The bells of Saint Joseph’s Oratory of Mount Royal in Montreal first arrived in 1955. Cast in the Paccard Foundry of France, they were on loan for a trial period, their final destination the Eiffel Tower. But from the moment the community laid eyes on the carillon, they were enamoured. Money would be raised, the bells would stay. And for more than a half century, their melodies, perfected by generations of carillonists, rang out across the city. Yet their physical location on the church grounds wasn’t particularly exalting: Housed in a low belfry adjacent a cafeteria building that felt more folksy than formal, the beautiful carillon always deserved a better home.

The most remarkable gesture of the new welcome pavilion by Lemay, then, is the heroic modern glass campanile that lifts it up. Standing 25 metres tall, the bell tower announces both the bells’ glorious return to the site – after a refurbishing at the original foundry and the addition of six new bells for a total of 62 – and the inauguration of a new path up to the oratory’s elevated entrance on Westmount Summit. Founded in 1904, Saint Joseph’s Oratory has undergone many expansions throughout its life, evolving from a small chapel to a civic attraction. Today it is Canada’s grandest church, rising 30 metres above the summit and crowned with a dome that is among the world’s largest.

Vibrant and modern, Lemay’s new welcome pavilion – in fact a series of pavilions that clamber up the site – boldly contrasts the Renaissance Revival building, and establishes an energetic and mutually reverent conversation between old and new. The luminous bell tower is an emblem of this hybrid identity.

Most important, the new intervention makes the church more accessible. In addition to being able to ascend the steep site via the original stepped promenade, visitors and pilgrims (of which there are two million annually) can make their way through the reception pavilion, at grade, and then up a series of stairs and escalators. The procession connects them to the crypt building and then the basilica above it. You can also ascend to the middle of the bell tower to peer up at the carillon.

The entirety of the 5,000-square-metre, four-storey structure has been inserted into the topography and unfolds as a spiritual pilgrimage. “From the moment visitors arrive,” the architects explain, “they are invited into a carefully choreographed sequence of spaces that reinterprets the pilgrimage experience, transforming movement through the site into an act of exploration.”

The journey to the top is a layered one, with amenities including a cafeteria, a boutique and relaxation rooms along the way. And the ringing of the bells fosters a sense of transcendence as you move through and up. “As the chimes resonate, they mark the rhythm of passage — an interplay of sound, light, and materiality that deepens the spiritual journey.”

The architects chose materials with deep contextual meaning: The welcome pavilion establishes a reverence for the surroundings with gabion facades comprising stones recovered from the site excavation; the crannies between them dapple the facades in light. Inside, the palette features mainly raw, board-formed concrete and warm wood, with natural light from generous skylights animating every surface and ushering in views of the stone church and its majestic dome, glimpsed from various vantage points.

Knitting the outdoor realm together are new public squares and sacred gardens, which cascade down the landscape like terraced rooftops – all nourished by a rainwater harvesting system. 

Part of a $150-million development project, which will also include restoring the dome, the welcome pavilion is a project that rises to the occasion. Construction began in 2018, guided by three “significant elements,” according to the architects: “the instrument,” meaning the bell tower and its wondrous carillon; “the rift,” referring to the incision into Mount Royal’s slope that allowed the concrete volumes of the welcome pavilion and the structure of the bell tower to be inserted; and “the topography,” or the way in which the pavilions climb up the steep site as terraces and plazas.

Lemay’s welcome pavilion is a project that remains true to its conceptual boldness; its realization shows that big ideas can be made real and that old and new, restoration and innovation, can live in harmony.