Building and monument's lighting design in your city

[Rico Rommheim]

The QDS after dark is a real treat. It doesn't try to sell you a product, it just tries to make you feel better the long winter months. It doesn't ask you to take out your credit card, you can walk through it and enjoy the sight, sounds and crowds in your own way. It's more altruistic than anything, and if some find it kitschy, it's all good. I do agree that the Place des Festivals feels like a work in progress, and it is, has been for 10 years now. The new NFB building and the Dance complex will dramatically enhance the area. The missing pieces (new museum on Mainsonneuve perhaps? The QDS towers) will bookend the space in the next decade.


RE: Dundas Square. I don't like it. The definition of B-grade tackiness. That being said, I noticed when I was there that it does blow the minds of kids and small-town people. It's like Times Square: a place locals abhor and avoid but that the masses from the hinterland can appreciate as a novelty. So to each their own, these schemes work for different people on different levels.

[WhipperSnapper]

Programmed LED lighting is still fairly new but, it's something everyone is doing. I wouldn't say the concept in the Quartier is that different from what is being done elsewhere. Everything is about excess nowadays and taking full advantage of all that's available whether its a good idea or not. A more reserved approach would oddly fall as cutting edge today

Another mass generalization between English & Francophone Canada. Love it. I'm not denying there isn't some truth to it or the subtle differences between say Montreal and Toronto. Montreal has aspired to be European and about the only thing Toronto is confident about is being Canadian (or North American)

[Acajack]

Another challenge for the Quartier des spectacles is that within it lies Place Émilie-Gamelin, which is one of the biggest concentrations of homeless people in Montreal. I wonder what they will end up doing with that - if anything.

[Martin Mtl]

Originally Posted by Acajack

Another challenge for the Quartier des spectacles is that within it lies Place Émilie-Gamelin, which is one of the biggest concentrations of homeless people in Montreal. I wonder what they will end up doing with that - if anything.

Jardin Gamelin ? Google it. Game changer.

[Acajack]

[QUOTE=WhipperSnapper;7725302]Programmed LED lighting is still fairly new but, it's something everyone is doing. I wouldn't say the concept in the Quartier is that different from what is being done elsewhere. Everything is about excess nowadays and taking full advantage of all that's available whether its a good idea or not. A more reserved approach would oddly fall as cutting edge today

Another mass generalization between English & Francophone Canada. Love it. I'm not denying there isn't some truth to it or the subtle differences between say Montreal and Toronto. Montreal has aspired to be European and about the only thing Toronto is confident about is being Canadian (or North American)[/QUOTE]

"Can't we all just get along" and agree that anglophone and francophone Canada do have different approaches to things, and that one is not necessarily better than the other. Just different.

[Martin Mtl]

The thing with the Quartier des spectacles is that it's not only about led lighting scheme. It's actually more about animated projections on buildings. They even asked visual artists to design animated projects to be shown on building's facade. They even went as far as making the new Maison de la Danse's vast glass facade on Place des festivals a permanent giant screen for artistic projections.

[WhipperSnapper]

Originally Posted by Rico Rommheim

The QDS after dark is a real treat. It doesn't try to sell you a product, it just tries to make you feel better the long winter months. It doesn't ask you to take out your credit card, you can walk through it and enjoy the sight, sounds and crowds in your own way. It's more altruistic than anything, and if some find it kitschy, it's all good. I do agree that the Place des Festivals feels like a work in progress, and it is, has been for 10 years now. The new NFB building and the Dance complex will dramatically enhance the area. The missing pieces (new museum on Mainsonneuve perhaps? The QDS towers) will bookend the space in the next decade.


RE: Dundas Square. I don't like it. The definition of B-grade tackiness. That being said, I noticed when I was there that it does blow the minds of kids and small-town people. It's like Times Square: a place locals abhor and avoid but that the masses from the hinterland can appreciate as a novelty. So to each their own, these schemes work for different people on different levels.

Sounds like another Dundas Square vs QDS comparison. Most telling is the credit card reference. The two are entirely different concepts and its ridiculous to even mentioned in the same post. Downtown Toronto doesn't have a central art district and never will. (I'm sure they'll try) The existing facilities are already too spread out all over the place. The rest of GTA follows the concept of QDS.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by Martin Mtl

Jardin Gamelin ? Google it. Game changer.

Holy blind spots Batman! And they've been doing this for several years!

It just clicked that I haven't been in that specific part of Montreal *in the summer* in the recent times I've been in Montreal.

Though I've been all around it. Weird that I missed that.

I've only seen Gamelin in the winter in the past couple of years, and it was always pretty grim.

[WhipperSnapper]

[QUOTE=Acajack;7725319]

Originally Posted by WhipperSnapper

Programmed LED lighting is still fairly new but, it's something everyone is doing. I wouldn't say the concept in the Quartier is that different from what is being done elsewhere. Everything is about excess nowadays and taking full advantage of all that's available whether its a good idea or not. A more reserved approach would oddly fall as cutting edge today

Another mass generalization between English & Francophone Canada. Love it. I'm not denying there isn't some truth to it or the subtle differences between say Montreal and Toronto. Montreal has aspired to be European and about the only thing Toronto is confident about is being Canadian (or North American)[/QUOTE]

"Can't we all just get along" and agree that anglophone and francophone Canada do have different approaches to things, and that one is not necessarily better than the other. Just different.

I like hyperbole. Use it all the time. As far generalizations go, the difference are more of a molehill than the mountain you always make it out to be. That's all I'm saying.

[WhipperSnapper]

Originally Posted by Martin Mtl

The thing with the Quartier des spectacles is that it's not only about led lighting scheme. It's actually more about animated projections on buildings. They even asked visual artists to design animated projects to be shown on building's facade. They even went as far as making the new Maison de la Danse's vast glass facade on Place des festivals a permanent giant screen for artistic projections.

Just to be clear. I was talking about the projections too.

[Acajack]

[QUOTE=WhipperSnapper;7725330]

Originally Posted by Acajack

I like hyperbole. Use it all the time. As far generalizations go, the difference are more of a molehill than the mountain you always make it out to be. That's all I'm saying.

Differences can be as major or minor as the beholder's eye wants to see them.

Believe it or not, you're talking to someone who doesn't feel like a fish out of water in any western country (aside from practical matters of language - but I'm not one to fuss over not understanding a foreign language anyway).

So while sure I do talk up the differences between anglophones and francophones in Canada a lot (largely because of the constant denial on the other side), paradoxically I don't really find myself that different from the average Finn, Czech or Kiwi.

[WhipperSnapper]

You're right. I don't find the subtleties at all similar to a comparison between Canadians. The denial is mostly your imagination. Same applies to the East vs West sentiments in parts of "Anglophone Canada" in which Ontario and Quebec stand together as the bad guys.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by WhipperSnapper

You're right. I don't find the subtleties at all similar to a comparison between Canadians. The denial is mostly your imagination. Same applies to the East vs West sentiments in parts of "Anglophone Canada" in which Ontario and Quebec stand together as the bad guys.

As I've mentioned many times before, this cannot be determined conclusively.

My wife and I were both francophones from outside Quebec and we both went through a mild culture shock when we moved to Quebec. And we didn't go from Winnipeg to Chicoutimi. We went from Ottawa to Gatineau, in the same CMA.

Everyone is different. Some people think that Durham region is intolerably different from Peel region. Some people feel at home anywhere in the world.

[le calmar]

Originally Posted by Acajack

As I've mentioned many times before, this cannot be determined conclusively.

My wife and I were both francophones from outside Quebec and we both went through a mild culture shock when we moved to Quebec. And we didn't go from Winnipeg to Chicoutimi. We went from Ottawa to Gatineau, in the same CMA.

Everyone is different. Some people think that Durham region is intolerably different from Peel region. Some people feel at home anywhere in the world.

I've been working alternately between two offices buildings these past few months, one in Ottawa and the other in Gatineau (Gatineau sector). What strikes me every time I work in Gatineau is how small townish it feels. Be it the way people interact with each other at McDonald's or the nature of the commercial outlets on Saint-Louis and Gréber, it sure feels different. No different from the East end of Sherbrooke or Hochelaga-Maisonneuve. But different from the lower income neighbourhoods in Ottawa.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by le calmar

I've been working alternately between two offices buildings these past few months, one in Ottawa and the other in Gatineau (Gatineau sector). What strikes me every time I work in Gatineau is how small townish it feels. Be it the way people interact with each other at McDonald's or the nature of the commercial outlets on Saint-Louis and Gréber, it sure feels different. No different from the East end of Sherbrooke or Hochelaga-Maisonneuve. But different than the lower income neighbourhoods in Ottawa.

In some circles of Canadian orthodoxy it's a near-dogma that Quebec isn't really any different from the rest of the country except that it uses a different code to communicate.

I suppose it's convenient for some people to think that, but I don't think it's really based in reality.

Now, let's not exaggerate. It's not like Shinjuku in Tokyo vs. Kivu in the Congo, obviously.

But there are a number of differences that are on the level that in many instances you'd more typically find across international borders.

It's an inconvenient truth for some people, but what can I say. That's just the way Canada is.

Just like there are some similarities and shared things between Anglo-Canadians and Americans that are on the level that don't typically cross international borders, but here they do.

[OutOfTowner]

Originally Posted by WhipperSnapper

Programmed LED lighting is still fairly new but, it's something everyone is doing. I wouldn't say the concept in the Quartier is that different from what is being done elsewhere. Everything is about excess nowadays and taking full advantage of all that's available whether its a good idea or not. A more reserved approach would oddly fall as cutting edge today

Another mass generalization between English & Francophone Canada. Love it. I'm not denying there isn't some truth to it or the subtle differences between say Montreal and Toronto. Montreal has aspired to be European and about the only thing Toronto is confident about is being Canadian (or North American)

Indeed, everything done in Montreal that varies in any way from the prevailing North American monoculture is European aspirational. There are even weekly meetings at city hall, the famous 'How can we be more European?' round tables. Not much is ever accomplished though as everyone haggles over the question of which Europe they should aspire to be- Finland or Spain? Britain or Czech Republic? Holland or Greece? Northern France or Southern France?

Because believe it or not, many people think that Europe is one big homogeneous entity and therefore label anything that varies from the accepted North American narrative as automatically being "European" and that it cannot be unique to any particular place. Not possible.

European!

[OutOfTowner]

Originally Posted by Acajack

Holy blind spots Batman! And they've been doing this for several years!

It just clicked that I haven't been in that specific part of Montreal *in the summer* in the recent times I've been in Montreal.

Though I've been all around it. Weird that I missed that.

I've only seen Gamelin in the winter in the past couple of years, and it was always pretty grim.

Gamelin has really changed over the last 5 or so years and not only in the summer. There are still a lot of homeless but hey, it's their city too.

I discovered this video from some Texas fireworks fans. They had popped up for l'International des Feux fireworks competition and they specifically mentioned and filmed Gamelin. Oddly enough, they didn't find it to be the least bit European!

• Video Link

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by OutOfTowner

Gamelin has really changed over the last 5 or so years and not only in the summer. There are still a lot of homeless but hey, it's their city too.

I admit I was a bit cautious about mentioning them as I agree it's their city too. I didn't want to appear too elitist but obviously I was not successful.

[Rico Rommheim]

Less ethno-national diatribes. More pictures, please.

[OutOfTowner]

Originally Posted by Martin Mtl

The thing with the Quartier des spectacles is that it's not only about led lighting scheme. It's actually more about animated projections on buildings. They even asked visual artists to design animated projects to be shown on building's facade. They even went as far as making the new Maison de la Danse's vast glass facade on Place des festivals a permanent giant screen for artistic projections.

Damn! How many ads could we fit on that screen? Bud Light! Koodo! Payday loans! The Bachelor!

What a missed opportunity..