10:38 on 2012/07/20 Reply  

• Bill Binns 12:13 on 2012/07/20 Permalink

  I was just out there a couple of weeks ago looking for a way in to shoot photos. The place is a ruin. I was trying to imagine Princess Grace sitting in those stands and couldn’t quite do it.

• Kate 14:45 on 2012/07/20 Permalink

  I slipped inside two years ago and did some photos – here’s one:

  

  Certainly some of the concrete needed repair – what concrete of that age doesn’t? – but I didn’t feel at any risk walking around, climbing up the stands and so on. At that point it was circled outside by city barriers but nothing was being stored inside it.

• Taylor C. Noakes 15:43 on 2012/07/20 Permalink

  @kate

  The Big O may need to have it’s roof removed for such an event, and perhaps it requires some major repairs, but there’s no way it’s structurally unsound (if that were the case, the insurance and liability issues would have forced a full demolition years ago, not to mention forced the permanent closure of the Métro stations and subway line underneath). It’s still in use, which suggests to me that it’s safe and sound. That said, if I were mayor (and I’m running next year) you better believe I’d have a team of forensic engineers and architects combing over the place checking every nook and cranny, and repairing whatever needs it.

  As for the Olympic Village, okay, another building to build unless we worked out an arrangement with an existing hotel, which would be my prefered choice. Should a new building be required, well, may as well make it an icon. Hire a top-flight, local architectural firm and build something guaranteed to sell afterwards. Place it ever so slightly closer to the city and be damned sure that it’s designed for Montreal’s climate, not Marseilles.

  As for the requisite graft, well, fuck em.

  Corruption screws more people out of money than it makes for those involved. Doing things with an aim to be as efficient as possible (and to make as much money as possible for the city) will win over the citizens, the small business owners and even a number of larger interested partners.

  Sides, by the time it comes to fruition, Tony Arcuso will be lunching with Mom Boucher in Ste-Anne-des-Plaines.

  And I’m the man to make this happen. I have no money, owe no favours, and know absolutely no one in the construction industry.

  Where there’s a will, there’s most certainly a way.

  I’m sick of the “we’ll never dig ourselves out of this rut” mentality of most modern Montrealers. The time has come to dream and build again.

• Kate 15:44 on 2012/07/20 Permalink

  Taylor, I think this comment belongs with the post directly below this one. I have no mechanism for moving it.

• Zepmansam 22:54 on 2012/11/13 Permalink

  Place des Nations hosted some wonderful open air concerts back in the day too.
  Vanilla Fudge, Youngbloods, Guess Who, Chicago, Charlebois and many, many more
  served up great music in a beautiful ambient setting.

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