Granite plazas and concert halls east of downtown, and the metro station a John Wick sequel lit as a New York subway.
What Quartier des Spectacles looks like
fills the centre of the district, granite walkways around a fountain with 235 in ground water jets, four light towers and a grassy slope down to two glass walled restaurants. Sainte-Catherine Street West runs through as the main east to west route, with close by at the district's edge.
' Theatre Building is clad in about 600 prefabricated white concrete panels from 1967, some of them weighing up to nine tonnes. Its 2,100 seat concert hall dates from 2011. The Musee d'art contemporain de Montreal sits in the same complex.
The stands nearby, six storeys of yellow brick, Indiana limestone and Montreal greystone from 1913. Artist studios and galleries fill the floors behind its Sainte-Catherine Street West facade, and polished green granite lines its entrance from a 1958 renovation.
The district runs from City Councillors Street to Berri Street, about one square kilometre including the Latin Quarter, with Sherbrooke Street to the north. , a small square beside the Maison symphonique, has grass and paved paths between Saint-Laurent and Saint-Urbain streets. The district connects underground into Montreal's pedestrian network.
Shot in Quartier des Spectacles
For the second John Wick film, the production filmed the Place-des-Arts metro platform for a scene set in a New York subway. The illuminated advertising panels along the platform wall stand in for the ones John Wick would find on the real New York system.
John Wick: Chapter 2, 2017
Played a New York subway platform, New York City, present day
Wick is attacked by strangers answering an open contract on his life, and the fight plays out beside the illuminated panels on the platform wall. The station stands in for a New York subway platform, and the panels themselves carry the scene rather than any redressing of the platform. Street View
What Quartier des Spectacles can double for
Barbican Centre in London, England
The Theatre Building's ribbed white concrete panels give Place des Arts a Brutalist scale close to the Barbican Centre's own raised walkways and concert halls. Both were built as arts complexes with a matching palette of exposed concrete and glass. The Barbican's brick towers and lake terraces are taller and greener than Montreal's plaza, so a tight frame on the concrete panels holds the match best. Try searching brutalist concrete concert hall now.
Exchange District in Winnipeg, Manitoba
The Belgo Building's yellow brick, limestone and greystone front is close in scale and material to the warehouse fronts of Winnipeg's Exchange District, most of them built in the same decades. Ground floor galleries and studios behind old display windows give both a similar mix of commerce and art. Winnipeg's streets are wider and its cornices heavier, so a straight on frame on a single storefront holds the closer match. Try searching yellow brick warehouse front now.
Place des Festivals' granite plaza and reflecting fountain share a scale with Nathan Phillips Square, another civic plaza built for public gatherings and free concerts. Both can hold a stage and a crowd within a hard paved square. Toronto's curved City Hall towers are a giveaway in any wide shot, so frame tight on the paving and fountain to avoid them. Try searching civic plaza with fountain now.
