Saguenay district of Arvida, Quebec

To stand in the heart of Arvida, with its plume-spewing smokestacks looming nearby, it’s tough to feel you’re getting a glimpse into a modern-day Eden.

Yet this remote Quebec community was born as a model city and cutting-edge town, a Silicon Valley of its day. And now, local residents are dreaming big: They want Arvida, an industrial “utopia” carved out of the Saguenay plain, recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Full story on the Globe website

A Rio Tinto-Alcan bauxite warehouse is pictured in the Arvida district of Saguenay, 225km North East of Quebec City Wednesday November 10, 2010. Arvida was planned around the plant so people could walk to it.

The Rio Tinto-Alcan plant is pictured near a residential area in the Arvida district of Saguenay, 225km North East of Quebec City Wednesday November 10, 2010.