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All Canada Québec Montreal Canadian Centre for Architecture Sculpture Garden

Canadian Centre for Architecture Sculpture Garden

This hidden park hosts a rogue’s gallery of eccentric architectural obelisks.

Montreal, Québec

Added By
Matthew Hollett
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“The Temple-Silo” and several other allegorical columns.   matthewhollett / Atlas Obscura User
“The Obelisk-Chimney” allegorical column.   matthewhollett / Atlas Obscura User
“The Houses” allegorical column.   matthewhollett / Atlas Obscura User
A motley collection of columns.   matthewhollett / Atlas Obscura User
Walking through the sculpture garden.   matthewhollett / Atlas Obscura User
  Runawaydc / Atlas Obscura User
The garden is well-used by Montrealers.   matthewhollett / Atlas Obscura User
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A gleaming metal chair dangles precariously over an expressway. The ghost of a Montreal row house sticks out its staircase like a tongue. A solemn Roman temple balances on a narrow pedestal, as if riding a unicycle. Welcome to the Canadian Centre for Architecture’s sculpture garden, a constructivist circus rendered in concrete, copper, and steel.

Boxed in by access ramps and the Ville-Marie Expressway, the small park is carefully landscaped to guide visitors up its gentle slope. Its low walls trace the boundaries of long-gone farms that once occupied the site. A large concrete facade mirrors the base of Shaughnessy House, a historic mansion that is part of the CCA premises across the street.

At the top of the park, sculptures parade along the skyline as if on stilts. A mishmash of materials, shapes and styles, they’re an architect’s sketchbook brought to life—conceptual, anachronistic, and a little ludicrous. The park overlooks the formerly industrial neighborhood of Saint-Henri, and the sculptures and their plinths playfully echo the factory chimneys, grain elevators, and church spires below. One even features a building sitting in a chair, gazing out over the city.

The sculpture garden was designed by Montreal artist-architect Melvin Charney, who spent 10 years fine-tuning its transformation from a traffic island into a park. It opened in 1990. Charney called his creations “allegorical columns,” and saw them as a synthesis of architecture, landscape, and sculpture. “The chairs in the garden are set in the sky,” he wrote, “for the comfort of the imagination.” With names such as “The Obelisk-Chimney” and “The Temple-Silo,” they reference the ever-changing cityscape and architectural legacy of Montreal.

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Sculptures Sculpture Gardens Parks Architecture

Know Before You Go

This public park is located on the Ernest-Cormier Esplanade, on the south side of René Lévesque Boulevard between du Fort and Saint-Marc. The nearest metro is Georges-Vanier. The sculpture garden is associated with the Canadian Centre for Architecture across the street, but you don’t need to pay admission to visit the park. The CCA is a research institute as well as a museum, and has an exceptionally well-curated bookstore.

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matthewhollett

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Runawaydc

  • Runawaydc

Published

October 22, 2019

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Sources
  • https://artpublicmontreal.ca/en/oeuvre/allegorical-columns-of-the-cca-garden/
  • https://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/chair-crowns-montreal-sculpture-garden/article767541/
  • http://www.siteandinsight.com/melvin-charneys-garden-in-the-city/
Canadian Centre for Architecture Sculpture Garden
Montreal, Québec, H3H
Canada
45.49024, -73.577694

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