Recently installed architectural lighting has helped put a spotlight on an industrial building in Montreal.
The lighting was designed by Concept Illumination and the installation was completed by Valeco Energie Québec Inc., a renewable energy development company found on the edge of Frédérick-Back park in Montreal. Valeco Energie Québec Inc. acts as the operators of the Biomont Energy cogeneration plant in the Saint-Michel environmental complex, which recovers biogas from the former landfill site and transforms it into green energy. The designers of the lighting
The area has recently seen significant aesthetic investment from the City of Montreal in hopes of making it more appealing to residents. As a result of the City’s rejuvenation efforts, Biomont was approached with an architectural façade lighting design. The design proposal featured lighting from above of the building’s vertical blue channels with white light. This was partnered with a wash of blue light for the north-face (park-side) of the facility’s flare.
“The park used to be a quarry,” said Clément Rocher, operations manager with Valeco Energie. “When it stopped functioning as a quarry, it was used as a landfill.”
The site was converted in the ’90s by the City of Montreal. This included all domestic waste being buried and sealed, having wells installed to gather the biogas released from decomposition, and slowly modifying the area into a large recreation park. The power generated from the combustion of the biogas is converted to electricity and supplies it to 2,000 homes in the area.
While the City had already supplied the lighting concept, executing the design required creative analysis, since architectural lighting on this type of building is not common.
“The space available for the fixtures being installed on the façade was very narrow—it wasn’t easy to find a fixture small enough to fit, but also powerful enough to get the job done. The building is quite tall and certain areas were not easily accessible,” said Daniel Herz, director of sales for Concept Illumination.
New wiring was installed to power 15 compact architectural LED flood lights on the building’s north, south, and west sides. A 5,000K colour temperature was selected to accentuate the blue channels and a very narrow, 5-degree lens was used to reduce the light spill from inside the channel onto the building’s siding.
A total of fifteen existing fixtures installed above the architectural flood lights were removed and colour matched plates were installed to cover the holes left behind by the previous installations.
Underground wiring and two new concrete bases were installed and fitted with blue architectural LED flood lights to light up the flare. The 13 remaining fixtures on the façade were replaced with LED wall packs, also in 5000K, to maintain colour consistency.
The project took approximately two weeks to finish and was completed on July 21, 2023.