The old Maison de Radio-Canada now looks like any ordinary downtown building. The public broadcaster’s logos were removed on Tuesday morning, marking the end of an era. Blow of blues for the nostalgic.
It is indeed a brutal reminder that, by the end of the year, Radio-Canada will definitively leave the mythical brown tower for its modest new offices located just opposite, on rue Papineau.
Inaugurated in 1973, the 28-storey skyscraper had required the demolition of an entire district, the Faubourg à m’lasse, before becoming the high place of showbiz and Quebec journalism. That is to say the historical charge behind the removal of the three logos that had been hanging over three sides of the building since the 1990s.
“According to our agreement with the new owner, the logo was to be removed before the end of our lease, December 31, 2022. […] The sign has not been deemed heritage by the City of Montreal, ”explained Marc Pichette, the spokesperson for the public broadcaster, by email. To mark the occasion, one of the logos on the brown tower was symbolically extinguished on the air during last Friday’s back-to-school special, while that of the new building was on.
Inseparable from Montreal
Over time, the brand image of Radio-Canada had become inseparable from the panorama of Montreal. A landmark when crossing the Jacques-Cartier bridge, especially in the middle of the night. For some, it was even part of the city’s heritage, like the signs of Farine Five Roses and the former Molson factory.
“Even if we have known for a long time that the Maison de Radio-Canada will be moving, the logo could have stayed. I’m not a marketing specialist, but it seems to me that the building has a lot more cachet with the logo,” says Matt Soar, a Concordia University professor who leads the Montreal Signs Project.
This initiative has so far enabled the recovery of dozens of signs from former shops and cult places associated with the history of the metropolis. In fact, the Montreal Signs Project took possession in 2016 of the CBC letters that hung on the former CBC/Radio-Canada building downtown, from the 1940s until 1973, before the inauguration of the famous brown tower.
The three logos that were grafted to the tower until this morning will not experience the same fate; they will be dismantled to end up being recycled. Groupe Mach, which bought the former Radio-Canada facilities in 2017, says the decision is entirely that of the state-owned company.
Groupe Mach intends to make these places the “Quartier des lumière”, which should include condos, social housing, shops and a business center in the former Maison de Radio-Canada. Work is supposed to start next year, but no date has been set for the inauguration.
Déjà vu
This whole story is reminiscent of the withdrawal of the emblematic sign from the first Archambault store, in 2018, after Renaud-Bray bought out its main competitor. The panel was supposed to go to the dump, but, faced with the outcry, the City of Montreal decided to preserve it. The sign was finally put back in place at the corner of Sainte-Catherine and Berri streets on the initiative of Quebecor, owner of the building adjacent to the business.
The red letters of Farine Five Roses were also almost uninstalled in 2006 after the company was taken over by the giant Smucker’s. An agreement had finally been reached. Héritage Montréal recognizes that the Radio-Canada logo does not have the same value as the sign of Farine Five Roses, but the organization is still sorry for the turn of events.
“The withdrawal of the Radio-Canada logo marks the passage of a striking and quite unique collective asset—public radio and television—, erected [sur le site d’un] former popular neighborhood razed, to a real estate project like Montreal and other big cities know so many of them,” said Dinu Bumbaru, Policy Director of Heritage Montreal, by email. Mr. Bumbaru would have preferred that the three logos be stored elsewhere to maintain the memory.