Opération patrimoine Montréal

Last updated April 10, 2025
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Opération patrimoine Montréal celebrates the city’s heritage in all its forms and raises public awareness of the importance of protecting our treasures.

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Categories

The Grands Prix offer the public the chance to define Montréal’s heritage by nominating places, people and organizations that contribute to the richness and diversity of our collective identity.

Here are the five categories for which you can submit an application.

Taking care

This category is for all homeowners who, over the years, have paid particular attention to preserving their dwelling, through constant and preventive maintenance or restoration of its architectural elements of heritage interest.

Regiving purpose

This category is for corporate owners and project designers who have helped to transform a place of heritage interest (building, landscape, sometimes abandoned) for a new or contemporary use, through repairs, adaptations, restorations or additions.

Proving expertise

This category is intended for any person or group of people who exhibit exceptional mastery of a traditional practice whose transmission contributes to the enhancement of Montréal’s heritage.

Building awareness

This category is for any organization (museum, historical society, etc.) whose activities and achievements highlight heritage and bring it to the public’s attention in creative and innovative ways.

Acting together

This category is for any group (non-profit organization or group of residents) that has contributed to the enhancement of a site or area of interest in the city, even if the original objective was not heritage conservation.

Rules

The Grands Prix Opération patrimoine Montréal are open to all residents of the Montréal’s boroughs and neighbouring municipalities. Participants may nominate candidates in the five categories mentioned above.

General rules

  • Participants who nominate a third party must get the candidate’s permission and consent.
  • The city will not consider preferences expressed in comments on Facebook or other social media or suggestions sent by email.
  • This contest does not commit Montréal to any participant. There are no prizes to be won by residents who have nominated a third party as a candidate.
  • The winners will be announced at an awards ceremony in autumn 2025.
  • Participants must grant the city the right to use the photos for the Web and for any future publication.

Selecting the winners in the five Opération patrimoine Montréal categories

The winners in the five categories will be determined from among the compliant entries received, by a panel of judges made up of seven (7) representatives from the following bodies:

  • Héritage Montréal
  • The Conseil du patrimoine de Montréal
  • The Division du patrimoine de la Ville de Montréal
  • The Service de la culture de la Ville de Montréal
  • Crafts
  • Museology or communications
  • Any other relevant field

Award criteria

The jury will review the compliant proposals received and determine the winner in each of the five categories based on the following criteria:

  1. Ability to meet the technical requirements set out in the application form
  2. Fit with the description of the category in which the nomination is made
  3. Ability to create a collective attachment to the various forms of heritage on the island of Montréal
  4. Quality of the applicant’s project or approach
  5. Quality of the visual and text documents submitted

Jury

Isabelle Gay has been heritage and museology commissioner in the cultural development department of the Service de la culture de la Ville de Montréal since 2016. She is responsible for various agreements with the Montreal museum community and for supporting the heritage community through the program Patrimoines montréalais : une mise en valeur dans les quartiers. Holder of a B.A. in Art History and an M.A. in Museology from the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM), she has held various positions in the Montreal museum milieu since the early 2000s, notably at the Canadian Centre for Architecture, where she coordinated educational services.

In the public sector, she has led several competitions for the Quebec government’s Policy for the Integration of the Arts into the Architecture and Environment of Government and Public Buildings and Sites, and has directed numerous exhibition projects showcasing a variety of heritages for the Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec. On a daily basis, she strives to make Montréal a culturally dynamic and meaningful city for the citizens of today and tomorrow.

An urban walker and sketch artist, Dinu Bumbaru has been working since 1982 with Héritage Montréal, an independent organization that promotes the protection, enhancement and enrichment of the built, landscape and urban heritage of the greater metropolitan area. A graduate in architecture and conservation from the universities of Montréal and York (UK), he is also active with organizations such as Culture Montréal (of which he is a co-founder), Les amis de la montagne and Fédération Histoire Québec.

His metropolitan activities are complemented by his international involvement with the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS), of which he has been Secretary General and President of the Canadian Committee, focusing, among other things, on risk prevention in the heritage of the modern era and metropolises. Mr. Bumbaru also acts as an advisor to governments and metropolitan administrations. His contribution to advancing the cause of heritage in society has earned him several awards, including the Prix du Québec en patrimoine (2012), the Prix du Mont-Royal (2016), the Order of Canada (2008) and the Ordre de Montréal (2017).

Denis Boucher has been President of the Conseil du patrimoine de Montréal since December 2022. He has been involved in cultural heritage for 25 years as an expert, strategic advisor, communicator, teacher and project leader. Over the years, he has been involved in municipal affairs and numerous heritage organizations. 

He has served on the Conseil du patrimoine culturel du Québec (2007-2020), the Conseil du patrimoine religieux du Québec (2011-2017) and the Ministère de la Culture et des Communications as coordinator of the action plan to improve practices for safeguarding and promoting immovable heritage.

He teaches heritage preservation strategies at UQAM’s École de design.

Mathieu Payette-Hamelin is an urban planner. He holds a doctorate in planning from the Université de Montréal and a doctorate in urban planning from the Université d’Aix-Marseille (France). He has been working for the Ville de Montréal since 2018, where he holds the position of Division Head in the Heritage Division of the Service de l’urbanisme et de la mobilité. His current team is responsible for, among other things, the application of the municipal component of the Cultural Heritage Act for the Ville de Montréal, expertise in archaeology and toponymy, as well as support for Montréal departments and boroughs in heritage matters.

He previously held the positions of Section Head in the Heritage Division and Division Head in the Urban Projects Division.

Before joining the municipal sector, he held various positions with the Québec government’s Ministère de la Culture et des Communications.

Parker Mah is a fourth generation Montrealer of Taishanese origin, living in Tio’tia:ke. His widely diverse creations as a multimedia artist, musician and DJ focus on the themes and realities of migration, hybridization and identity. He is actively involved in various cultural and activist organizations as a commissioner, facilitator, educator and community organizer.

Marc Douesnard discovered artistic metalwork in France, in 1996, before training with master blacksmiths from Russia, Poland, and Québec. He then became the director of the Forges de Montréal from 1999 to 2003 and has since been actively involved in the creation and development of training and outreach programs on the art of blacksmithing. Now at the helm of his own workshop, he creates architectural works, sculptures, heritage restorations and furniture. He also remains committed to the promotion of crafts, serving as chairman of the CMAQ since 2018 and second vice-president of the Canadian Crafts Federation since 2022.

Manuela Senese is a conservation architect and member of the OAQ. She completed her professional master’s degree in architecture from the University of Bologna, Italy. Her thesis project investigated the reuse and preservation of modern architecture heritage and was awarded the gold medal in an international competition for restoration and conservation. Following her professional degree, she pursued her interest in heritage preservation and obtained a post-professional degree in modern architecture and heritage from the Université du Québec à Montréal. She also completed an international training course on modern heritage preservation with the Los Angeles-based Getty Conservation Institute.

In Montréal, Manuela worked for the Société de transport de Montréal and MSDL Architects before joining ERA Architects, an architecture and planning firm focused on heritage conservation. She also worked as a lecturer at the Université du Québec à Montréal school of design and serves as a board member for Docomomo Québec.

Ended

Call for nominations

The call for nominations for the Grands Prix Opération patrimoine runs from April 18 to June 13, 2025.

Nominations must be sent by June 13, 2025 at 11:59 p.m. 

Nominations can be submitted online, by email or by mail (see below). Simply fill out the form for the category of your choice and send it in.

By mail:

Division du patrimoine
303, rue Notre-Dame Est, 6e étage, 
Montréal (QC) H2Y 3Y8

Winners

Check out these videos of the Grands Prix Opération patrimoine winning projects.

Prendre soin

Mentions : 1600, boulevard Gouin Est

Redonner vie

Mention : Bibliothèque Maisonneuve

 Savoir-faire

  • Pierlucio Pellissier

Mention : Marc Gagnon, avec son entreprise La Belle Corniche et Fils

Faire connaître ex aequo

Agir ensemble

Taking care

Mentions : 2365, rue de Rushbrooke et 1254, boulevard du Mont-Royal

Regiving purpose

Mention : La Gare Windsor, 1100, avenue des Canadiens-de-Montréal

 Proving expertise

Mention : Edyta Rano et Carole Hili 

Building awareness

Acting together 

Taking care

Mention : 4432, rue de Mentana

Regiving purpose

 Proving expertise

Mentions : Annick Fleury and Isabelle Leclerc

Building awareness

Acting together 

Taking care

  • 2379, rue Coursol

Regiving purpose

  • Théâtre Paradoxe – 5959, boulevard Monk

Mention : Projet Sainte-Germaine-Cousin – 14 205, rue Notre-Dame Est

Proving expertise

  • Les Forges de Montréal
  • Daniel-Jean Primeau, sculpteur plâtrier

Building awareness

  • Festival Vivre le patrimoine !

Mention : Montreal Signs Project – Université Concordia

Acting together 

  • Jardin Biodiversité et polinisateurs – Sentier urbain
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Patrimoine en fête

Every year, Montrealers are invited to take part in Patrimoine en fête, a day of free activities for the whole family on the theme of history, heritage and art.

For more information on the 2023 edition.

In partnership

  • Logo Héritage Montréal
  • Logo du Gouvernement du Québec

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