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Downtown Montreal
Centre-Ville de Montréal (French) | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Skyline of Downtown Montreal from Mount Royal in 2023 | |
  Downtown Montreal Location of Downtown Montreal | |
| Coordinates: 45°30′N 73°34′W / 45.50°N 73.57°W | |
| Country |  Canada |
| Province |  Quebec |
| City |  Montreal |
| Borough | Ville-Marie |
| Area | |
| • Total | 13.2 km2 (5.1 sq mi) |
| Highest elevation | 234 m (768 ft) |
| Lowest elevation | 20 m (70 ft) |
| Population (2021) | |
| • Total | 109,509 |
| • Density | 8,296/km2 (21,490/sq mi) |
| Postal Code | |
| Area codes | 514, 438 |
Downtown Montreal (French: Centre-Ville de Montréal) is the central business district of Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
The district is situated on the southernmost slope of Mount Royal, and occupies the western portion of the borough of Ville-Marie. It is bounded by Mount Royal Park to the north, Le Plateau-Mont-Royal to the northeast, the Quartier Latin and Gay Village areas to the east, Old Montreal and the Cité du Multimédia to the south, Griffintown and Little Burgundy to the southwest, and the city of Westmount to the west.
The downtown region houses many corporate headquarters as well a large majority of the city's skyscrapers — which, by law, cannot be greater in height than Mount Royal in order to preserve the aesthetic predominance and intimidation factor of the mountain. The two tallest of these are the 1000 de La Gauchetière and 1250 René-Lévesque, both of which were built in 1992. The Tour de la Bourse is also a significant high-rise and is home to the Montreal Exchange that trades in derivatives. The Montreal Exchange was originally a stock exchange and was the first in Canada. In 1999, all stock trades were transferred to Toronto in exchange for an exclusivity in the derivative trading market.
Place Ville-Marie is a cruciform office tower designed by I.M. Pei. It was built in 1962, and sits atop an underground shopping mall that forms the nexus of Montreal's underground city, one of the world's largest. It has indoor access to over 1,600 shops, restaurants, offices, businesses, museums and universities, as well as metro stations, train stations, bus terminals, and tunnels extending all over downtown. The central axis for downtown is Saint Catherine Street, Canada's busiest commercial avenue. The area includes high end retail such as the Holt Renfrew Ogilvy department store as well as Les Cours Mont-Royal shopping centre. Other major streets include Sherbrooke Street, Peel, de la Montagne, de Maisonneuve and Crescent.
The skyline may be observed from one of two lookouts on Mount Royal. The lookout at the Belvedere takes in downtown, the river, and the Monteregian Hills. On clear days the Adirondack Mountains of Upstate New York are visible (the great-circle distance between Mount Royal and the U.S. border along a bee line normal to the border being only ~ 56 km, or ~ 35 miles), as are the Green Mountains of Vermont. The eastern lookout has a view of The Plateau neighbourhood, Olympic Stadium and beyond.
Downtown Montreal is also home to the main campuses of McGill University and UQAM and the Sir George Williams campus of Concordia University.[2][3]
- ^ "Defining Canada's Downtown Neighbourhoods: 2016 Boundaries" (PDF). www150.statcan.gc.ca. Statistics Canada. Retrieved 25 September 2021.
- ^ "Campus Maps" Archived 2016-08-27 at the Wayback Machine, "McGill University". Accessed May 17, 2008.
- ^ "Campus map" Archived 2010-10-20 at the Wayback Machine, "Concordia University". Accessed May 17, 2008.