Revised Project for Griffintown Is Smaller, But Is It Greener?

Le Devoir reported last weekend on plans to construct "ecoquartiers' on the edged of Quebec City, the provincial capital. The Montreal Gazette wrote about green development in Cologne. And real estate developer Devimco presented plans last week for a revised development in the Griffintown neighborhood of Montreal.

The latter will be much smaller than the earlier commercial/residential project which was in part a victim of the 2008 financial meltdown, but also the target of much criticism. It would have fundamentally changed an old, grid-based area that had begun to be redeveloped in a piece-meal way with a huge shopping center-based area filled with apartment towers.

Have the developers and the city of Montreal learned the lesson that small, green development is better? It's not clear. But take a look at the video that Devimco has posted on its website. It's a big contrast with what I've posted above, and you'll see that they are trying to talk the talk. It remains to be seen whether they'll walk the walk.