Since 1962 Place Ville Marie has been downtown Montreal’s tallest office and shopping complex and a veritable hub of urban life. Its opening shifted the whole centre of business life to the area. But over time this impressive tower lost its shine as residents and tourists alike were increasingly drawn to nearby St. Catherine St. and local shopping centers like the Eaton Centre and Place Montréal Trust. Our challenge was to rethink a Montreal institution. The idea was to dress up Place Ville Marie, beautifying it and emphasizing its architecture to get people to look beyond its function as an office tower with a mall and appreciate its overall architectural aesthetic.
The adventure started in 2009 with a rebranding exercise deployed through new signage and a daringly revamped look for the building. BBR recommended that Place Ville Marie adopt red as its official colour to create a sense of destination. In addition to being an effective branding tool, red had a strong symbolic value. After all, what better than a building named by none other than Jean Drapeau in honour of the original French name of the city to adopt the city’s official color as its own?
