Located on a busy downtown Montreal street, this project responds to the program given by an advertising agency seeking to enhance its image and strengthen its presence on the street. The scope of the project was limited to the modeling of the facade and the renovation of the entrance hall of a seven-storey building dating from the 1960’s and clad in pre-cast concrete panels.

The project explores the notions of the superimposition of new elements on the facade in order to reveal both the history of the building and the mechanisms of its subsequent transformation. To this end, a network of cables and panels of granite form an autonomous vertical plane attached to the existing facade at regular intervals. The panels echo the original grid while the cables stress the verticality of the composition. Each cable acts like a plumb line, guiding downwards a beam of light projected by a lamp mounted at the cornice level. The vocabulary used in the project displays a pleasure in exposing the principles of assembly and care in the execution of precise workmanship.

A marquee announces the entrance which embodies the dynamism associated with the client and becomes publicity in itself. The lighting concept for both the entrance and the building as a whole prolongs the presence of the agency on a street that remains animated well into the night.