This Petro-Canada service station had to be contextually integrated in a dense historic sector, Québec’s Old Port, where usual service stations typology could not be used. Our intervention inverses the industry standards to better complete the surrounding urban fabric’s needs and sensibility. The project maximizes its occupation of the site’s periphery to create a built street corner instead of the usual service station void. This situation also allows for maximum visibility and clearly divides the pedestrians and cars’ spaces. Drivers get to the gas pumps and convenience store through the block’s interior, while pedestrians and tourists have direct access to the convenience store from the sidewalk, a more common practice in this historic neighbourhood.
The building comprises two volumes linked by a turret. The first volume extends the pumps’ marquee and houses the store’s open area. This volume presents a stone and glass façade on Dalhousie Street which affirms its presence while also allowing views to both the pumps and the upper town’s landmarks. The second stone-clad volume houses the convenience store’s more private functions (restrooms, storage, cold room). The turret marks the station’s presence with a large maple leaf, the company’s logo. This maple leaf is placed in a diagonal which extends through the whole building. Half of the turret is covered with frosted glass which becomes a luminous beacon at night, while the other half is opened to keep views to the upper town.
The contemporary treatment of the building integrates Petro-Canada’s corporative image to a sober urban architecture in an architecturally sensitive context. Noble materials such as stone, aluminium and glass were used to create a new service station typology better adapted to its historic context, more sensitive and human.