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QUEBEC CITY, QUEBECDesigning a Space for Arts and Culture:The Story of Quebec City's St. Roch Quarter
In the eighteenth century, the St. Roch quarter was the cosmopolitan Upper Town of Quebec City. In the nineteenth century, the district developed into a bustling commercial centre. In the 1960s and into the 1970s, however, the effects of urban sprawl, large-scale development initiatives in other parts of the city, and the "paving" of the quarter by a large-scale transportation initiative resulted in the near desertification of the community by residents and commerce. The first step in the renewal process was a redefinition of the goals and identity of the neighbourhood - and this identity, for St. Roch, was one that places arts, community, and culture first and foremost. In 1992, Quebec City adopted an urban renewal program for the St. Roch quarter called RevitalizAction. The initiative embraced the rich heritage of the space, and aimed to establish affordable housing, activate economic activity, and develop a "new urban lifestyle" accommodating and attracting arts and culture producers and exhibitors. Economic SustainabilityIntegrating arts and culture into urban planning is a growing phenomenon in Canadian cities. More and more cities are beginning with cultural planning as the key to urban revitalization, addressing issues of arts, culture, and identity first, and retrofitting economic sustainability around an arts core. In 1993, Quebec City adopted this approach, fusing the departments of Economic Development and City Planning and housing the new, merged department in the La Fabrique building, an old brassier and corset factory in the heart of the St. Roch quarter. Soon afterward, the City opened the Centre de production artistique et culturelle Alyne-Lebel in the district, which houses ten cultural organizations and employs over 100 people. Social and Cultural BenefitsWith a strong focus on education and key strategic cultural development initiatives, the St. Roch renewal project has created an arts and culture incubator. Early steps in the renewal of the quarter focused on the promotion of arts education and apprenticeship centres such as the School of Visual Arts of Laval University and the Arts and Crafts House, which clusters schools of ceramics, sculpture, textiles, and book binding.
Environmental SustainabilityThe lack of natural green and park space in an urban quarter such as St. Roch required "environmental sustainability" to take on a non-traditional definition. St. Roch adopted two approaches to naturalizing and environmentally restoring their cityscape. Between 1992 and 2000, Quebec City invested $31.7 million on greening projects in the St. Roch quarter such as Saint Roch garden, Victoria Park, and the Gare du Palais Garden. The second effort of naturalizing the quarter's cityscape was through public art projects which reclaimed the "paved" facades and surfaces of the surrounding urban frame. ZoneArt declared the pillars of an autoroute overpass a public canvas for al fresco murals and graffiti. Art also "went out on the streets" with the neighbourhood reclamation of a parking lot which was uprooted and then re-rooted into a thriving community vegetable garden. The Present and Future
At the core of the renewal effort, according to Jena-Paul L'Allier, Mayor of the City of Quebec, was "harmony." With a core focus on arts and culture and the subsequent strategic integration of economics and environmental initiatives, the St. Roch quarter is achieving this harmony and serves as a model of Canadian urban renewal and cultural restoration.
Michel Choquette See also: Les Arts et la Ville (2002). La revitalisation du quartier Saint-Roch - Les interventions en faveur du logement culturel. Collection Formation. Québec, QC: Les Arts et la Ville. – disponible au Site Web. Profile by: Katie Warfield (Creative City Network of Canada, 2005-2006). |
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The St. Roch quarter of Quebec City was once occupied by a brassiere and corset factory, a tannery, a sawmill, a brewery, a large department store, and stacks of red brick heritage buildings. These various-aged structures in the urban streetscape present a visual history of what the St. Roch quarter once was. Over the past 15 years, an urban renewal project has evolved the landscape of the St Roch quarter into a dynamic collage, producing innovation, trade, industry, and environmental sustainability from a firm foundation and fusion of the arts, culture, and education. The St. Roch quarter is an archetype of an urban village for the arts and culture.
The City used a range of incentives to encourage artists to live and work in the district. Development grants, tax credits, and financial help for first-time owners helped foster the creation of "artist spaces" for an artists' community. Housing initiatives merged community-making and economic sustainability through the construction of affordable housing complexes which were also artistic trade clusters. The Medusa Project, a housing co-op built in 1995, houses several producers and exhibitors and also provides space for visiting artists and the productive exchange of talent and ideas. Artist homes in St. Roch are both work and play. Zoning regulations were relaxed to permit malleable uses of the restored spaces. "Mixed-use" was a key term for the redevelopment of the St. Roch quarter, and was appropriate for the mixed trades, professions, and identities of the new artist community. Although the identity was to be a fluid one, steps were taken to promise the protection of artist living space. Development provisions permitted the residences to be bought and sold only to working artists to assure that artists would not be pushed out of the space as the economy of the district improved.
Since 1999, when the Province of Quebec announced policy guidelines for the promotion and development of new technologies, the "new economy" has began to make home in the St. Roch quarter. More recent immigrant organizations in the quarter include the National Institute of Scientific Research, the National School of Public Administration, the Centre for the Development of New Technologies, and the Quebec National Centre for New Technologies.