Laval Collège Montmorency expands with new $16 million building

Declared officially open on Feb. 28 during an event at the college attended by Mayor Gilles Vaillancourt, several of Laval’s Liberal MNAs and a large contingent of the CEGEP’s management and teaching staff, the 6,100-square-metre facility cost the college $16 million.

LEED certified
The new building was constructed in conformity with a trend that is currently sweeping development in the public sector — LEED certification. Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, which is conferred by a non-profit international organization that operates in Canada, raises construction costs, but guarantees that a building has been erected in accordance with a stringent environmental code and norms.

Energy savings
The college’s administration felt it important to obtain the certification as environmentalism is considered to be one of Collège Montmorency’s basic values. The new building’s mechanical and electrical systems are designed to limit its environmental impact. The administration claims that an energy saving of up to 50 per cent (1,100,000 kilowatt hours) will be achieved annually.
Spacious and well-lit, the new building (which Mayor Gilles Vaillancourt and Liberal MNAs Michèle Courchesne and Alain Paquet toured during the opening with college officials) contains classrooms, computer laboratories, a museum technology workshop, as well as laboratories specialized in nursing and civil engineering.

More room was needed
There are also common areas and meeting rooms for students to mingle and relax in. Collège Montmorency had been overdue for an expansion. Four years ago when its student population rose by 500, it started to be more difficult to cope without additional classroom space and other support facilities.
Some of those attending the unveiling couldn’t help but recall how decades ago, before Collège Montmorency had become the sophisticated institution it is today, there were cynics who complained that Laval residents seeking post-secondary education had no choice but to go to Montreal. With the University of Montreal now set to expand in Laval, another piece of the Cité du Savoir will be coming into place.