In May of last year, OpenFile Montreal contributor John Woolfrey wrote about the Nuns’ Island gas station designed by world-renowned architect Mies van der Rohe. From Woolfrey’s report:

Designed in 1968... the full-service station thrived for four decades as part of the apartment and town house complex designed by van der Rohe’s Chicago firm in the 1960s. Then, in 2008, owner Imperial Oil built a new self-serve station with car wash in the island’s commercial district. Since then, the masterpiece sat boarded up and forlorn, with the inevitable graffiti splashed on its crumbling yellow brick wall. A new project is underway to restore the structure and convert it into a Maison des générations, a social centre for teens and seniors.

Nine months later and the construction is complete.

Last night, Verdun Mayor Claude Trudel officially inaugurated La Station.

“I'm proud to be holding the inauguration of La Station today—the very first intergenerational facilities on the island of Montréal,” Trudel said. “It is my hope that youngsters and older adults can revive this mythical site that is a testimony to the growth of the L'Île-des-Sœurs neighbourhood over the past few decades.”

The conversion of the building cost Verdun $1.25 million with a donation of just under $400,000 from the city as well as a cultural development grant of under $400,000. The total cost was just over $2 million.

For more information on La Station, visit the Verdun borough website.

We'll also have a more detailed report from Woolfrey next week.

Image via Regular or Super, a documentary about the work of Mies van der Rohe.