PVM Summer Station: co-working outdoor space in downtown Montreal

With the pandemic and many office employees working at home, one Montreal company is seeking to help people get back together, but do it outdoors and downtown – called “Station d’été PVM,” or PVM Summer Station.

“The idea was to create a co-working space but outdoor, to bring people together,” said Marie-Pier Tessier De L’Étoile, co-founder and director general of Aire commune.

An outdoor work terrace on Esplanade PVM that that already has 60 reservations in place to use the space for the summer, with more timeslots available.

The open-concept area includes two meeting rooms set up in glass containers – which they say allows for sunny work sessions in the heart of downtown Montreal.

“A lot of worker felt loneliness, it was difficult to not see your coworker everyday and we want to create those spaces so people can gather from Montreal, and also from outside Montreal, and can test and live this unique experience,” explained Tessier De L’Étoile.

“We can feel that the workers needed to get together, needed to get out of their apartments, it just feels good to be in Montreal, in downtown again.”

Aire commune has been putting together co-working outdoor spaces since 2017 and with COVID, they say the concept become even more important.

Last summer they had 28 small outdoor workspaces that were called “Îlots d’été” for people to use across the city – but they “really had this dream of a huge space, with meeting rooms and more services for the [downtown], that needed extra, extra love,” said Tessier De L’Étoile.