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http://tmagazine.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/06/17/montreal-toasts-gaultier/

Pas tout à fait nouveau mais je le poste quand même. C'est un projet étudiant d'un jeune designer en Angleterre qui a revampé L'Alfa Romeo Montréal des années soixante. À quand la Lada Toronto? http://www.diseno-art.com/encyclopedia/concept_cars/alfa_romeo_montreal_concept.html

Un nouveau mobilier urbain au centre-ville Le Devoir Jeanne Corriveau Édition du samedi 11 et du dimanche 12 octobre 2008 Mots clés : mobilier urbain, Montréal Les accoudoirs des nouveaux bancs empêcheront de s'y installer pour dormir Un nouveau mobilier urbain fera graduellement son apparition au centre-ville de Montréal à compter du printemps prochain. Les nouveaux bancs publics, conçus par le designer Michel Dallaire, comporteront des accoudoirs qui les rendront inconfortables pour ceux qui voudraient s'y étendre pour dormir. En mai dernier, l'arrondissement de Ville-Marie avait confié à Michel Dallaire le soin de redessiner le mobilier urbain du centre-ville. Le contrat de 25 000 $ avait été octroyé sans appel d'offres. Le maire Benoit Labonté désirait que le designer donne au centre-ville «une signature particulière». Michel Dallaire a conçu des bancs et des poubelles à la fois sobres et fonctionnels qui remplaceront graduellement le mobilier actuel. L'arrondissement compte actuellement 500 bancs et plus de 800 poubelles, mais les aléas de la vie urbaine et les opérations de déneigement ont laissé des traces. L'une des particularités de ce nouveau mobilier est qu'il s'adaptera à l'inclinaison du terrain sur lequel il sera installé, et la mise à niveau sera facilitée. Pour concevoir les poubelles, Michel Dallaire a observé les cols bleus à l'oeuvre. Le modèle de poubelle qu'il a conçue est plus ergonomique et permet une économie de mouvement de 20 %, précise-t-il. Quant aux bancs, ils sont dotés d'accoudoirs positionnés, non pas aux extrémités, mais près du centre. Impossible donc de s'y installer pour dormir. Michel Dallaire soutient qu'il s'agit là d'une caractéristique qu'on retrouve également à Paris et à Toronto. «J'ai voulu que ce banc ne soit pas perçu comme un empêchement de dormir, mais plutôt qu'il donne des places à tout le monde», explique-t-il. À l'arrondissement, on se défend bien d'avoir voulu décourager les siestes. «Ce n'est pas la fonction d'un banc, de toute façon. Les accoudoirs permettent avant tout de rendre le banc plus ergonomique et confortable», soutient Jacques-Alain Lavallée, chargé de communication à l'arrondissement. Les bancs et les poubelles seront fabriqués en plastique recyclé ou en bois, et se déclineront en deux couleurs, gris et beige, a-t-on précisé à l'arrondissement. Le designer souhaitait d'ailleurs une couleur «caméléon»: «On ne veut pas polluer l'environnement. On veut que le banc soit utile quand on en a besoin. Mais quand on n'en a pas besoin, on ne veut pas qu'il nous parle toute la journée», dit-il. Les prototypes des bancs et des poubelles sont en cours de production aux Ateliers municipaux. Hier, l'arrondissement n'a pu préciser combien coûtera au total cette opération de rajeunissement du mobilier. http://www.ledevoir.com/2008/10/11/210268.html (11/10/2008 00H36)

On parle ici d'une maison à Westmount, qui est qualifiée de "Number one home in Canada" dans un article du Architectural Digest. Je vous en recommande fortement la lecture. L'article dans Architectural Digest. La firme d'architectes: http://www.ericjsmitharchitect.com Designer d'intérieurs: http://www.davideastoninc.com/

Hi! I hope this post is not miscategorized. Since I moved to Montreal I have been looking forward to seen these old garbage cans replaced: They are too small, break easily, are always leaking, and most of them have lots of garbage under them which looks really bad (I don't even know how it gets there though I have a few theories). Anyway, in 2007 I found out that Michel Dallaire (the BIXI industrial designer) was to design new benches and garbage cans for downtown: http://www.ledevoir.com/2007/12/17/168881.html In 2008, renderings of the new designs appeared on his website: http://www.dallairedesign.com/flash/index.html And after that nothing happened. Is there any way to know what happened to this? Are they ever going to be replaced?

Can Richard Baker reinvent The Bay? MARINA STRAUSS From Monday's Globe and Mail NEW YORK — Richard Baker, the new owner of retailer Hudson's Bay Co.,mingled with the New York fashion elite as the lights dimmed for designer Peter Som's recent show, offering opinions and taking a close look at the latest in skirts and dresses. It's a stark contrast to previous HBC owner Jerry Zucker, who HBC insiders had a hard time picturing with fashionistas in New York. But Mr. Baker, who made his name in real estate, knows it is time for a new approach at the struggling retailer. “As an entrepreneur I'm not necessarily fixated on how things were done in the past,” says Mr. Baker. “We function and we think much more like a specialty retailer rather than a department store retailer. A specialty retailer is much more nimble and willing to adjust to the environment than department stores, historically. Department stores, frankly, haven't changed a whole lot in 100 years.” His Purchase, N.Y.-based equity firm, NRDC Equity Partners, has snapped up a string of dusty retailers, among them HBC's underperforming Bay and Zellers. The Bay operates in the department store sector which is on the wane, squeezed for years by specialty and discount chains. Zellers struggles in a low-priced arena dominated by behemoth Wal-Mart Canada Corp. The need for a makeover is clear: The Bay's sales per square foot are estimated at merely $142, and Zellers', $149 – a fraction of the estimated $480 at Wal-Mart Canada. At Lord & Taylor, which also lags some of its key U.S. rivals in productivity, Mr. Baker has had some success in its efforts to return to its high end Americana roots. But the 47-store chain is feeling the pinch of tight-fisted consumers and, late last month, he unveiled a shakeup at the top ranks of his firm's $8-billion (U.S.) a year retail businesses to try to shave costs. Still, he is pouring money into the chains in other ways, quickly distinguishing himself from Mr. Zucker, who died last spring. While the former owner had named himself CEO despite his lack of merchandising experience, the new owner has handpicked a team of seasoned merchants at the senior levels of his retailers. And while Mr. Zucker shunned publicity and focused on more mundane, although critical, matters, such as technology to track customer demand, Mr. Baker enjoys the limelight. Now he is betting on the fragile fashion sector as an engine of growth. Last fall he set up Creative Design Studios (CDS) to develop designer lines for Lord & Taylor, now, HBC and, eventually, retailers around the world. Mr. Baker is “looking at every one of the properties with a different viewpoint,” says Walter Loeb, a former member of HBC's board of directors and a consultant at Loeb Associates in New York. “He has new ideas. He doesn't want to keep Hudson's Bay in its present form.” Nevertheless, “this team has taken over a not particularly healthy business,” says Marvin Traub, a former executive at Bloomingdale's who runs consultancy Marvin Traub Associates in New York. “They know and understand the challenges. It will take some time to fix them.” What Mr. Baker looks for in retailers is faded brands that have the potential to be revived. Early this year, NRDC acquired Fortunoff, an insolvent jewellery and home décor chain. The synergies among NRDC's various retailers are tremendous, says Gilbert Harrison, chairman of New York investment bank Financo Inc., which advises Mr. Baker. So is the value of the real estate. At HBC, it is estimated to be worth $1.2-billion, according to industry insiders. That's just a little more than the equivalent purchase price of the retailer itself. Lord & Taylor's real estate was valued at $1.7-billion (U.S.) when Mr. Baker acquired the company in 2006 – about $500-million more than he bought it for. “Initially I thought, good luck,” says Mr. Gilbert. “He's bought this in one of the most difficult retail environments that we've seen for 20 or 30 years. … “But he's protected his downside because the basic real estate values of Lord & Taylor and, now Hudson's Bay, certainly help prevent tragedy.” Mr. Baker likes to tell the story of buying Lord & Taylor for its real estate, and then on the way to signing the deal noticed how well the stores were performing. Like most other U.S. retailers, Lord & Taylor has seen business slow down recently. But its transformation to appeal to the well heeled had begun even before Mr. Baker arrived. It had dropped an array of tired brands, such as Tommy Hilfiger and Nautica, and picked up trendier labels, among them Coach and Tracy Reese. Mr. Baker encouraged the strategy of expanding and upgrading higher margin designer handbags and footwear. Ditto for denim wear and funky styles in the women's “contemporary” section under hot labels such as Free People and Diesel. “My job is to understand that we need to get the best brands in the store.” But he also saw the opportunity to bolster margins by stocking affordable lines in the form of CDS brands, with a focus now on Black Brown 1826 men's wear line. “I thought there was a void in the market for exactly the kind of clothes that my friends and I wear, at a right price. Why should we pay $150 for a dress shirt?” he asks, holding up one for $69. Now Mr. Baker wants to borrow a leaf from the Lord & Taylor playbook for HBC. He wants to introduce better quality products with higher margins, and plans to add his design studio merchandise to the stores early next year. Besides the details, he sees a whole new concept for the big Bay department stores. It would entail shrinking the Bay, possibly introducing Lord & Taylor within the stores, and adding Zellers in the basement and Fortunoff jewellery departments upstairs, with office space at the top. Lord & Taylor would serve to fill a gap in the retail landscape between the Bay and carriage trade Holt Renfrew, he says. For discounter Zellers, he seems to take inspiration from Target Corp., the fashionable U.S. discounter, by putting more focus on branded apparel. But he's not averse to selling parts of the business, or real estate, if the right offer came along either. “We're always available to sell things at the right price, or buy things at the right price.”

Montréal - Cool with a French accent 4 June 2008 Lewis might be driving this weekend in Montreal - but what does the city have to offer for a weekend break? Forget the “Paris of North America” cliché — Montréal, QC has always sashayed to its own unique Latin beat. Roaring back to life after more than a decade of economic woes and separatist turmoil, the 21st century has seen the city’s distinctly Québécois melange of the traditional and the hip blossom. There are buzzy new bohemian enclaves. The fashion, food and music scenes are on fire. Chic boutique hotels have upped the romantic ante. What hasn’t changed is Montréalers’ focus on leisure and their penchant for long afternoons and evenings over wine or coffee. Sound like a population hankering for endless weekends? Mais oui! Summer’s the time to visit, when the city is unleashed from a long winter and shifts into overdrive with a frenzied outdoor itinerary. Downtown sidewalks are crowded till the wee hours as the annual Festival International de Jazz de Montréal (montrealjazzfest.com) spills free jazz onto the sweltering pavements, and Just for Laughs, the world’s biggest comedy festival, lets you yuk it up in both official languages (justforlaughs.ca). Add a side trip to Québec City, celebrating its 400th anniversary with great fanfare throughout 2008. Celine Dion is scheduled to be there, as well as Cirque du Soleil. And the world’s biggest outdoor multimedia architectural projection — dreamed up by Robert Lepage and Ex Machina — will be splashed across giant grain elevators nightly at the Old Port. myquebec2008.com But back to Montréal. Start your weekend with a bowl of café au lait and a croissant or a bagel with cream cheese and lox — Montréal’s cross-cultural breakfast specialties — on an outdoor terrace while you make your plan.In Montréal, it’s all about neighbourhoods, and each has its own distinct character. Pick a boulevard, pick a theme (traditional, hip, funky, chic, ritzy, sporty, gay), then explore the collage of villages that make up Canada’s second-largest city. Old Montréal Ignore the touristy overtones and head for the gas lamps and classic cornices of Old Montréal. It’s a cobblestoned warren of tiny galleries and boutiques. Get your history at the stylish Pointe-à-Callière Museum of archaeology and history perched atop the original settlement’s ruins: 350 Place Royale, pacmusee.qc.ca. Linger outdoors to enjoy the buskers and painters or head indoors for wearable art at the eclectic Reborn: 231 rue Saint-Paul West, reborn.ws. A fave for casual lunch is Olive et Gourmando, an inspired deli/bakery gone affordably gourmet: 351 rue Saint-Paul West, oliveetgourmando.com. St. Denis Montréal is a walking town in the true European sense, and the best stroll is down French-flavoured rue Saint-Denis. Eavesdrop on the locals’ twangy, slangy peppered-with-English lingo at the very Left Bank L’Express over steak frites or duck confit salad: 3927 rue Saint-Denis. Shop at hip Dubuc, HQ for Montréal’s high-profile men’s and women’s wear designer, Philippe Dubuc: 4451 rue Saint-Denis, dubucstyle.com; or hunt the latest French styles at bargain prices at Paris Pas Cher: 4235 rue Saint-Denis. Arthur Quentin’s is the mother of all lavish French kitchenware stores: 3960 rue Saint-Denis, arthurquentin.com; and Bleu Nuit across the street stocks decadent bedroom and kitchen linens from France: 3913 rue Saint-Denis. Plateau Pub crawl through the fashionable Plateau District by following Mont-Royal Boulevard. Start at Billy Kun, with live music from classical to jazz, in an unpretentious “tavern chic” environment that includes stuffed ostrich heads mounted on the walls: 354 Mont-Royal East, bilykun.com. Dine at one of the city’s popular BYOB (bring your own wine) neighbourhood bistros; for example, intimate La Colombe, where chef Moustapha cooks up a fabulous French chalkboard table d’hote menu with influences from his native North Africa: 554 Duluth East. St. Laurent Boulevard/Mile End Funky Saint-Laurent Boulevard is the city’s east/west, French/English divide. This busy lifeline between Chinatown and Little Italy is a jumble of Old World and edgy side by side. It runs north into once-decrepit real estate undergoing a renaissance called Mile End, a vaguely defined area of everything from retro furniture to local designer boutiques. Wallpaper magazine recently dubbed it Montréal’s hottest neighbourhood. The Ex-Centris theatre is a hotbed of Indie film screenings where ticket agents’ heads are surreally projected onto video screens: 3536 boulevard Saint Laurent, ex-centris.com. Casa del Popolo is a vegetarian café that morphs into an indie music Mecca at night: 4873 boulevard Saint-Laurent, casadelpopolo.com. Then there’s down-to-earth Schwartz’s Montreal Hebrew Delicatessen, the high temple for lined-up devotees of Montréal smoked meat: 3895 boulevard Saint-Laurent, schwartzsdeli.com. Old Port/Lachine Canal Want to burn off all those foie gras and crème brulée calories? Rent a bike at the Old Port at Montréal on Wheels: 27 de la Commune East, caroulemontreal.com. Follow the leafy bike path along the Lachine Canal that has gone from gritty-industrial hub to red-brick, factory-loft-lined park. Pass the geodesic dome and block-shaped Habitat 67, vestiges of Montréal’s Expo 67, and watch for one of the city’s best farmer’s markets, the 1930s Atwater Market, where you can pick up a baguette and cheese for a canal-side picnic. Overnighting: Old Montréal has, in recent years, become the city’s hotspot of boutique hotels with some of the most original accoms in town. Hotel Nelligan 106 Saint-Paul West, hotelnelligan.com. The classic feel of Old Montréal lingers in the very modern, brick-wall, loft-style rooms, each unique. Hôtel Gault 449 Sainte-Hélène, hotelgault.com. Minimalist, spacious and very de rigeur. Concrete and modern designer furniture make this a hipster magnet. Le Petit Prince 1384 Overdale, montrealbandb.com. A B&B with quirky style in a renovated house, each room colour themed. Funky and different with a great breakfast included. Dining: Le Club Chasse et Pêche: 423 Saint-Claude, leclubchasseetpeche.com. High-end French cuisine, one of the city’s best in what The New York Times called a “Gothic-minimalist hunting lodge.” Toqué: 900 place Jean-Paul-Riopelle, restaurant-toque.com. Chef Normand Laprise has become a Montréal icon thanks to his market-based contemporary cuisine. Au Pied de Cochon: 536 Duluth East, restaurantaupieddecochon.ca. Hardcore Québécois cuisine from pigs’ feet to poutine, taken upmarket by renegade chef Martin Picard. For more information on Montreal, go to Canada.travel. http://www.easier.com/view/Travel/Travel_Guides/article-182940.html

Je ne dit pas qu'elle a tort necessairement, mais bon, ils chialent pour des pistes cyclables et des support a velos, ils les ont, mais trouvent pareil le moyen de critiquer... ------------------ Où est le design? Gros, gris et laids. Ce sont les trois mots qui décrivent le mieux les nouveaux supports à vélos installés un peu partout dans l'arrondissement de Ville-Marie. On en trouve par exemple face à l'édifice de la Banque Nationale, place d'Armes, rue Saint-Paul, à l'angle de la rue Saint-Sulpice (notre photo) ainsi qu'à l'angle des rues Sainte-Catherine et Labelle. Au total, l'arrondissement en installera 119, au coût total de 80 000$. Le problème, c'est que ces supports à vélos sont affreux. Leur laideur est d'autant plus frappante dans le Vieux-Montréal, un environnement où les rues étroites et les édifices patrimoniaux forment un véritable écrin. On se serait attendu à un objet utilitaire au design plus recherché, en harmonie avec son environnement. On se retrouve avec ces affreuses structures grises sans aucune originalité. Il est pourtant possible de concevoir un mobilier urbain à la fois utilitaire et design. La preuve: à quelques mètres du Vieux-Montréal, dans le Quartier international qui, soit dit en passant, fait partie du même arrondissement, on trouve un mobilier urbain sobre et chic signé Michel Dallaire, le designer industriel québécois de renommée internationale. C'est d'ailleurs à lui que Stationnement de Montréal a confié le design des supports à vélos fixés aux tiges des panonceaux sur lesquels sont inscrits les numéros de stationnement de rue. Et c'est ce même designer qui travaille actuellement sur le modèle de vélo libre-service qui sera proposé dans l'île de Montréal l'an prochain. Pourquoi ne pas avoir fait appel à ses services une fois de plus? Ou à ceux d'un autre designer reconnu? La Ville de Montréal se targue d'être une ville de design. Même l'UNESCO lui a attribué ce titre. Pourtant, Montréal n'a pas le «réflexe design». Si elle l'avait eu, elle aurait proposé un choix de quelques modèles, harmonisés, à chacun de ses arrondissements. À l'heure actuelle, chaque arrondissement peut installer le support de son choix sans que la Ville n'ait son mot à dire. Résultat: un beau bordel visuel. Montréal s'est doté d'un bureau de design pour veiller à ce genre de détails. Où est-il quand on a besoin de lui? source: http://www.cyberpresse.ca/article/20080527/CPOPINIONS03/805270885/6760/CPOPINIONS03