first 3000 inhabitants moved into the first leased 800 units. A second phase, still in accordance with the master plan, was completed the following year, notably including four buildings by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe: three high rise apartment buildings, the first of which, 201 rue Corot, was occupied in 1969, and an Esso filling station of the same vintage. By the mid-1970s, significant areas to the south of the island were reclaimed from the St. Lawrence and eclectic constructions sprung in various parts of the island. Unsystematic construction has continued rapidly since then. The island was also the filming location for a horror film called They Came from Within''' a.k.a. Shivers'', directed by Canadian filmmaker David Cronenberg in 1975. The island's hotel tower doubled for the film's "Starliner Tower" apartment building. Geography The island is part of the Hochelaga Archipelago in the St. Lawrence River. It is located immediately southeast of the Island of Montreal, from which it is separated by a narrow channel, and north of the La Prairie Bassin. Soils are mostly of clay loam to clay texture, and usually somewhat poorly drained (MacDonald series). Very poorly drained clay was mapped as Laplaine series, and areas of well-drained glacial till were mapped as Chateaugay clay loam or St. Bernard loam. A small gravel deposit at the northern end was mapped as Ste-Philomène sandy loam. The island is noted for its parks and scenery including West Vancouver Park which overlooks the Saint Lawrence River. The 26-hectare Domaine Saint-Paul natural woodland in the southern part of the island, a crucial nesting area for more than a hundred species of birds, is one of the last remaining natural woodlands in southern Montreal. It has been progressively eroded by development. The woodland surrounds an artificial lake called Lac des Battures. This lake was actually created by accident as parts of the river known as "water lots" became landlocked during landfill operations in the 1960s and 1970s. Most of this landfill came from the excavation of Montreal's underground Metro system in the mid-1960s. That part of the Island was subject to annual floods caused by spring runoff. The resulting dykes and fill allowed an additional few million square feet to be used for development as well as a golf course. Government Nuns' Island is part of the borough of Verdun, making up the neighbourhood of L'Île-des-Sœurs and forming part of the city