The City Council presents a plan to demolish and rebuild the Natatorium pavilion in Verdun

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The city of Montreal’s suggestion for the historic Natatorium swimming pavilion in Verdun is to tear it down and rebuild it, the borough’s mayor, Marie-Andrée Auger, announced at a special council meeting Tuesday night.

Auger said too much work is needed for restoring the building to make sense, even though that is his preference. She described demolition and reconstruction as a “last resort.”

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“I want to say it again: My first choice was restoration,” Auger said. “And when they presented the reconstruction scenario to me, I did not accept it. We continued the work and continued to explain the ‘why’ to me…we added layers of validation.

“And I will tell you that when we talk about restoration it is because we can preserve a good part of a decaying building. “If we have to destroy and rebuild the majority, then honestly, in that scenario, we have to talk about reconstruction.”

The Natatorium pavilion has been closed since the fall of 2017, when major cracks were discovered during renovations to make it more accessible to people with reduced mobility. Brackets were installed to reinforce the roof and floors. Studies and expert reports were subsequently carried out to determine the future of the building. The Natatorium site will be maintained, with the swimming pools.

The plan might have been different if the building had been made of brick or stone, Auger said, but since it is made of concrete that has been eroded by chlorine over the years due to poor ventilation, removing the concrete to add Any more would be the equivalent of starting over.

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A detailed presentation on the condition of the art deco building was given on Tuesday, describing structural damage in detail and including photographs. It included advantages and disadvantages of both the restoration scenario and the reconstruction scenario, listing more advantages and fewer disadvantages for the latter.

The presentation did not include pricing for both scenarios, but Annie Longpré, project management team leader for the city of Montreal, said refurbishing the building would cost 36 per cent more than building a new one.

Built at the same time as the Verdun Auditorium, the Natatorium, opened in 1940, was the largest outdoor swimming pool in Canada until the construction of Jean-Drapeau Park and its aquatic complex.

The former mayor of Verdun, Jean-François Parenteau, stated before Tuesday’s meeting that he is against the demolition for several reasons.

“It’s historic and also represents part of the history of not only Verdun, but also Quebec and Canada,” he said. “The Natatorium was built at the same time as the Auditorium (Verdun) and the Chalet du Mont-Royal and the Chalet de l’Île Ste-Hélène and different projects to try to reactivate the economy (after the great depression).”

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Parenteau said the pavilion is important to many members of the Verdun community.

“People who grew up in Verdun went to the Natatorium and have many memories from there,” he said.

There was a room full of Verdun citizens at Tuesday’s council meeting, and nearly 300 others attended online. Many of them gave impassioned speeches against the demolition in person.

Thierry Cerpolet, a photographer who has lived in Verdun for 31 years, was one of them.

“I am very concerned about the fact that in Quebec we always prioritize demolishing and rebuilding something new instead of preserving the fundamental heritage of a city,” he said. “You have an unfortunate tendency to demolish because, at a price level, it is always more interesting to demolish… Do you have a unique art deco building that is extraordinary, that is visually exceptional, and you want to create something completely new?”

Cerpolet’s words were received with applause from the citizens.

Former Verdun mayor Georges Bossé said that if the building really needed to be torn down because of problems with the concrete, experts from that field should have been brought in to provide the information.

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“Not the city officials of Montreal or Verdun or anywhere else,” he said.

Bossé said that if the building were located in older parts of the city or in Jean-Drapeau, “you would never demolish it.”

His words were also received with applause.

Michel Soulières, director of project management for the city of Montreal, said those experts were consulted before the plan was presented Tuesday.

“They are not my results, they are the results of a committee of experts,” he said.

Auger said there are more steps to come and the city will have to defend the demolition and reconstruction scenario to heritage experts.

Parenteau said before the meeting that he hopes the plan will change.

“They are in a very difficult situation because I understand the financial situation,” he said. “But there are possibilities; there are options. They have to search everywhere. The same thing happened with the auditorium, they wanted to destroy it, we achieved it.”

And he added: “It is not possible, on the eve of the 150th (anniversary) of Verdun, in an election year, to maintain this position.”

Tuesday’s presentation suggests work would begin in 2027 for a 2030 opening.

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