After an 8-year-long restoration of Montreal’s Viger Square, home to pergolas by Quebec-based artist Charles Daudelin and a historic monument that pays tribute to 19th-century Canadian physician Jean-Olivier Chénier, the accessible public space is now open for guests. With an additional 50 trees, two fountains and plenty of perennial plants that can withstand four seasons, the area is set up as a metaphorical stage with a light scheme to highlight park elements as if they were actors in a theater production. Brought into the project by landscape architects NIPPAYSAGE, design firm Lightemotion aimed to create a fresh take on park lighting: an evolving, sensory experience that avoided the appearance of a flat landscape and provided wayfinding as well as a new presence in the city’s nighttime skyline.
The updated system additionally captures shadow patterns of branches and leaves as they develop through the four seasons.
Photo: Charles Masse