BrandWikiReturn

Nuns' Island gas station

The Nuns' Island gas station is a modernist-style building on Nuns' Island in Montreal, Quebec. It was built as a filling station in 1969 from a project of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. Closed for several years, it was later converted to a community centre.[1][2]

It was the first gas station on the Island of Montreal commissioned by Imperial Oil.[3] It was also one of four buildings that Mies designed on Nuns' Island.[4]

Community centre

When the filling station closed in 2008,[5] the borough of Verdun transformed the building into a community arts centre, La Station.[4][6] Eric Gauthier was the lead architect on the project, which saw the two glass pavilions rebuilt to their original 3,000- and 1,000 sqft sizes.[7] The community centre opened in February 2012.[8]

La Station is a community centre for teens and people over 50 years of age. The two main buildings are called the salle blanche (English: white room) and salle noire (English: black room), after their floor colours. The original glass-enclosed attendant's booth serves as a display case of Mies' and the building's history, with the former fuel dispensers marked by ventilation shafts. The centre uses geothermal energy.[9]

See also

  • Westmount Square

External links

References

  1. In Your Neighbourhood: The Mies Van Der Rohe Buildings City of Montreal, retrieved March 24, 2008^
  2. Les Perreaux. The Ritz of gas stations looks for a new life The Globe and Mail, January 27, 2009, retrieved January 28, 2009^
  3. Master architect designs unique station Montreal Gazette, September 20, 1968, retrieved December 26, 2009^
  4. How a Mies van der Rohe Gas Station Became a Community Center Bloomberg.com, March 14, 2019, retrieved August 22, 2025^
  5. Conversion of Mies van der Rohe Gas Station / FABG ArchDaily, March 7, 2012, retrieved August 22, 2025^
  6. Patrick Lejtenyi. Nuns saves Mies Montreal Mirror, Communications Gratte-Ciel Ltée^
  7. Dave Leblanc. Mies's Montreal gas station gets new lease on life The Globe and Mail, July 8, 2011, retrieved July 8, 2011^
  8. 10 ans pour La Station, le centre communautaire intergénérationnel de l'Île-des-Soeurs Nouvelles d'Ici, June 27, 2022, retrieved August 22, 2025^
  9. John Woolfrey. La Station: The Jewel in the Nuns' Island Crown Openfile Montreal, February 24, 2012^