Entering the hall of this convention center with its facade of popsicle-colored panes is akin to strolling through a kaleidoscope. Day brings out the colors, night the transparency. The exhibition center integrates several historic buildings: a 1908 fire station, the art-deco Tramways building from 1928 and a Victorian-era office complex. Immediately east of the Palais lies a landscaped garden with stone pathways linking 31 heaps of earth, each topped off with Montréal’s official tree, the crab apple.
During warmer weather you might catch public design installations such as painted pianos. Otherwise ponder the 52 permanent pink tree sculptures of surreal Lipstick Forest by Québec landscape architect Claude Cormier – meant to represent the harmony of nature and city.
