Projects / Villa Frederick-James
An exemplary rescue operation, set in an exceptional natural landscape.
Carried out between 2022 and 2024, our interventions unfolded in three phases: relocation of the villa, construction of a new habitable foundation, and complete rehabilitation.
Saving heritage from erosion
Built at the end of the 19th century for American painter Frederick James, the villa stands on the spectacular tip of Cap Canon, facing Percé Rock. It is an exceptional site, yet one exposed to constant risk: cliff erosion and underlying geological faults.
In the 1990s, the villa underwent two restoration campaigns that helped preserve its architectural value, though they could not fully protect it from the inherent fragility of the site on which it rests.
In 2021, the Government of Québec regained ownership of this heritage jewel and launched an ambitious requalification project to ensure its long-term preservation.
The villa, on its original location at Cap Canon.
1898 cWilliam Hagerty, Musée McCord
Goals and challenges
Following the acquisition of the villa by the Government of Québec in 2021, a rehabilitation project was launched with three main objectives:
– Preserve the villa by relocating it away from the cliff;
– Highlight the historic building by conserving and restoring its various components;
– Give the site a public vocation so that the local community and visitors can enjoy it year-round.
The villa’s iconic presence in the Percé landscape lies in its unique qualities, making it both a remarkable observation point and a landmark visible from the sea, the shore, the wharf, the road, and the mountains. The architectural approach aims to preserve the villa’s current visual relationship with the landscape, while maintaining the prominence of the historic building over its necessary expansion to accommodate new functions.
Two precise and controlled movements saved the villa: 13 meters to the north, then 10 meters transversely, without altering its structure.
Relocation
Before its rehabilitation, the Frederick-James Villa had to be relocated to escape the erosion of the cliff. This complex process required meticulous documentation of the building—due to the absence of original plans—to preserve every detail. After delicate preparatory work, the villa was moved in two stages on a steel structure, with remarkable precision despite challenging weather conditions. The operation preserved its iconic role in the Percé landscape while discreetly integrating a new habitable foundation beneath the building. The villa’s new position, about twenty meters from its original location, maintains both its orientation and the height of its ridge.
Architectural Intervention
The museum program developed by the Musée de la civilisation du Québec and the Ministère de la Culture et des Communications aimed to give the site a public function with permanent occupancy—an ambitious goal for the building.
To make the site and villa accessible to all from Mont-Joli Street, the steep path was reconfigured to provide level access to the museum’s reception areas, located in the new foundations at garden level. These landscape interventions also helped reconcile the villa’s relocation with the preservation of the site’s natural features.
Access to the reception and exhibition spaces, located in the new garden-level floor, is positioned midway along the ascent from Mont-Joli Street to the top of the cape. The entrance, preceded by an outdoor gathering space, offers a breathtaking view of the iconic Percé Rock.
Improving the building’s energy efficiency
The new museum use and the requirement to make the villa habitable year-round called for modifications to its envelope to ensure performance with heating and mechanical ventilation, while avoiding long-term damage to its various components and preserving the appearance and proportions of its many architectural details.
The villa’s domestic and creative spaces, located on the ground and upper floors, were restored with the integration of electromechanical systems to meet the site's new functional needs. Ten geothermal wells drilled west of the villa supply part of the energy needed to heat, ventilate, and cool the garden-level spaces. Fire protection, ventilation, and air conditioning systems were carefully installed to be concealed or visually minimized, thanks to a meticulous recomposition of the interior finish assembly details.
Rehabilitating heritage in a changing climate
The project to transform the Frederick-James Villa into a public, year-round space invites reflection on the resilience of built heritage in the face of nature’s evolving cycles—intensified by climate change. Preserving cultural heritage highlights the importance of using resources wisely and recognizes the immense value of inherited craftsmanship, which enables such economy, as well as the irreplaceable expertise of artisan-workers, guardians of the intangible heritage embodied in technical knowledge. This skill in building is part of our cultural identity and forms a foundation upon which Québec architecture can continue to grow. It is in this spirit that we envisioned and developed this project.