The iconic artwork “Les Boules du Village” is to set to return to Montreal’s Village, the City announced Thursday.
The City says work to install the artwork over Sainte-Catherine Street East as part of its efforts to revitalize the neighbourhood will begin in the fall of 2027.
Designed by Claude Cormier, the piece containing hundreds of thousands of multi-coloured plastic balls in garlands hanging over the street — along one-kilometre stretch between Berri and Papineau streets — had become a fixture of the Village in the summers from 2011 to 2019.
“The return of the Boules du Village breathes new life into a deeply beloved symbol, closely tied to the identity of the Village and the 2SLGBTQIA+ community,” said Montreal Mayor Soraya Martinez Ferrada, making the announcement during Pride week in Montreal.
The contract for the art installation is expected to be awarded by the end of the month.
Yannick Roberge, studio director of design at CCxA — a landscape, architecture and design firm founded by Cormier — says the artwork was originally taken down at the artist’s request in 2019 to give another designer the opportunity to create something new for the Village. However, since no other installation has taken its place and demand for its return has grown, CCxA has decided to take on the project.
“I think it was a great opportunity to rethink the installation in terms of infrastructure and how it could be installed every year, because it’s a temporary installation so it was not made to withstand test of time,” Roberge said. “We did it for ten years, but now we’re going to have an infrastructure that will allow us to reinstall it every year without complication, and it’s just a fantastic installation.”
The City says the Village revitalization project includes several improvements to Sainte-Catherine St. E., such as concrete pavement, the planting of 270 trees to increase green cover, the addition of 300 seating fixtures, as well as an overhaul of the underground water and sewer lines.
“With a greener, adaptable redevelopment designed to foster commercial vitality year-round, we are giving the Village the winning conditions to realize its full potential and continue to put Montreal on the map,” Martinez Ferrada added.
“With this major project, we are investing in Sainte-Catherine Street East to create attractive public spaces that contribute to economic vitality, encourage social interaction, and highlight the Village’s distinctive character,” added Claude Pinard, chair of Montreal’s executive committee and councillor for the Saint-Jacques district.
SDC du Village, the association representing over 250 businesses in the neighbourhood, welcomed the announcement.
“Les Boules have become a globally recognized landmark, a symbol of creativity, hospitality, and pride for our communities,” said Gabrielle Rondy, executive director of the SDC du Village.
“Their return sends a powerful message: the Village’s identity is not a minor detail of the project — it is an essential component.”
Also part of the announcement was a plan for the year round pedestrianization of Sainte-Catherine St. E. between Berri and Papineau streets, but the City has not yet fully committed to this project.
“The objective is to make it at the end of that road to have a pedestrian street all year round,” said Martinez Ferrada during the press conference. “If we can get it there, absolutely that’s what we want, but I don’t want to have a pedestrian street where the merchants don’t want to have it because they don’t know and have no guarantee that there will be people coming in the month of January when it’s -20.”
Rondy says that the SDC du Village also wishes to make year-long pedestrianization a priority.
“We want to work with everybody to make sure we have all year long programming out in the street, but the City has listened to us. If the City is not able financially to support an all year long pedestrianization, we’ll go step by step to make sure it’s our goal.”
The work on the revitalization project is scheduled to begin next fall and continue through 2030.
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