Claude Cormier, 63
Claude Cormier, who designed the ring on Place Ville‑Marie and the pink baubles that used to hang over the Village, has died. He was 63.
Cormier also redesigned Dorchester Square and came up with the lipstick pink forest in the Palais des Congrès.
Update: A eulogy from Toula Drimonis.
orr 14:37 on 2023-09-15 Permalink
Montreal is a city with large amount of top quality public art and also that ring.
carswell 18:33 on 2023-09-15 Permalink
A video tour of his home has been posted on Agora Mtl. Odd, challenging and not a place I expect I’d feel particularly comfortable in (which he implies is part of the point) but also kind of wonderful.
Though I won’t entirely spoil the surprise, the house has a fixture that I’ve often wondered why so few homes have and that he says is a must: a urinal.
https://youtu.be/wMfcZsg87wU?si=uxrJZ9QeVGm7REA-
Spi 19:05 on 2023-09-15 Permalink
The topic has come up in conversation a few times, and every women that has heard the idea is violently opposed to there being a urinal in their home so that’s part of the explanation you’re looking for.
EmilyG 19:17 on 2023-09-15 Permalink
I hadn’t heard of him before, but I’ve enjoyed the pink balls and the giant ring.
JP 19:30 on 2023-09-15 Permalink
I really like the lipstick pink forest & pink balls. Don’t care much for the ring but lots of other people seem to like it based on what I observe when passing by.
EmilyG 19:46 on 2023-09-15 Permalink
I really like the ring, but I understand not everybody does.
Ian 20:28 on 2023-09-15 Permalink
I think every city should have a gigantic cock ring.
Uatu 10:01 on 2023-09-16 Permalink
I think it’s great we have a Stargate in the middle of downtown
Kate 19:59 on 2023-09-16 Permalink
> that he says is a must: a urinal
I wouldn’t find any use for one, but I do envy the Japanese bathtub. I’ve wanted one ever since seeing My Neighbour Totoro.
Aineko Marcx 00:49 on 2023-09-17 Permalink
If the big ring was just fixed into some other generican urban concrete forest then it would be an epitome of kitsch. But the Mont Royal inside that ring totally elevated it from the potential tacky plane.
JaneyB 07:48 on 2023-09-17 Permalink
I love that pink forest in the Palais. I enjoy the stargate ring more than I thought I would, especially when looking through it toward the mountain. We have delightful public art here in this city.
MarcG 09:09 on 2023-09-17 Permalink
Smelling urinal cakes while sleeping (it’s on the wall next to his bed?) definitely isn’t on my must-have reno list.
carswell 19:05 on 2023-09-17 Permalink
No, women don’t have a use for a urinal. But men do. And if women who are opposed to them thought a little about it, they might conclude they’re not such a bad idea.
A friend once pointed out that a man standing with his fly open or pants down in front of a toilet isn’t peeing in the can but hoping to. For various reasons, the best intentions can go wrong and the pee doesn’t always end up in the intended destination. And even when it does, splashing occurs, with drops making it out of the toilet and onto the surroundings, including the man’s legs. Most of that is eliminated with a well-designed urinal. Plus having a urinal virtually eliminates two of women’s long-standing gripes about men: toilet seats being left up and drops on the seat when it’s left down.
While I wouldn’t want a bedside urinal, that would be for aesthetic reasons, not out of concern for cakes or smells. These days, cakes are viewed as sources of unnecessary pollution and modern, self-flushing urinals are designed not to need them. Case in point: none of the urinals, many of them heavily used, at the very busy CEPSUM have cakes and I’ve never noticed a smell, even in the smaller, less well-ventilated restrooms.
jeather 10:47 on 2023-09-18 Permalink
If you want to add a urinal to the bathroom, whatever, go with god. But I would figure out how to drown anyone who put a urinal in my bedroom in said urinal.
CE 12:32 on 2023-09-18 Permalink
I think it’s going to take a while to fully appreciate the affect that Claude Cormier has had on the urban landscape of Montreal (as well as Toronto). Some of the best public spaces built in the 21st Century were designed by him and his team. (Place d’Youville is probably the most representative of his style and, I think, some of his best work). Take a look at the projects he’s done around the city, you’ll likely be surprised by how much he’s done.
https://ccxa.ca/projet/