Provencher Roy

Provencher Roy + Associés Architectes Inc. or Provencher_Roy^[1] is a Canadian architectural firm founded in Montreal in 1983,^[2] by architects Claude Provencher (1949-2022) and Michel Roy.^[3][4]

Provencher_Roy

Industry	Architecture
Founded	1983
Founders	Claude Provencher Michel Roy
Headquarters	Montreal , Canada
Website	https://provencherroy.ca/

History

Claude Provencher and Michel Roy met in 1974 while working at Papineau Gérin-Lajoie Le Blanc, a Montréal-based architecture firm. They founded their own practice in 1983: Provencher Roy + Associés Architectes.^[5] Line Belhumeur and Alain Compéra were appointed as partners in the firm as work began on the Montréal World Trade Center in 1992: a revitalization project that would both breathe new life into the city’s historic centre and establish the firm’s reputation.^[6] In 2005, Provencher_Roy acquired Beauchamp Bourbeau, a firm specializing in sustainable development. Claude Bourbeau, the firm’s principal, joined Provencher_Roy as an additional partner.^[7] In the same year, Provencher_Roy also bought a 50% stake in the interior design company Moureaux Hauspy et Associés Designers.^[8] The practice has continued its gradual growth since then, becoming a provider of multidisciplinary but complementary architectural services, including interior design, landscape architecture, urban planning and design, industrial design and sustainable development.^[9]

As of March 2022, the firm has appointed a total of thirty-three partners and become a predominately women-led design group.^[10] 

Claude Provencher passed away in 2022.^[11][12][13]

Design approach

Provencher_Roy works through a transdisciplinary strategy that links architecture, urban design and town planning, interior design and landscape design.^[14] According to the firm, its site-specific approach involves the exploration and analysis of a project’s context: specifically, the physical, cultural, geographical, historical and economic constraints of a site.^[15]

Since its acquisition of Beauchamp Bourbeau, Provencher_Roy has increasingly focused on designing according to radical reuse: leveraging advances in 3D modeling, cloud-point scanning and sustainable environmental technologies to repurpose existing structures.^[15] The ethos of structural adaptation has informed the redevelopment of a Canadian Pacific Railway industrial complex in Montréal into a mixed-use, environmentally sustainable district;^[16] an under-used port in Québec into a public coastal park and cruise terminal fueled by shore power;^[17] the concrete Tour de Montréal into a glazed office building for the Desjardins Group;^[18] and the underground expansion and renovation of the Québec National Assembly to modernize its energy infrastructure and improve its accessibility while preserving its aesthetic and material heritage.^[19]

Much like their recent transformation of downtown Montréal into a pedestrian-friendly “cohesive urban landscape”,^[20] each project has used the brief of redevelopment as an opportunity to stitch spatially disparate neighborhoods together, attract pedestrian circulation and increase the amount of on-site vegetation. This is further evidenced by a whitepaper released following their participation in an initiative to redevelop the Bridge-Bonaventure and Pointe-du-Moulin sector of Montréal into a sustainable residential neighborhood.^[21]

Selected work

• Montreal World Trade Center (1992)
• Aéroport international Pierre-Elliott-Trudeau de Montréal (1999-2005)^[22][23]
• Pavillon Joseph-Armand Bombardier (2004)
• Stade Saputo (2012)^[24]
• Claire and Marc Bourgie Pavilion of Quebec and Canadian Art (2012)^[25]
• Edifice Decelles Renovation (2013)
• Montreal Tower Conversion (2015-2019)^{[26][27][28][29]}
• Pavillon Pierre-Lassonde (2016)^[30]
• Champlain Bridge (2019)^[31]
• Hélène-Desmarais Building (2022)
• Îlot Balmoral (2020)^[32][33]
• Parliament Building National Assembly Welcome Pavilion (2020)^[34]
• MEM - Centre des Mémoires Montréalaises (2019)
• Philips Square (2022)^[35]

Exhibitions

• “1 : X – Exploration Multidisciplinaire” (1:X - Multidisciplinary Exploration) Faculty of Environmental Design, University of Montréal, January 21 to February 27, 2016^[36]
• "L’architecture impliquée" (The implied Architecture) Laval University School of Architecture – April 19 to October 5, 2012^[37]
• “Montréal jamais construit!” (Never built Montréal!) Grande galerie de la MAQ, Montréal, from October 23, 2015 to February 14, 2016^[38]
• “Dessins à dessein” (Designed drawings) Grande galerie de la MAQ, Palais des Congrès, Montréal, from April 18 to August 11, 2013^[39]
• 1:26 In Study Model Wonderland from Halifax to Vancouver – ON TOUR Charles H. Scott Gallery in Vancouver, DX Toronto, June 9 to August 18, 2010^[40]

Awards

• Royal Architectural Institute of Canada Architectural Firm of the Year Award (2015)^[41][42]
• Royal Architectural Institute of Canada National Urban Design Award (2016)^[43]
• CanBIM Design & Engineering Award (2017)^[44]
• Royal Architectural Institute of Canada Governor General's Medals in Architecture (2022)^[45]