The company Claude Cormier and associates, to whom we owe the colorful work balls 18 shades of cheerful of Montreal’s Gay Village, envisioned the Ring, an artistic installation 50,000 pounds and 30 meters wide that will float from June above the esplanade of Place Ville-Marie (Esplanade PVM) in Montreal.
Unlike the famous colored balls that will be suspended above Sainte-Catherine Street East until 2019, the Ring project is more about sustainability. The work aims to put an end to the major renovations and renovations that Esplanade PVM has undergone in recent years.
The ring will be suspended at the main entrance of Esplanade PVM, just above a new staircase built on the axis of Avenue McGill College to reach the city center. The structure is intended as a gateway to the city, a kind of bezel overlooking the Fairmont Queen-Elizabeth Hotel on one side and the cross of Mount Royal in the distance on the other.
Coming out of the health crisis, Montreal needs love. And Claude Cormier passed the Ring on his finger !, rejoiced in a press release Yves Lalumière, president and CEO, Tourisme Montréal. The newly suspended Montreal symbol will make a place for itself in our hearts and in pictures going around the world.
A tourist icon and a technical challenge
The first models of the project announced are already showing the amazing visual effect that the Ring will create in this part of the city center. We already think of crowds of tourists looking for the best angle with their cameras for their next Instagram post.
But from the drawing board to reality, there are still a few steps to fulfilling that promise that will be a big headache for those who will be installing work.
Once the image is in front of you, it looks very easy, but you have to fit 50,000 pounds between two heritage -listed buildings, where we just finished work. So we can’t be invasiveexplanation by landscape architect Claude Cormier.
We will install four attachment points and we will have structures that will come from the ring, which will drill holes in the wall on each side and fit into the structure of the buildings.
Added to these difficulties is the consideration of winds and earthquake potential.
The steel ring, which is almost complete, was made by the Marmen firm, based in Trois-Rivières. The final installation will be shown in June.
This text was written from an interview conducted by Catherine Richer, cultural columnist on the show 15-18. Comments may have been edited for clarity or brevity.
Source: Radio-Canada
