Still no solution for McCord Museum complex nixed by city

Mayor ValriePlante's administration is standing firm on its decision to turn a parking lot into a small park rather than a $150-million new home for the McCordMuseum, leaving museum officials suddenly empty handed after years of planning.

Already, $250,000 hasbeen spent studying a Quartier des Spectacleslocation that was promisedto the McCordbythe Coderre administration.

Now, with nowhereto build its new home,millions of dollars infunding may be on the line.

"We have to find a solution," McCordMuseum president and CEO Suzanne Sauvagetold CBC Montreal's Daybreak Thursday. "This would be an aberration not to find a solution."

The parking lot in question is located offBleuryStreet near thePlace-des-ArtsMetro, between de MaisonneuveBoulevard West and President Kennedy Avenue.

The city announced last month that it changed its plans for that lot. Since then,museum heads have met with Montreal Mayor Valrie Plante.

They hoped they'dbe able to change her mind by offering solutions, such as creating a public space in front of the complex. However, Sauvage said, the city"seemed quite determined to do a park there."

City unable to provide alternative location

Montreal assigned a city employeeto help find a solution, Sauvagesaid, butno alternatives have been brought to the table yet.

A Montrealspokesperson told CBC thatthe city is eager to resolve the issue in collaboration with the museum.

"Our administration really wants to find solutions to find a location for the McCord Museum," wrote Genevive Jutras, who speaks for the mayor and the city's executive committee."At this point, we cannot provide the locations we are looking at."

Museums partner to build complex

The new complex was to be built in a partnership betweenthreeMontrealmuseums:theMcCord, the Stewart (dedicated to the history of New France) and the Fashion Museum.

"The vision behind all that is to bring all of those under one roof and create a new, important city museum that will tell the story of Montreal and the stories of Montrealers," Sauvagesaid.

That goal, she added, would also give the McCord Museum more space to host larger numbers of school groups and increase gallery displays.

The McCord'scurrent home, on Sherbrooke Street West, is too small, she said.Artifact donations must be turned away because of space constraints and only one per cent of the museum'scollection is on display at any given time.

That need for space brought the three partnering museums together to planthe new location. They have been working toward that goal for several years.

Alternatives rejected, funding in jeopardy

Instead of a small park,Sauvagesaid, creating a public space in front of the newmuseum would "be interesting for visitors, particularly in the summer."

That idea was turned down,she said, as was the suggestionthat the city createa public green space behind the St. James United Church, located on Ste-Catherine Street West.

It is a space that is already green, she said, and "it's quieter. It's a lovely space, as a matter of fact, and it would serve the same citizens of that Ville-Marie neighbourhood."

Either way, the city's decision has put the project's financing in jeopardy as itsbackers may not have the patienceto wait out the delays, she said.

Some $25 million in time-sensitive, private-sector funding has been pledged to the museum, Sauvage said, and now that "money is sort of stuck there."