The Gazette

Architect and activist Phyllis Lambert is jumping into another battle to save a historic building, this time in Quebec City. Lambert has joined local residents in rising up against plans to demolish a centennial Dominican monastery to make way for a new pavilion of the Quebec Museum of Fine Arts at the entrance to the famed Plains of Abraham. The director of the museum announced in December plans to build a $90-million, 8,000 square-foot pavilion next to the museum, where the monastery now stands. The head of the museum, John Porter, said at the time the Dominican building had "no heritage value" and the institution that owns the monastery intended to demolish it to build something new. The church and presbytery would be preserved. Porter's comment prompted more than a thousand city residents to sign a petition to save the building, a move supported by Lambert, who has worked to save and restore architectural gems across the country.