Client: Public Works Canada, Veterans Affairs Canada

Services: Exterior lighting design

Location: Arras, France

Awards: Illumination Design Award, the National Capital Region of the Illuminating Engineering Society, 2009

Description:

Walter Seymour Allward's Canadian National Vimy Memorial is one of the foremost war memorials in the world. It is both metaphor and remembrance, and speaks to the sacrifice and grief of the people of Canada. Allward created an incredibly imposing structure on a height overlooking the Douai plain (Vimy Ridge). MCLD set out to turn the monument into a beacon at night, which could be seen from a great distance. We used lighting to tell the story that Allward's monument so eloquently illustrates. The lighting is never intrusive, and allows the public to participate and see the 'graces' on the two towers, the allegorical statuary and most imposing Mother Canada overlooking the battlefield, and the names of the missing and dead Canadians inscribed on the walls.