The Palais de justice de Montréal at 1 Notre-Dame Street

Notre-Dame Street

Notre-Dame Street is a historic east-west street located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It runs parallel to the Saint Lawrence River, from the eastern tip of the island to Lachine . In French, it is known as rue Notre-Dame....

 East in Montreal

Montreal

Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...

, Quebec

Quebec

Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....

, Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 was completed in 1971. Though located in the Old Montreal

Old Montreal

Old Montreal is the oldest area in the city of Montreal, Quebec, Canada, dating back to New France. Located in the borough of Ville-Marie, the area is bordered on the west by McGill St., on the north by Ruelle des Fortifications, on the east by Berri St. and on the south by the Saint Lawrence River...

 historic district, it is a modernist

Modern architecture

Modern architecture is generally characterized by simplification of form and creation of ornament from the structure and theme of the building. It is a term applied to an overarching movement, with its exact definition and scope varying widely...

 structure, featuring the outdoor sculpture Allegrocube. The black metal and granite building is adjacent to the Champ de Mars

Champ de Mars, Montreal

Champ de Mars is a public park in Old Montreal quarter of Montreal, Quebec, Canada.Formerly a military parade ground, the park had previously been the site of Montreal's fortifications, which were demolished at the beginning of the 19th century soon after Montreal City Hall and the old courthouse...

 square. It was designed by Montreal architects Pierre Boulva and Jacques David, whose other prominent Montreal projects included 500 Place D'Armes

500 Place D'Armes

500 Place d'Armes is an International style building on the historic Place d'Armes square in Old Montreal quarter of Montreal, Quebec, Canada....

, Théâtre Maisonneuve

Place des Arts

right|frame|View of the Place des Arts esplanade. The Musée d'art contemporain is on the left; behind it is the Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier, with the Théâtre Maisonneuve on the rightPlace des Arts is a major performing arts centre in Montreal, Quebec, Canada....

, the Dow Planetarium and the Place-des-Arts

Place-des-Arts (Montreal Metro)

Place-des-Arts is a station on the Green Line of the Montreal Metro rapid transit system operated by the Société de transport de Montréal . It is downtown in the borough of Ville-Marie, Montreal, Quebec, Canada...

, Atwater

Atwater (Montreal Metro)

Atwater is a station on the Green Line of the Metro rapid transit system operated by the Société de transport de Montréal . It is located on the border between the city of Westmount and the borough of Ville-Marie in Montreal, Quebec, Canada....

 and Lucien-L'Allier

Lucien-L'Allier (Montreal Metro)

Lucien-L'Allier is a station on the Orange Line of the Montreal Metro rapid transit system, operated by Société de transport de Montréal . It is located in the borough of Ville-Marie in downtown Montreal, Quebec, Canada.-Overview:...

 metro stations.

Allegrocube

Created by Charles Daudelin

Charles Daudelin

Charles Daudelin, was a Canadian sculptor and painter, a major Quebec artist.Born in Granby, Quebec, he became a pioneer in integrating art into public space...

 in 1973, Allegrocube is a cube

Cube

In geometry, a cube is a three-dimensional solid object bounded by six square faces, facets or sides, with three meeting at each vertex. The cube can also be called a regular hexahedron and is one of the five Platonic solids. It is a special kind of square prism, of rectangular parallelepiped and...

-shaped abstract sculpture outside the Palais, 2.4 m in height, made of bronze.

Older courthouses

The current Palais de justice de Montréal is the third building on Notre-Dame Street in Old Montreal to bear that name. The first was the Old Montreal Courthouse, now known as the municipal Édifice Lucien-Saulnier, designed by John Ostell

John Ostell

John Ostell architect, surveyor and manufacturer, was born in London, England and emigrated to Canada in 1834, where he apprenticed himself to a Montreal surveyor André Trudeau to learn French methods of surveying. In 1837 he married Eleonore Gauvin a member of a prominent French Catholic family...

 and inaugurated in 1856. Construction on the second, now known as the Édifice Ernest-Cormier

Édifice Ernest-Cormier

Édifice Ernest-Cormier was the second courthouse in Montreal to bear the name Palais de justice de Montréal. It was built between 1922 and 1926, and designed by architects Louis-Auguste Amos, Charles J. Saxe and Ernest Cormier. It was the first major commission for Cormier after his return to...

 and home to the Quebec Court of Appeal

Quebec Court of Appeal

The Court of Appeal for Quebec is the highest judicial court in Quebec, Canada....

, began in 1922.