, in contrast to the rival Windsor Hotel to the west, which was perceived to cater to the city's anglophone classes. The rail station served as the terminus of the CP passenger rail lines running into downtown Montreal from the north and east. It replaced the older Dalhousie Station. Its counterpart terminus for CP passenger rail lines running into downtown Montreal from the south and west was Windsor Station. Constructed in the French château-style common to railway hotels built by Canadian Pacific, Place Viger housed the railway station in its lower levels and a luxurious hotel on the upper floors. Place Viger enjoyed an enviable setting adjacent to the gardens of Viger Square, allowing both railway travellers and hotel guests to stroll along the garden paths. The shifting of Montreal's commercial core to the north-west, and the onset of the economic depression of the 1930s, proved disastrous for Place Viger. The hotel closed in 1935. In 1951, the railway station was also closed, and the building was sold to the City of Montreal. The interiors were gutted and transformed into nondescript office space, and the building was renamed Édifice Jacques-Viger. The Viger Square gardens were destroyed in the 1970s to allow for the construction of the Autoroute Ville-Marie highway. After the highway was completed, although a new Viger Square was created on the concrete deck covering the highway, it was poorly designed, desolate and underused, despite sculptural works by artists including Charles Daudelin. For decades, the old Place Viger station sat isolated and neglected, a striking historic building surrounded by parking lots and concrete. In 2003, the Commission scolaire de Montréal, the City of Montreal and the Quebec provincial government announced that Place Viger would house a new École des métiers du tourisme (a school of tourism). In 2004, the Borough of Ville-Marie announced that it would restore what remains of the nearby public gardens, by replacing much of the concrete in Viger Square with trees, paths and other soft landscaping. Place Viger was sold in 2005 to a developer who intended to convert the building to apartments and a new hotel. However, the developer suffered financial difficulties and finally resold the property in 2012.In May 2014, the new owner, real estate developer Jesta along with partners, announced a $250 million mixed-use redevelopment plan for the complex, including residential and office space. In September of that same year, software provider Lightspeed announced that it would be moving its Montreal offices to the Viger complex. Lightspeed moved into the Viger castle in April 2015.

Montreal
Montreal

Montreal ( (listen) MUN-tree-AWL; officially Montréal, French: [mɔ̃ʁeal] (listen)) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as Ville-Marie, or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple-peaked hill around which the early city of Ville-Marie is built. The city is centred on the Island of Montreal, which obtained its name from the same origin as the city, and a few much smaller peripheral islands, the largest of which is Île Bizard. The city is situated 196 km (122 mi) east of the national capital Ottawa, and 258 km (160 mi) southwest of the provincial capital, Quebec City. As of 2021, the city had a population of 1,762,949, and a metropolitan population of 4,291,732, making it the second-largest city, and second-largest metropolitan area in Canada. French is the city's official language and in 2016 was the only home language of 53.7% of the population, while 18.2% spoke only English and 18.7% spoke neither French nor English at home. 9.4% spoke a mix of French, English and a foreign language at home. In the larger Montreal Census Metropolitan Area, 71.2% of the population spoke at least French at home, compared to 19.0% who spoke English. Still in 2016, 87.4% of the population of the city of Montreal considered themselves fluent in French while 91.4% could speak it in the metropolitan area. Montreal is one of the most bilingual cities in Quebec and Canada, with 57.4% of the population able to speak both English and French. Montreal is the second-largest primarily French-speaking city in the developed world, after Paris.Historically the commercial capital of Canada, Montreal was surpassed in population and in economic strength by Toronto in the 1970s. It remains an important centre of commerce, aerospace, transport, finance, pharmaceuticals, technology, design, education, art, culture, tourism, food, fashion, video game development, film, and world affairs. Montreal has the second-highest number of consulates in North America, serves as the location of the headquarters of the International Civil Aviation Organization, and was named a UNESCO City of Design in 2006. In 2017, Montreal was ranked the 12th-most liveable city in the world by the Economist Intelligence Unit in its annual Global Liveability Ranking, although it slipped to rank 40 in the 2021 index, primarily due to stress on the healthcare system from the COVID-19 pandemic. It is regularly ranked as a top ten city in the world to be a university student in the QS World University Rankings.Montreal has hosted multiple international conferences and events, including the 1967 International and Universal Exposition and the 1976 Summer Olympics. It is the only Canadian city to have held the Summer Olympics. In 2018, Montreal was ranked as a global city. The city hosts the Canadian Grand Prix of Formula One since 1978, as well as the Montreal International Jazz Festival, the largest jazz festival in the world, the Just for Laughs festival, the largest comedy festival in the world, and Les Francos de Montréal, which is the largest event devoted exclusively to French-language music anywhere in the world. It is also home to ice hockey team Montreal Canadiens, the franchise with the most Stanley Cup wins.