The facade of city hall is getting touched up and, in order to hide the scaffolding, the 1878 building is draped in canvas bearing a life-size image of… city hall.
…Could be worse.
Photo taken January 10th, 2009
Photo du Jour : City Hall under cover
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11 comments
I think this is a pretty neat idea, first saw it on the La Baie building. it doesn’t make an eye sore out of these tarps.
Would you prefer scaffolding?
This is actually the new city hall. It is sold at Ikea in flat-pack and, like much of their newer items, suggests ornamentation without all the rough edges and (expensive) fine detail.
No way, very cool!
Saw this many time in Paris last summer.
The best scaffolding cover I’ve seen was in Paris on the Louis Vuitton store- it was done up like a massive suitcase, with the travel tag announcing the end date of renovations.
Done all over the world. Great idea, I must ad. But, in some cases, advertising is fine. I have no problem with it. The difference is, obviously, that City Hall is a PUBLIC building and a landmark at that. The AT building at Park Avenue is not.
odd. mildly unsettling.
personally, i would have preferred scaffolding so i could see the gradual changes that come over the building as it’s being repaired, or creative and interesting municipal ads of some sort eg. massive suitcases @ Louis Vuitton store in Paris, particularly during the bland black-blue-and-white winter months. Montreal’s City Hall could use a splash of colour right about now.
I think this is a good idea! Pretty original. But given the choice between extra municipal spending on this (can’t be cheap!) and regular scaffholding, I’ll take regular. Spend the extra money on the water distribution infrastructure instead!
Actually, it’s not that expensive to do at all — it’s just printed on vinyl mesh with what are basically large ink-jet printers. Sure, it’s _more_ expensive than having nothing at all, but I doubt the amount spent on the building wrap would go very far to help the water distribution network.
I find it cute, and one of the better building wraps I’ve seen. Another one I like is at the corner of Cathcart and University, looking east. The side of the building, which is actually just that orange spray-on insulating stuff, is covered with a print of windows and bricks trompe-l’oeil, which I think is a nice solution…
Ceci n’est pas un hôtel de ville.