While the steam pumps used to evacuate the water have now been removed, the building still has terrific heritage value, as does the Craig Station, since its original architectural features remain essentially intact, endowing it with a high degree of authenticity and providing a wonderful example of late 19th-century industrial architecture. It is also one of the rare examples of architecture dedicated to public service by Perrault and Mesnard, who were better known for their institutional and religious architecture.

In the early 2000s, the Forges de Montréal, a non-profit organization, and its founder, Mathieu Collette, sought to restore and rehabilitate the pumping station with the goal of inventorying, safeguarding, disseminating and retransmitting traditional blacksmithing knowhow and trades.

In 2016, after 16 years of hard work and private investment by the founders of the Forges de Montréal, their presence in the building came into question when they were served an eviction notice by the City of Montreal. And yet their use of the building was valuable on many levels: the value of the contemporary use of the site by the Forges de Montréal is a great example of adapted rehabilitation and a use consistent with the architectural value of the building; and socially valuable, given that the Forges de Montréal constitutes a reference point and a meeting place for a large swathe of the international blacksmithing community, bringing new life and value to the site.

The presence of the Forges de Montréal in the former Riverside Pumping Station therefore contributes to enhancing the heritage value of the site, by bringing social and vocational value to its existing architectural, environmental and documentary importance. This initiative also enriches the Montreal territory by contributing a unique conservation approach that combines tangible and intangible heritage.

In 2019, the City of Montreal recognized the intangible cultural heritage of the traditional forge. Moreover, in 2020, the lease between the Forges de Montréal and the City was confirmed and adapted in order to take into account the financial capacity of forges and the building’s future preservation needs—thereby fully acknowledging the importance of traditional forging practices in the history of Montreal, which date back to the era of New France.

Once located in the heart of a working-class neighbourhood that has since disappeared, the Riverside Pumping Station is situated in the heart of an industrial complex and diverse road infrastructures, hemmed in by the Bickerdike Pier to the north and the Bonaventure Expressway to the south. However, rehabilitation of the site and the presence of the Forges de Montréal could serve as a springboard for the redevelopment of the sector, a key element in the reclassification of the Bridge-Bonaventure district.