In the early 1990s, many parts of the Saint-Roch district were abandoned. Local resident Louis Fortier and his friends decided to transform an “urban island” between a highway exit, a parking lot and a vacant lot into a community garden. And so the Îlot Fleurie was born. Here, Mayor Jean-Paul L’Allier visits this revitalization project with Louis Fortier.

1974 - 2012

Decline and revitalization of the downtown Saint-Roch district

The Saint-Roch district in downtown Québec City faced the same destiny as many other North American urban centres. At the end of the 1960s, the commercial artery in the Saint-Roch district gradually emptied as new shopping centres sprung up in the suburbs. To counter the decline of this downtown area, an open-air mall, the Mail Saint-Roch, was inaugurated in 1968 on Saint-Joseph Street. In 1974, more than a kilometre of the mall was covered with a roof. However, popular preference for suburban shopping soon made the area obsolete. In the 1990s and 2000s, a new effort of innovative architectural and social initiatives was made to revitalize this neglected downtown area.

Mayor Jean-Paul L’Allier visits the flowered Îlot Fleurie

Jean-Marie Villeneuve In the early 1990s, many parts of the Saint-Roch district were abandoned. Local resident Louis Fortier and his friends decided to transform an “urban island” between a highway exit, a parking lot and a vacant lot into a community garden. And so the Îlot Fleurie was born. Here, Mayor Jean-Paul L’Allier visits this revitalization project with Louis Fortier.

Chronoscope Can you pinpoint where this photo was taken? (unilingual French for a limited time)

Depicted period: 1991

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