Status: COMPLETED August 2011 - September 2011
As part of its sustainability initiatives, McGill University Services wants to improve the overall quality of the McGill downtown campus. It includes the creation of pedestrian dominant zones in both the lower campus and lower McTavish Street with the addition of planters, eating, bike racks, etc.; the elimination of most parking surfaces and reduction of vehicular traffic in these areas by restricting service and delivery hours; and the reconstruction of major paved terraces and creation of a new public square to improve green space and to promote social interaction and activities.
This project also touches on numerous aspects of the environment including the promotion of biodiversity, reduction of the heat island effect, reduction of vehicle CO2 production and reduction of energy consumption. As the largest green space in the downtown core, McGill’s campus benefits the McGill community in addition to the thousands of Montrealers who live and work nearby. In making the campus greener, McGill is not only making the campus more environmentally sustainable, but also promotes a more sustainable lifestyle to the thousands of daily visitors and students, who will ideally take these priorities with them when they leave.
This project has a double objective: testing different techniques of Green Streets to implement vegetation, diminishing water runoffs and reduce heat island effect as well as animating the street and creating innovative spaces and test the reaction of the McGill community to these new types of environments. The result will give some tangible solutions to possibly generate modifications of this kind throughout the campus streets in the long term!
For further information conerning this project, or to get in touch with its members, please contact the krista.houser [at] mcgill.ca (SPF Administration Team).
