Today, it is with pride and a keen sense of accomplishment that we share and celebrate with our colleagues, as well as with the Montréal design and architecture community and our partners in the UNESCO Creative Cities Network, the adoption of the very first Montréal Agenda for Quality and Exemplarity in Design and Architecture.

After more than two years of hard work, active listening and stimulating exchanges, our elected officials and our administration have taken significant action: they have made a commitment to focusing more than ever on sustainability, creativity and innovation, and on making designers and architects front-line allies in successfully negotiating Montréal’s green, social and solidarity transition.

We have every reason to be proud: our Montréal Agenda has drawn inspiration from the world’s best policies in this area. It is a position statement by the city that gives us an even greater taste for, and the means to, produce quality projects in Montréal that respect our built heritage.

The Agenda impels us to “up our game.” It identifies obstacles to quality that are now priorities for action, and strategies to implement. Those priorities commit the central departments, boroughs, and paramunicipal organizations toward an inspiring city project that will benefit all Montrealers by enhancing the quality of living environments and our built environment.

We are not starting from a blank slate. This initiative is supported by 30 years of municipal actions in design and architecture, the expertise and reputation of our Bureau, and Montréal’s confirmed status as a UNESCO City of Design. In developing this Agenda, we relied on the drive and determination of a task force that is still hard at work within the municipal administration, and on support from hundreds of other professionals who, during the consultation period, showed that they want to make quality their watchword.

This adventure began on September 25, 2017, when Montréal City Council joined some 50 cities, towns and boroughs in Québec in declaring support for the Ordre des architectes du Québec’s initiative seeking adoption of a Québec policy on architecture. The Bureau du design was then tasked with conducting a consultation and consensus-building process with partner organizations in the design community, the boroughs, and central departments to draft the outline of the Montréal “chapter” of the proposed policy. Two years later, we are adopting our own Montréal Agenda, which will not only be a centrepiece of the Québec policy, but will be constitute a lasting, valuable legacy for the current and future generations.

Enjoy!

We take this opportunity to wish everyone the happiest of Holidays, and we look forward to the pleasure of putting this Agenda into practice starting in 2020.