Roy Street Collective had it's first meeting in January of 2003, in an effort to manage the growing potential of a collective meeting the needs of Plateau Mont-Royal's vibrant art community. The Roy Street building, which gives the collective its home, has been housing artists since Louise Markus and Grant Genova purchased it in 1999 as a studio, residence and space for Fresh Fruit & Architecture, the architecture firm closely connected to the collective. As they renovated, transforming the building from fish warehouse to functioning creative environment, interest from local artists, and from the neighborhood, steadily increased.
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For 50 years pedestrians would cross the street to avoid the smell of the fish warehouse but getting rid of it was just the beginning of a big job.
A maquette of the dream for the Roy Street building.
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A Fresh Fruit & Architecture crew knock out a large picture window.
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Markus displays her art in the window and before long other artists are literally crawling all over the building.
Murals and a styrofoam packaging relief piece grace the Coloniale Street side of the building.
Fresh Fruit & Architecture designs and builds a showcase window out of recycled steel and mounts it on the building. For each art event there is a corresponding installation.
Markus's painting studio on the ground floor.
A bottled wall in the Fresh Fruit & Architecture studios.
The roof top garden.
