“In place of the parking garage, whose narrow floor-to-floor height made the building impossible to renovate, 33 new residential units (including 15 affordable housing units) are breathing new life into the ”Passage Ramey," the heart of a mixed-use block set back from the main thoroughfares of the 18th arrondissement. By creating two distinct buildings, the project allows sunlight to once again penetrate the passage, which has been darkened since the 1960s by the opaque facades of the five-story parking garage.
While the new central garden serves as the focal point of the street, it also enhances the quality and multi-orientation of the apartments. The cut-away sections house winter gardens, true outdoor extensions of the apartments, protected from the elements. The development is constructed using massive load-bearing stone piers (sourced from a Burgundy quarry) interspersed with white precast concrete bands that allow for large spans. Reinterpreting the vocabulary of Parisian architecture (massive stone, winter gardens, vertical wooden windows with metal shutters...), the project embodies an architectural as well as an urban vision, profoundly reconfiguring this inner block of the 18th arrondissement." - Nicolas Reymond
