As part of our efforts to highlight places constructed during the Modern period of architecture in the National Capital Region we have added two notable places in May 2026, specifically in Gatineau.

Parc du Portage

Located at 165 Rue de l’Hôtel‑de‑Ville in Gatineau’s Hull sector, Parc du Portage is a central civic landscape positioned between major institutional buildings, including Place du Portage and the Maison du Citoyen. The park is organized as a series of terraced zones defined by surrounding architecture, featuring a prominent central fountain, durable hardscape materials, and public art such as the L’Amour sculpture, all shaped by its construction over an underground parking structure. It remains significant as a ceremonial civic foreground tied to 1970s urban renewal in Hull, functioning today primarily as a public square whose evolving use reflects broader questions about its role and vitality in the city.

Maison du Citoyen

Located at 25 Laurier Street in downtown Gatineau’s Hull sector, the Maison du Citoyen is an institutional building set alongside Parc du Portage within the city’s primary civic precinct. Designed by Daniel Lazosky and completed in 1980, it is composed of stepped, terraced volumes and durable materials organized around a dramatic central atrium, integrating municipal functions with cultural and community spaces such as a theatre, gallery, and public facilities. The building is significant as a civic landmark that reinforces the site’s longstanding municipal role while shaping the surrounding urban landscape, embodying the ambitions of Hull’s late‑20th‑century transformation and serving as a “house of the people” at the heart of public life complete with a theatre, gym, library branch, gallery along with municipal offices and council facilities.