Landmark legacy

From architecture to fashion, the cultural heart of Quebec is a touchstone in design

May 03, 2009|Jane Roy Brown, Globe Correspondent

MONTREAL - In the province of Quebec, it was known as the "Quiet Revolution": In the early 1960s, a liberal political regime broke with the Catholic Church, releasing a torrent of fresh ideas. The wave of creative energy crested in Montreal, Quebec's most cosmopolitan city, where a progressive mayor revitalized the arts. By the time Montreal hosted the 1967 World's Fair, the revolution had literally reshaped the city. And it has never looked back.

Architectural landmarks from Expo 67, as it was commonly known, still stand, as does the avant-garde stadium from the 1976 Summer Olympics, all put to new uses. Other innovations from the Expo days, such as the "underground city" linked to the Metro subway system, are going strong. But the most lasting legacy of the Quiet Revolution may be the city's reputation as a design capital, not only in architecture, but also in landscape architecture, fashion, and industrial design - prompting the United Nations to dub it one of the world's three UNESCO Cities of Design in 2006. Where else in North America would a fashion runway cut through an underground food court?

May finds Montreal in full flower, design-wise, opening with this weekend's Design Montreal Open House, followed by the Environmental Design Exhibition at the University of Quebec, Montreal, and, at the end of the month, Art Deco Montreal, the 10th World Congress on Art Deco.

May is also the 40th anniversary of John Lennon and Yoko Ono's Bed-in for Peace (May 26-June 2, 1969) at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel, where the newlyweds composed "Give Peace a Chance." In honor of the event, which followed the couple's first bed-in, in Amsterdam, the hotel (now the Fairmont Queen Elizabeth) is offering an "Imagine" package in the Lennon-Ono suite that includes breakfast in bed. "Imagine" is also the title of an exhibition at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, which features photos of the couple, their artwork, and footage from the turbulent decade.

Thanks to the efficient Metro and a navigable city layout, visitors can conduct self-guided tours of design landmarks, including the futuristic structures left after Expo 67. The US pavilion - a 250-foot-wide, 200-foot-high geodesic dome designed by Buckminster Fuller - is stunning in its ethereal perfection. It now encloses the Environment Museum, an industrial-looking structure with cantilevered wings by architect Éric Gauthier. Renamed the Biosphère, the complex from afar looks like a bubble of smoke with a space station inside.

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