Société de Transport de Montreal

Société de transport de Montréal (STM)

Canada: LEED®-Certified transport centre

Although North America lagged behind Europe for many decades in sustainable building practices, in recent years burgeoning interest in LEED® and other green building rating systems has brought the two continents into closer alignment. In Montreal, Quebec, the Société de transport de Montréal (STM) recently opened a transport center that is expected to earn an LEED® Gold rating. The Stinson Transport Centre, designed by Lemay, will have a smaller environmental footprint than the facility it replaces, even though it is four times the size of its predecessor. Stretching the length of seven football fields, STM’s first roof-covered transport centre minimises the environmental and sensory impact of the 300 buses it can accommodate. Treating the roof as a ‘fifth facade’ was key to Lemay’s sleight of hand: residents of high-rise towers bordering the site gaze down on a visually engaging patchwork of ventilation skylights and green roof expanses, traversed by the yellow oblong roof demarcating the administrative portion of the facility. Natural light streaming through the skylights permeates the transport centre, and approximately 85 per cent of the heat generated by the vehicles and the maintenance areas is reused for heating and air conditioning. The environmentally responsible materials specified for this project include 2,300 m² of AGROB BUCHTAL ceramic tiles comprising part of the building envelope.