Does the Montréal Olympic Stadium line up with True North?

Montreal's city grid doesn't line up with True North. This is well known to locals and confusing to the visitors. 

We tell somebody to "Head North" as we direct them up Saint Denis, but that actually points them more West than North when looking at a compass.

I made a video about it a few years back. 

Making that video and years of doing workshops about the night sky has built inside me an innate sense of where True North actually is in Montréal. As I walk around outside, it strikes me when something seems to line up towards it.

The Stadium

While taking a Moonrise shot last year, it occurred to me which direction the Olympic Stadium was pointing. Holy cow! Is it pointing to True North?! 

From my best guess in the moment, it certainly seemed that way. The road running parallel to it – Sherbrooke – also seemed to be going North, too.

For all the stadium's flaws, maybe this is the one thing they got right. Did the designer's purposely line it up with True North?

A Compass

You're familiar with a compass: North, East, South, and West.

You're also familiar with a circle: it has 360 degrees.

To tell somebody to go in a general direction, we could say, "Head South."

But if you want to tell somebody to go in a very specific direction, you would tell them the number in degrees. Saying something like, "Head 180°."

A few more examples:

• West: 270°
• Northwest: 315°
• North: 0°
• Southeast: 135°

Knowing this, if the Olympic Stadium is pointed at 0°, we would know it is pointed towards True North.

Does it Line Up with North?

It does not.

You could see how my ballpark estimate thought it would line up, but nay! 12° off.

Damn! First the roof, and now this.

What surprised me while looking into this is that the Stadium isn't parallel with Sherbrooke Street. From the overhead view above, you can see this.

Digging deeper, Sherbrooke Street doesn't line up perfectly with North, either. It's at 358.4°. Very close! Your call if you want to consider that close enough to be lined up with North.

I don't know enough about the history of the construction of Sherbrooke Street. I should research more. But if this stretch of Sherbrooke Street existed here when the Stadium was built, why didn't they build the Stadium to match its direction? Why build it off-kilter?

Anyways, fix the roof first, then we'll talk about rotating the entire thing 12°.