Four Seasons Montréal Hotel and Residences + Holt Renfrew Ogilvy Extension

Client :Carbonleo
Architecture :Lemay + Sid Lee Architecture
Area :35,000 m² (377,000 ft²)
Photos Credits :Adrien Williams

The Four Seasons Montréal Hotel and Residences (FSMHR) is an 18-storey mixed use building with great ambitions. In addition to breathing new life into the adjoining legendary Holt Renfrew Ogilvy store, the FSMHR project contributes to rejuvenating Sainte-Catherine Street and in turn, all of Montréal’s downtown core. With its 169 Four Season hotel rooms, 18 luxury condos, and some of the finest boutiques in the city, this complex is a landmark of both the Montréal skyline and urban architecture itself. The total area of the building includes 3,250 m² (35,000 ft²) of commercial space, and a 300-car capacity underground parking garage distributed on 7 levels and a half.

Please note that we also collaborated to the creation of the majestic “Contemplation” artwork by sculptor Pascale Girardin which extends itself on 9 levels within the exterior atrium of the FSMHR (see link).

Technical challenges :

More than 20 column transfers were required to respond to the vertical stacking of different mixed use functions (luxury condominiums and hotel rooms, hotel ballroom, swimming pool, commercial spaces, logistics are, and car parking).
Design of a deep basement containing 7 levels and a half of underground parking directly adjacent to the historic Ogilvy department store and superimposing the new building over the old foundations of the Hotel de la Montagne.
Design of a suspended rainwater storage tank located on a mezzanine directly above the parking entrance ramp.
Design of a reinforced concrete ‘’reservoir’’ to accommodate the interior swimming pool and spa at the 6th floor.

Notable solutions and innovations :

Use of gradual horizontally transitioned columns of up to 2,775 mm (9 ft) throughout the project in order to achieve column transfers and provide the desired structural spacing through the vertically stacked mixed-use nature of the project. The columns were laterally thickened through their transitions to resolve eccentric forces and avoid the use of costly and cumbersome transfer beams.
Horizontally transitioned shear wall that shifted 1,500 mm (5 ft) laterally at the ground floor to provide optimized commercial space at all levels.
Use of high strength concrete of up to 80 MPa in the columns.
Design of a major ballroom measuring 16 m x 30 m (52 ft x 98 ft) without any interior columns in the direct centre of the building.
Use of all concrete cores for shearwalls, reducing the total number of walls required for lateral design.