Lemay has realized a sustainable design using their Net Positive approach for their offices located in Montreal, Canada.

Lemay aimed to create a model of design innovation with its transformation of a formerly abandoned 1950s warehouse. Now a testing laboratory for design strategies and technologies, the Phenix allows the firm to develop cutting-edge workplace and sustainability practices while showcasing its Net Positive approach and leveraging a key piece of the city’s industrial heritage. With its hydronic radiant heating, energy storage, solar panels and heat-recovery system, the Phenix is one of Canada’s most innovatively sustainable projects.

The concept capitalizes on the original massive concrete structure by creating two distinct internal interfaces across three floors: one urban, to the north, and one natural, to the south. The northern “main street” corridor is the main thoroughfare, running along busy Saint-Jacques Street and hosting meeting rooms, washrooms, coffee and common areas, with integrated furniture for informal meetings, relaxation, brainstorming, etc. Acting as a buffer between noise from the street and the south-side workshop, meeting rooms also add vibrancy to the urban system with their own unique themes (school, studio, tavern, spa, etc.). The south-side workshops are flooded with natural light via a pre-heating curtain wall, one of the building’s many energy-saving features that also maximizes occupant exposure to the adjoining linear park’s mature vegetation.

By eschewing new construction to recycle an existing building, our firm avoided some 12,000 tonnes of greenhouse-gas emissions. Hosting some 300 employees, its integration of advanced health and wellness strategies has earned it a rare 3-star Fitwel rating; it is also aiming for LEED-Platinum and Zero Carbon certification.

Design: Lemay

Photography: Adrien Williams

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