Place Bonaventure is a project that was built in the mid-1960s in the heart of what was Montréal’s new business district above Central station. Being one of the largest buildings of its time with a size of almost 300,000 m², it was at the time, the forerunner of all the major convention centers subsequently created in Québec. The exhibition hall, with an area of around 21,000 m², has a clearance that can reach up to 8.4 meters high. Place Bonaventure is a building complex with offices, a shopping gallery, a railway station, public parking, multifunctional rental spaces and a hotel with 400 rooms.
The building structure is made of reinforced concrete. Columns are arranged on a grid of 75′ by 50′ (± 23 m by 15 m). At the station level, given the very limited clearance between the tracks, certain column load transfers had to be carried out from concrete to a steel frame structure. Certain columns are supported by large concrete piles excavated manually down to the rock.
This project was carried out in “fast track” mode with NCK performing all structural engineering services, in collaboration with another structural engineering firm in Montréal.
In 1998, the building invested more than $60 million in the renovation of the office spaces, the addition of windows as well as the repair of public areas and exhibition halls. Changes to the various entrances to the building were also done in 2017 and the revitalization project has continued to completely revamp the original building. The structural mandates for the repair, the addition of windows and the revitalization project were all carried out by NCK.
