In their first North American project, the global architecture firm gmp has announced a major new project in Montréal leveraging their leadership in sports venues: the reinvention and re-engineering of the controversial and expressive Olympic Stadium created for the 1976 summer games.
As gmp has done with other stadium reinventions, including the rewrapped Bernabeu Stadium in Madrid — which debuted this year — and the reconstructed and reroofed 1936 Olympic Stadium in their home city of Berlin, the aging Montreal venue now sports a contemporary, highly efficient construction that reliably allows the stadium space to be used year ’round.
Montréal’s controversial Olympic Stadium has endured numerous setbacks over the years, including fires, labor strikes, and prematurely failed materials. The 55,000-seat venue’s novel structure comprises ring-shaped concrete cantilever beams with a central inclined tower, from which the roof was suspended. The original design by French architect Roger Taillibert included a retractable membrane roof, which was problematic and soon replaced by a fixed membrane roof in the late 1980s. Then, in 1999, a nonretractable roof of polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE)-covered fiberglass resting on a steel cable structure, was retrofitted; by 2018, inspectors had discovered and repaired thousands of perforations in the roof materials.
A New Bid for Success
Seeking to reimagine it as a multifunctional arena, Quebec officials sought bids in 2018, a competitive call for solutions won by the architects von Gerkan, Marg and Partners (gmp) along with engineering firms sbp (schlaich, bergermann & partner) and Canada’s WSP Global, as well as sustainability consultant Transsolar.
“In addition to a flexible integration of event technology and considerable improvements to the acoustics within, our design focuses above all on natural lighting of the stadium bowl,” says Stephan Schütz, executive partner at gmp. “The suspended roof structure follows the curves of the sculptural concrete ribs and is set off from the historic building by glazing all the way around.” To withstand the harsh Canadian winters, the upper covering is opaque, while the roof is fitted with a translucent membrane on the underside, allowing for varied scenarios using indirect lighting or projection, or both, says Schütz.
According to the project’s owner, the Société de développement et de mise en valeur du Parc olympique, known as SPO or simply Parc olympique, the most important challenge has been to preserve Taillibert’s original design, “absolutely. It’s his signature,” they told CBC. Many architectural critics and historians consider the stadium a masterpiece of organic modern design.
The project also marks the architect gmp’s first involvement on North American soil and another example of the firm’s track record of stadium conversions worldwide. Together with sbp, gmp has also completed the projects in Berlin and Madrid, as well as the Estádio Mineirão in Belo Horizonte, Brazil (2013).
New Exhibition on gmp in New York
Other renovation and adaptive-reuse works by gmp will be shown as part of a new exhibition opening October 9th in New York City at the German cultural center Goethe-Institut USA. Called UMBAU.Nonstop Transformation — the word UMBAU translates variously as rebuilding, renovation and conversion — six other works will be showcased as part of gmp’s new presence in North America and its unique approach of “designing in dialogue.” (For those interested in the showand the press preview on October 9, please email gmp@ccsullivan.com for more details.)
About gmp
Founded in 1965, von Gerkan, Marg and Partners Architects (gmp) is an architectural practice with branches worldwide. With a generalist approach and more than 50 years of experience, gmp completes projects in dialogue with clients and participating planning disciplines, at all scales and cultural contexts, covering all design phases and working on all continents. The range of projects extends from single-family residences to high-rise buildings, from stadiums to concert halls, from office buildings to bridges, and from door hardware to urban planning. With holistic sustainability in mind, gmp aims to create new and refurbished architecture that is long-lasting and goes beyond temporary fashions, taking into account the global challenges and issues of urbanization, digitalization, and mobility. In the firm’s designs, gmp remains committed to climate-aware construction in accordance with certified standards and to building in existing contexts. More at https://gmp.de/en
Founded in 1965, von Gerkan, Marg and Partners Architects (gmp) is an architectural practice with branches worldwide. With a generalist approach and more than 50 years of experience, gmp completes projects in dialogue with clients and participating planning disciplines, at all scales and cultural contexts, covering all design phases and working on all continents. The range of projects extends from single-family residences to high-rise buildings, from stadiums to concert halls, from office buildings to bridges, and from door hardware to urban planning. With holistic sustainability in mind, gmp aims to create new and refurbished architecture that is long-lasting and goes beyond temporary fashions, taking into account the global challenges and issues of urbanization, digitalization, and mobility. In the firm’s designs, gmp remains committed to climate-aware construction in accordance with certified standards and to building in existing contexts. More at https://gmp.de/en
The 2024 virtual Men’s Round Table will be held Q4, 2024, date TBD.
