Engaged to implement a legacy master plan for the reconstruction of a historic French fort — acting as both general contractor and project manager, on site and hands-on.
Place Fort LaTour is one of the most demanding heritage builds our team has ever taken on. Working from a legacy master plan first drawn up in 2002, Glenn Group stepped into the role of general contractor and project manager to bring a 17th-century French fort back to life on the Saint John waterfront.
This was not a project managed from a distance. Our people were on site throughout — hands on the wood, shaping and shaping again, improving connection details and solving the problems that only reveal themselves when you are building history one timber at a time. Fully custom elements — wood palisade walls, cannon towers, and period-accurate structures — were built using emulated 17th-century construction techniques, adapted for the modern era.
Over five years later, the site still stands — largely free of defects or deterioration — an iconic representation of the past made tangible through interpretation, and a place where visitors can walk into another century.
Building history, by hand
General Contractor
We carried the build as CGC — coordinating trades, tenders, and schedule while staying accountable for the fort as a finished, standing structure.
Hands On Site
Our team worked directly alongside builders — shaping wood, refining connection details, and solving problems in real time on the ground.
Period-Accurate Craft
Palisade walls, cannon towers, and structures built with emulated 17th-century techniques — authentic to the era, engineered to last.
Built to Endure
Five years on, the fort stands largely free of defects or deterioration — proof of craft that respects both history and longevity.
A fort rebuilt, timber by timber
Every wall, tower, and building was a fully custom element — there was no catalogue to order from. Working from the legacy master plan, our team reconstructed the fort's palisade, its cannon towers, and its period structures using construction methods emulated from the 1600s.
Acting as general contractor meant owning the whole of it: the tenders, the trades, the sequencing, and the standard of the finished work.
Craft you can walk into
The details matter here more than almost anywhere. Connection details were improved and re-worked on site so the structures would read as authentic — and hold up to the coastal weather of the Bay of Fundy for decades to come.
The result is a fort that doesn't feel like a replica. It feels like a place with a past.
A landmark on the harbour
Over five years later, the site still stands — an iconic representation of our past, made tangible through interpretation.Glenn Group
From construction to living history
What we built is now a stage for the past. Costumed interpreters and programming bring the fort to life, turning a construction achievement into a genuine visitor experience on the Saint John waterfront.
It sits alongside our broader waterfront work in the city — Harbour Passage, the Cruise Ship Container Village, and Ihtoli-maqahamok at Market Slip — as part of a decades-long relationship with this harbour.