Symphonia POP, Provencher_Roy-designed residential highrise on Nun’s Island in Montreal, embraces two dualities, one offered by the city’s architecture and the other by its unique river-side location.
Situated beside the existing Symphonia Tower, Symphonia POP’s curving southwest face mirrors a bend of the Saint Lawrence River to offer sweeping views over the water, Lachine Rapids, and Montérégie. The 32-storey residential tower features 240 one- to three-bedroom residential units, ranging in size from 55.7 to 279 m2 (600 to 3,000 sf), with ceiling heights varying from 2.7 to 3.3 m (9 to 11 ft). All spaces have ample fenestration and are positioned to maximize views of the landscape, while offering full natural light exposure. Common areas include an indoor and outdoor pool, spa and sauna, fitness centre, private function room, and lounge area.
On the river side, Symphonia POP is integrated with Symphonia Tower as a coherent architectural composition. The first tower’s offset entrance hall is aligned with Symphonia POP, uniting the two towers, and creating a grand central axis along Serge Garant Street, bringing the complex together into a cohesive whole. In addition, the light curvature of the facade echoes the design and materiality of Symphonia Tower, through reflective surfaces expressed using transparent offset glass.
On the city side, the silhouette of downtown Montreal is reflected vertically. The tower’s volumetry is characterized by distinctive cubic architecture. The sporadic projection of cubes, referred to as “pops,” is immediately reminiscent of the various buildings making up the city’s urban landscape, such as Habitat 67. Buyers have the option to connect several cubes spanning two floors, to create a duplex condominium that accommodates their spatial needs.
The surrounding landscape unfolds with the same duality. Near the water, the river takes on great importance in defining the landscape and architecture of the site. The inverted curvature of the entrance hall resonates in the form of the outdoor pool, while also serving to split the site into two distinct co-existing parts: the built and the recreational. The built part constitutes the tower immersed in its natural setting, and the recreational part constitutes leisure elements, like the heated outdoor pool, relaxation areas, and bicycle path.
“In order to maintain architectural coherence between the new and the existing, we decided to extend certain distinctive elements present in the architecture of Phase I and to redefine others, breathing new life into the whole. In particular, we extended the duality of the city and the river, which was already present in the visual frameworks of Phase I, by creating a project that would specifically address the two entities,” says Roch Cayouette, partner architect at Provencher_Roy.
