There's a lot of cup in finalists' designs for Stanley Cup monument
Don Butler, Ottawa Citizen
Published on: September 22, 2016 | Last Updated: September 22, 2016 8:26 PM EDT
Based on eight finalist designs unveiled Thursday, the new Ottawa monument commemorating Lord Stanley of Preston’s gift of the Stanley Cup in 1892 is certain to include a representation of … the Stanley Cup.
Who knew?
All eight designs feature a literal or stylized image of the storied cup, awarded to the team that wins the NHL playoffs each year.
Three include virtual replicas of the cup, albeit super-sized versions. Three others offer stylized representations, some barely recognizable.
Another, submitted by Toronto’s Ja Architectural Studio and New York’s Sebastian Errazuriz Studio, is a towering monolith with an elongated cut-out of the cup in its centre.
Yet another, submitted by Intégral Jean Beaudoin and Novalux Multimedia of Montreal, consists of two curved walls, reminiscent of Toronto’s city hall.
The curved walls are inscribed with the names of Stanley Cup winners, meant to evoke the cup’s ever-expanding lower section.
The monument will be erected at the Elgin Street entrance to the Sparks Street Mall. To be unveiled in December 2017, it will celebrate the 125th anniversary of Lord Stanley’s gift, the 100th anniversary of the NHL, the 150th anniversary of Confederation and the 25th anniversary of the Ottawa Senators.
All eight designs feature a literal or stylized image of the storied cup, awarded to the team that wins the National Hockey League’s seemingly endless playoffs.
The cash budget for the memorial is about $2.8 million, according to George Hunter, president of Lord Stanley’s Gift Memorial Monument Inc., the non-profit charitable organization that is sponsoring the monument.
The Department of Canadian Heritage is contributing about $2.15 million of that, with the NHL and the Ottawa Senators each putting in $250,000 and the City of Ottawa supplying the land and a $50,000 contribution.
In addition, volunteers, board members and other supporters are providing about $1.3 million in work in kind, Hunter said, including $250,000 in services from the Senators.
Hunter said a media report Thursday that potential corporate donors backed off because they couldn’t get their names on the monument was “totally incorrect. That never was the case.”
He said there was discussion with Canadian Heritage at one point about whether such recognition for corporate sponsors — normally verboten on federal monuments — might be possible.
“What we were saying to them was it would make some sense if there was some ability to recognize corporate and other sponsors,” Hunter said. “But that was a very preliminary discussion. We certainly hadn’t talked to any potential donors at that point.”
While there was interest from some corporations in participating, they eventually declined. “It was more the timing of the thing,” Hunter said. “It had nothing to do with any demand that we recognize people, or our refusal to do it.”
Models of the finalist designs, chosen from among 40 entries by a jury, will remain on display Friday in the Âjagema Gallery at the Canada Council for the Arts, 150 Elgin St. They can also be viewed on the competition website,
lordstanleysgift.com.
Members of the public are invited to email comments to
[email protected] until Oct. 7. The winning design will be announced on Oct. 25.
Here is a brief description of all eight finalist design:
Coupland/Leinster/Mills
The design presents a stylized, elongated cup tilted on a 45-degree angle. Through the use of a visual trick called foreshortening, viewers will be able to find a “sweet spot” that allows the image to be seen as the classic current cup.
Covit/Nguyen/Norr
The design is centred on a large chaliced form, monumental in scale, that evokes the original cup. It sits on a granite surface with rounded corners that resembles a rink. Thirty-nine black granite disks, each engraved with the name of a Stanley Cup finalist team, are scattered across the rink.
Intégral Jean Beaudoin + Novalux
Described as a Nordic fountain by its Montreal creators, the curved transparent walls of the monument are embedded with the names of every cup champion and will be able to accommodate future champions to the year 2109. “Water clouds” will be used to freshen and clear the walls in the summer and to create an ice film in winter.
Ja Architecture and Sebastian Errazuriz studios
The designers describe their work as an “Arch of Light” — a new and contemporary Arc de Triomphe around a silhouette of the modern cup. As sunlight passes through the silhouette, it will create an outline in light of the cup on the monument’s floor, slowly shifting into position to align with an outline of the cup cut.
Trutiak/Pellettier/vanderGaast
A 20-foot-tall stylized depiction of the cup, with a larger-than-life sculpture of Lord Stanley holding his original cup in his hands. A young boy and girl face off in front of him.
North Design Office et al
A 6.1-metre-tall stylized cup, made of polished stainless steel, with nine visible bands of varying size, representing the cup’s physical growth over the years and its current nine-part configuration of engraved segments.
SPMB/1×1 Architecture
The monument consists of 15 large hands hoisting a six-metre-long cup. The illuminated words of Lord Stanley announcing his gift of the cup appear on the sides of the cup, in both official languages. The names of all Stanley Cup winners are engraved on an adjacent black granite surface called the “Field of Champions.”
Studio West et al
Lord Stanley, depicted in bronze, hold a replica of his original cup in his right hand. A larger-than-life depiction of the modern cup is embedded in a nearby wall, just above a three-dimensional relief of cheering fans. Visitors will be able to position themselves in front of the cup so they appear to be holding it aloft in photographs.
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