Nuns' Island gas station
The Nuns' Island gas station is a modernist-style building on Nuns' Island in Montreal, Quebec. It was built as a filling station in 1969 from a project of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. Closed for several years, it was later converted to a community centre.
It was the first gas station on the Island of Montreal commissioned by Imperial Oil. It was also one of four buildings that Mies designed on Nuns' Island.
Community centre
When the filling station closed in 2008, the borough of Verdun transformed the building into a community arts centre, La Station. Eric Gauthier was the lead architect on the project, which saw the two glass pavilions rebuilt to their original 3,000- and sizes. The community centre opened in February 2012.La Station is a community centre for teens and people over 50 years of age. The two main buildings are called the salle blanche and salle noire, after their floor colours. The original glass-enclosed attendant's booth serves as a display case of Mies' and the building's history, with the former fuel dispensers marked by ventilation shafts. The centre uses geothermal energy.