Montréal, Québec, Canada
“As a bold and lasting gesture for downtown Montreal, ‘The Ring’ is part of the iconic axis of McGill College Avenue, where Place Ville Marie, McGill University, the former Royal Victoria Hospital, and Mount Royal Park line up, revealing more than 200 years of our city’s history,” states Claude Cormier, founder of CCxA.
Designed by Claude Cormier and his team at CCxA (formerly Claude Cormier + Associés) together with Ivanhoé Cambridge, a global real estate leader, a new urban icon has been installed as a bold art installation in the heart of downtown Montreal.
“The Ring” is an elegant 29-meter diameter stainless steel aerial work, “floating” between Place Ville Marie Towers 2/3 and 4, in the axis of Mount Royal.
The new installation, intended as a gateway to the city center, will beautify the face of Montreal while giving new vibrancy, vitality, and appeal to the heart of the city.
This major addition visually links the recently revitalized Esplanade PVM to the rest of the city while restoring its original event-related and cultural role and making it a preferred gathering place in the city center.
The installation also symbolizes the strong connection between Montreal, its citizens, and its visitors.
The monumental ring creates an atmosphere both contemporary and timeless, as workers gradually return to the city centre and local and international tourists once again enjoy everything the metropolis has to offer.
With its diffuse lighting, it establishes a strong connection extending from the illuminated cross on Mount Royal to PVM and the Fairmont The Queen Elizabeth Hotel via McGill College Avenue, which will be completely revitalized in the coming years.
The sculpture weighs more than 23,000 kilograms (50,000 pounds) of stainless steel.
The curved tube measures 80 centimeters (31.5 inches) in diameter and forms a ring 30 meters in diameter (90 feet).
The work of almost two years of collaboration by a multidisciplinary team was manufactured by Marmen, a Trois-Rivières company with international expertise in high-precision machining, manufacturing, and mechanical assembly.
“With this superb art installation, we’re anchoring our presence in Quebec and making a strong contribution to the vitality of downtown Montreal while positioning Esplanade PVM as an urban meeting place worthy of the world’s great metropolises. Ivanhoé Cambridge shapes living spaces in order to create value for its communities and The Ring is the very demonstration of this,” states Nathalie Palladitcheff, President and Chief Executive Officer, Ivanhoé Cambridge.
“A monumental installation like The Ring will have the power to attract visitors and will crown all the efforts made over the past two years. I would like to thank the partners for their hard work to revitalize downtown Montreal and help it regain its appeal and vitality,” adds Chantal Rouleau, Minister for Transport and Minister Responsible for the Metropolis and the Montréal Region.
The arrival of “The Ring” is the last component of the major work carried out at PVM, with $200 million having been invested since 2017 to improve its energy efficiency, transform its retail gallery, revitalize its Esplanade and connect it to the city center with a monumental staircase.
This major revitalization project to give new vitality to the heart of the city was carried out by the Montreal firms Sid Lee Architecture and Menkès Shooner Dagenais Létourneux Architects.
Project: The Ring
Architects: CCxA
Manufacturer: Marmen, a Trois-Rivières company
Client: Ivanhoé Cambridge, Inc.
Photographers: Jean-François Savaria
