A heritage gem in the Laurentians was illegally demolished by a promoter, which forced Quebec to launch an investigation.
“It’s awful,” said the mayor of Sainte-Marguerite-du-Lac-Masson, Gilles Boucher. It’s almost all down to earth. Only a small part remains. »
The front part of the Domaine-de-l’Estérel shopping center, listed in the Quebec cultural heritage register since 2013, collapsed on Friday.
This happened while the rear part, which is not protected, is being demolished by the promoter Olymbec, who wants to build a hotel there.
He did not respond to our interview request.
According to our information, it was citizens who sounded the alarm on Friday when they saw that the heritage part was being destroyed like the rest of the building.
Built in 1936, the Domaine-de-l’Estérel shopping center is one of the first, worthy of the name, to have opened in Canada.
It also has exceptional architectural value and is described as the “flagship” of the Art Deco movement by Mayor Gilles Boucher.
The Minister of Culture and Communications, Nathalie Roy, received a photo Friday afternoon showing the damage.
Investigation triggered
She then announced via Twitter that an investigation was being held to “shed light on what happened”, stating that the building had been demolished “illegally, without any authorization”.
The Journal obtained several images showing the destruction suffered by the heritage part of the building.
“There are legal remedies if we realize that it was done deliberately,” said Maxime Roy, director of communications for Minister Nathalie Roy’s office.
The law provides for fines ranging from $6,000 to $1.1 million for this type of offense for a legal person.
The news came as “not at all surprising” to Francine Vanlaethem, president of Docomomo Quebec, an association dedicated to safeguarding innovative 20th-century architecture.
She had sent a letter to the ministry in March, precisely to prevent this scenario.
“We were alarmed, saying that if we demolished the back, we weren’t going to jeopardize the front,” she explains.
1
