On April 6, 1972, Montreal Mayor Jean Drapeau publicly declared that in 1976, his city would host the Olympic Games. In 1972, Roger Taillibert was asked - on account of his long experience in the field of sports construction, to conceive a general design capable to integrate, according to the general and particular requirements of the project the following elements : a large 50,000 seats, yearround stadium, a swimming center, a velodrome and all related equipments. Thus he has conceived and designed an homogeneous ensemble composed of three different but imbricated elements : the ring-shaped stadium, the central mast and the spherical vault of the velodrome.
The 60 hectares area selected is located in the east end of Montreal; organically linked to the 200 hectares De Maisonneuve Park, it creates in this part of the city a unique urban ensemble connected to the city-center by two metro stations and a bus station. - to act as consultant to the Public Works Department. For reasons of efficiency, Roger Taillibert chose at he onset of the program to group the main elements, to interconnect them and to build them simultaneously.
Six levels of services surround the stadium. They include : locker-rooms, reception halls, the press gallery, public traffic areas, loges, a panoramic restaurant and a small sports museum.
For the duration of the Games, the 50,000 seats capacity of the stadium (convertible at low cost into a baseball stadium) will be increased by 20,000 temporary seats which, once removed, will leave ample space for a baseball stadium
The stadium, traced on an elliptical plan, the two axes having 490 and 180 meters respectively, is constituted of a ring of tiers that, on several levels, are disposed on 34 autostable consoles which hold the roof and contain the various technical networks. These consoles, of unequal sizes, all have overhangs reaching up to 50 meters, with spaces in-between up to 20 meters. They are made up of 1,500 prefabricated concrete elements.
 

The velodrome stadium is closed to the swimming-pool. This building was remarked in 1980 by the engineers taking part to the “Precasting Congress” which took place in London. They were so impressed by it they focused their conclusion on the definition of this last building of the end of the present century which demonstrated what was possible to do in concrete.
It was began as soon as 1974 according to precise drawings made by Roger Taillibert in Paris, and the building part was made by a french-quebecan group.
It is covered with a huge autostable and spherical vault, 172 m long and 32 m high up to its top. This vault is constituted of three parts spreading from a unique bearing point on the north-east toward three other bearing-points to the south-west.