Development plans: shaping the future of Concordia’s campuses

Loyola Campus: a hub of heritage and innovation

The development plan for the Loyola Campus focuses on preserving its rich history while fostering academic and social innovation. Key priorities include:

Defining the campus and highlighting its heritage

Building on the original Master Plan: preserve historical architecture, such as the English Collegiate Gothic style, to maintain Loyola’s distinct character.
Enhance both tangible and intangible heritage: integrate art installations and commemorative spaces to reflect the campus’ cultural richness.
Enhance the campus’ presence within its environment: strengthen Loyola’s role as a neighbourhood landmark with open, welcoming spaces for collaboration and social activities.

Structuring the spaces and enhancing the original institutional character

Revitalize the original Master Plan: promote measured densification that highlights the heritage architecture of older buildings while reinforcing campus boundaries, connections with the surrounding residential fabric and key visual corridors.
Anchor the development to the principles and values of the institution: envision contemporary architecture that complements existing buildings while respecting development limits, minimizing impacts on the residential environment, modernizing sports facilities and integrating heritage values in a way that reflects community expectations.

Spatial and identity definition through green spaces

Embed the site in its environment: enhance heritage-rich outdoor spaces, improve the walking experience and key viewpoints, strengthen visual connections across campus and create a network of landscaped trails to showcase the campus and its initiatives.
Boost the quality of green spaces: increase biodiversity through native plantings, rooftop green roofs and urban agriculture initiatives.
Develop the campus-as-a-living-lab concept: utilize natural spaces for experiential learning and research.

Diversifying and connecting the spaces that support university life

Engage with the Concordia community and the broader Montreal communities: activate ground-level spaces by expanding services and amenities, fostering transparency between indoor and outdoor areas and creating spaces that strengthen campus identity and community engagement.
Promote a thriving campus life: envision vibrant, year-round campus environments by diversifying indoor and outdoor spaces to support relaxation, learning, student socialization and community-driven initiatives.

Promoting the pedestrian experience and sustainable mobility

Reduce the presence of cars: relocate parking to underground areas to free up space for pedestrians and green areas.
Move toward a pedestrian-friendly campus: reconnect the northern and southern parts of campus by calming traffic on Sherbrooke Street West while improving overall accessibility through enhanced entry points, inviting pedestrian pathways and universal access to all buildings and infrastructure.
Active mobility: expand cycling infrastructure and enhance shuttle services between campuses.

Sir George Williams Campus: a thriving urban hub

As an integral part of Montreal’s urban core, the Sir George Williams Campus development plan focuses on strengthening institutional presence, optimizing public spaces and improving mobility. Key priorities include:

Identifying and defining campus spaces

Define the footprint of the Concordia campus in downtown Montreal: expand facilities to increase Concordia’s visibility and engagement within the city.
Make the campus presence felt and showcase the institution: enhance signage to create a clear and welcoming transition between the university and the city streets.
Increase the visibility of the university and its key features: strengthen visual connections between public and university spaces, highlight the campus’ downtown presence through exhibition areas and build lasting partnerships with local partners to integrate the campus into its urban environment.

Consolidating the institutional core

Consolidate the university campus: reaffirm the university’s historic presence as a central player in western downtown by concentrating activities around key hubs and clarifying the campus layout around its original institutional core.
Optimize the building stock: optimize the use of existing buildings by redeveloping underutilized spaces, ensuring universal accessibility and renovating facilities to meet best practices in energy efficiency and space quality.
Increase campus density: redevelop or acquire properties suited to university needs and densification while divesting from non-strategic ones, prioritizing sustainability, accessibility and inclusivity with the support of the Sir George Williams, Concordia and neighbouring communities.

Revitalizing the campus' public spaces through the transition to sustainable mobility

A pedestrian-friendly campus: reduce vehicle dominance and prioritize walkability across campus streets.
Support the growth of active transportation modes: strengthen sustainable mobility by ensuring continuous, year-round protected cycling routes, expanding bike infrastructure and strategic parking and improving integration with public transit near Guy-Concordia.

Elevating the quality of downtown outdoor spaces

Contribute to urban ecology: prioritize campus greening by enhancing outdoor spaces with vegetation, expanding the tree canopy and permeable surfaces and integrating rooftops and facades into a sustainable approach to climate and stormwater management.
Highlight the former Grey Nuns’ property: enhance the park as a key asset in a dense urban environment by integrating it into a next-generation university committed to heritage, reconciliation and decolonization, while ensuring north-south continuity and adapting vegetation to site identity and uses.
Integrate outdoor spaces into the core of the academic mission: use these spaces as research tools and expand initiatives that allow the Concordia community to benefit from them.

Diversifying the spaces that support university life

Make use of every opportunity: revitalize underutilized campus spaces — such as terraces, alleys and the underground network — by making them accessible, safe and inviting for the university community, maximizing their potential for year-round use.
Open up to the Concordia and Montreal communities: ensure spaces are inclusive in both design and values, drawing on each location’s unique character and atmosphere to guide their development.
Promote a thriving campus life: create flexible, year-round, accessible spaces that form a cohesive network, structure the campus, enhance spatial understanding and adapt to diverse user needs through varied configurations.

Return to the Campus Master Plan overview