Page 23 - A_View_Of_Their_Own_the_Story_of_Westmount

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May Cutler and Peter Trent celebrate his election as mayor.
Losing little time, Mr. Trent convinced Mayor
Cutler to postpone the renovation of Victoria Hall
and the greenhouse to a later phase. He then began
manoeuvering the project forward. Within two
months he submitted an action plan to council and
proposed the name of internationally-acclaimed
architect Peter Rose. "I was so impressed with the
Canadian Centre for Architecture (a Rose design)
that I was delighted with the suggestion," Mayor
Cutler says.
On July 9, 1990, council approved $40,000 for
a feasibility study by Rose, a Westmount resident.
Submitting the study January 14, 1991, Rose was
commissioned March 4 to produce schematics for
design development at à cost of $201,850. Three
days later a building committee was struck of
Ullyatt, Lydon, Trent and city official Edwin
McCavour.
"All this time we were including Qibrary
planner) Bowron in the design discussions," Mr.
Trent recalls. But a difference of opinion between
Bowron and Rose was erupting. "Bowron wanted
one large building. Rose wanted two buildings
architecturally linked." Finally, the library planner
wrote to the chief librarian that, "the scheme
presented by the architect is little improvement on
the present arrangement... it would be better to
keep what you have."
Rose won out and his schematics were pre-
sented at a public meeting in Victoria Hall on May
29, 1991. They called for demolishing the 1959
annex and building a larger wing linked to the
Findlay structure by a long passageway and new
glazed entrance off Sherbrooke Street. Plans also
suggested elaborate landscaping and a reflecting
pool.
While costs were kept vague during the meet-
ing, they were rumoured to be $6 million to
$7 million, even reaching as much as $10 million.
Rose was quickly commissioned to prepare
detailed designs and engineering studies for an
expenditure of $330,000 adopted over the summer
with little protest.
Westmounter Jonathan Deitcher was initially
appointed to chair a fundraising campaign. In
October, he addressed the Rotary Club of West-
mount saying his efforts were based on cost
estimates of $9 million (excluding landscaping)
of which $3 million would come from private
donations.
While Mayor Cutler fought to cut waste and
spending from the operating budgets of Westmount
as well as the Montreal Urban Community, she also
felt strongly that it was time Westmounters renewed
long-neglected facilities such as the library. "You
have been using it for 90 years," she said. "Don't
you think you owe it something?"
Opposition to spending so much was already
under way from the Westmount Finance Action
Committee when the 1991 municipal election
campaign swung into high gear. Financial constraint
was on everyone's election platform. Councillor
Peter Trent, the lone mayoralty candidate, promised
to poll citizens before any decision would be taken
on the extent of the library renewal.
True to her word, the mayor stepped down
entrusting the future of the project to Mr. Trent.
One of her last acts was to endorse candidates
sympathetic to his policies. All were elected.
"1was content to get at least this much done,"
May Cutler says. "And to leave something gracefully
but profitably."
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