Two days after its official inauguration, the giant ring, about 30 meters in diameter, was installed on Saturday in the heart of downtown Montreal, on the Esplanade Place Ville Marie. About thirty workers were busy with this delicate task.
Posted at 12:44 p.m.
On the way from The Press, a 400-tonne crane was being prepared to retrieve the work, and position it at a margin of about five centimeters on each side of the structure, between the two buildings facing the esplanade. The ring was then expected to be fully installed by mid-afternoon.
The work signed by landscape architect Claude Cormier was carried out at a cost of 5 million. This permanent installation seeks to “revitalize the city center, after two years of pandemic and load shedding”, had explained to The Mr. Cormier Press last April.
He asserts that this gigantic ring “fits into the emblematic axis of Avenue McGill College, where Place Ville Marie, McGill University, the former Royal Victoria Hospital and Mount Royal Park are aligned, thus revealing more than 200 years of our city’s history. “It also complements in a good way what has already been done at Place Ville Marie, where they have already invested 200 million in repairs and rejuvenation,” Mr. Cormier also argued last spring.
Made of steel and designed by the Quebec firm Marmen, established in Trois-Rivières, the 30-meter-diameter structure will be suspended several meters above the ground, at the main entrance of the Esplanade Place Ville Marie, above ” the monumental staircase.
A grand opening of the facility was held earlier this week, Thursday, in the west lobby of 1 Place Ville Marie, due to weather conditions.