Exploring Montreal's Olympic Stadium Grounds

Opened in 1976 for that year's Summer Olympic games, the Montreal Olympic stadium is an iconic structure with a controversial history as a white elephant from the cities ambitious mid-twentieth century.
In this tour we walk the grounds of the stadium and breifly look inside its athletic complex on an early summer evening.

[@Roccodabest]

Tower rented 100%. Desjardins and Sigma offices. New rooftop walkway underway. Biggest indoor olympic pools in Canada. Planetarium on the grounds. New refreshed Biodôme. 2 metro stations. CF Montreal stadium adjacent. Starcité movie cinema. New stadium roof coming (hopefully). First class olympic installations. Lets be proud of what we got. Vive Montreal!

[@quinftbl]

From the beginning until now I will view these grounds as great feat of architecture. It is so perfect and inspirational.

[@more_bumps_ahead]

We agree!

[@simonforget280]

To my knowledge, the Olympic Stadium Tower was left unused until a few years ago, where the current tenant moved in. When the Tower was unoccupied (or to be more precised: served as a warehouse), I found it to be very noisy on each trip the Funiculaire made up or down. I was told the soundproofing in the Tower alongside the track made it better, although I have not been able to get inside to compare it to what it was before. I doubt the broadcast crews were located in the Tower for the 1976 Oluympiad: it took almost ten years to finish building the Tower on its own after that. Broadcast crews were housed all over the place: journalists were located in the Press Gallery, production crews were mostly in the basement, opposite of the Tower and camera operators were... everywhere. As you described, the Stadium itself is massive. REALLY MASSIVE. Bicyles, golf and other maintenance carts are used extensively by employees and contractors, either inside or outside the buildings. If you need to work there and carry some tools and equipment, it's almost impossible to do your job without a cart. People don't realize the scale of the site: there's offices, workshops, warehouses, parking lots below the surface. You can easily walk 10km daily and not feeling that you wasted any time. The aquatic complex (including the pools) is located below the Tower and was rebuilt from scratch about eight years ago. With the exception of the aquatic complex and of the Biodome, heating and cooling aren't really feasible in most of the buildings. It may be just as cold (or hot) inside as it is outside. Get in touch with the Marketing and Communication dept.: you may be lucky and get a guided tour of the public and not-so-public spaces of the site. Keep up your excellent work!

[@junkbox_]

I need to revisit this complex again soon. It is an amazing set of buildings. Unfortunately the surrounding area is a bunch of disgusting subdivisions, but if you go North to Henri Bourassa from the stadium there is a long park you can cut through and there are 3 black monoliths similar to 2001 A Space Odyssey. Do more like this. More on St Helene, Stade Olympic, Underground City, Place Bonaventure, or any other weird/odd/strange places. The Coleco building in St Henri is worthy of a vlog. I have yet to go to Mont Royale. I always run out of time because there is so much to do in the city and there is always a time crunch. I hope to revisit Montreal in 2024. The VIA used to be $99-109 all inclusive return trip on a Saturday but now it is considerably more and it is basically a $200 trip now,). Spontanious trips don't happen for me like they used to, the increased train fares make it more difficult. I love Montreal, what a great city, and the people are always so nice to me.

[@more_bumps_ahead]

Obsessed with Bonaventure and brutalism - Montreal is awash with it - much more indeed on the way

[@aldamonteschio5902]

Used to live about 5 miles from there. I went to the '76 Olympics. 😊

[@more_bumps_ahead]

Wish we were able to be there!!

[@aldamonteschio5902]

@@more_bumps_ahead I saw the Queen of England at one of the events and also watched Bruce Jenner practicing! I was able to get into the Olympic Village too. Glad I had the opportunity.

[@EnrichedExistence]

Thank you a lot for this vlog. While you were visiting the Olympic stadium complex, did you feel like there was an architectural gap or empty space that could have been repurposed ?

[@more_bumps_ahead]

There is a lot of public space that could be, however I feel that further development may compromise the original vision and feel of the place.

[@saracoutureprestige]

Aminé ❤❤❤❤

[@Arational]

Another $960 million dumped into the big Owe toilet bowl. It was not designed for longevity in Montreal's climate. The main field area of the stadium is rarely rented for use. In 2024 Canadian dollars after paying for the new roof the total cost will be $8.9 billion dollars. Demolition is estimated to cost $500-$700 million (but this is Montreal so over $1 billion.)

[@more_bumps_ahead]

One of Canada's most controversial public work projects

[@angusmackaskill3035]

The biggest monument to inefficiency and corruption. 10 times over budget 25 years behind schedule now it will cost even more to demolish as it sits empty

[@catherinemaw1869]

brutalism sucks

[@more_bumps_ahead]

Just wow