In Memoriam: Claude Cormier
9/17/2023Leave a Comment
Love Park, Toronto / CCxA
CCxA Landscape Architecture and Urban Design posted a tribute to its founder Claude Cormier, FASLA:
"Claude Cormier, landscape architect emeritus, died at his Montreal, Quebec, on 15 September 2023. He was 63. The cause of death was complications from Li-Fraumeni Syndrome, a rare genetic condition that predisposes carriers to multiple cancers.
He is the creative force behind many of Montreal and Toronto's best-loved public squares and urban parks — some of the most joyful and critically acclaimed in Canada, such as Place D'Youville and Dorchester Square, the Pink Balls and their 18 Shades of Gay, Clock Tower Beach, the Ring at Place Ville Marie, HtO Urban Beach, Sugar Beach, Berczy Park, Love Park, and many others. His career began in the early 1990s with landscape art installations that shattered the conventions of landscape design in Canada and with projects that deployed strong design narratives, the techniques of conceptual art, abstraction, and the bold use of color.
18 Shades of Gay, Montreal, Canada / Jean Michael Seminaro, courtesy of CCxA
Sugar Beach, Toronto, Canada / Industryous, courtesy of CCxA
A great lover of the city, of culture, and of art, Claude truly blazed a new trail in landscape architecture with poetic, inspiring, and uplifting work that challenged the modernist orthodoxy of public space, all the while remaining practical and appreciated in a popular context. He invited people to laugh, to come together, to see things differently.
Over the years, Claude has been invited worldwide to present dozens of lectures featuring the firm’s work and design approach. Driven by the desire to give back as he himself had benefited from the generosity of others in his early career, Claude bestowed a major gift in 2020 — the Claude Cormier Award in Landscape Architecture — to the University of Toronto to support creative excellence and bolster landscape architecture recognition.
A major retrospective entitled Serious Fun: The Landscapes of Claude Cormier by Marc Treib and Susan Herrington, was published in 2021, highlighting the importance and uniqueness of his work. The recent renaming of his firm of 15 professionals to CCxA marked the passing of the torch to his long-standing collaborators — Sophie Beaudoin, Marc Hallé, Guillaume Paradis, and Yannick Roberge — committed to perpetuate a unique approach at the crossroads of design and art, nature and artifice.
The CCxA team extends its thoughts and support to his family and many friends."
The Cultural Landscape Foundation (TCLF) also published a tribute to Cormier.
"Claude Cormier, landscape architect emeritus, died at his Montreal, Quebec, on 15 September 2023. He was 63. The cause of death was complications from Li-Fraumeni Syndrome, a rare genetic condition that predisposes carriers to multiple cancers.
He is the creative force behind many of Montreal and Toronto's best-loved public squares and urban parks — some of the most joyful and critically acclaimed in Canada, such as Place D'Youville and Dorchester Square, the Pink Balls and their 18 Shades of Gay, Clock Tower Beach, the Ring at Place Ville Marie, HtO Urban Beach, Sugar Beach, Berczy Park, Love Park, and many others. His career began in the early 1990s with landscape art installations that shattered the conventions of landscape design in Canada and with projects that deployed strong design narratives, the techniques of conceptual art, abstraction, and the bold use of color.
18 Shades of Gay, Montreal, Canada / Jean Michael Seminaro, courtesy of CCxA
Sugar Beach, Toronto, Canada / Industryous, courtesy of CCxA
A great lover of the city, of culture, and of art, Claude truly blazed a new trail in landscape architecture with poetic, inspiring, and uplifting work that challenged the modernist orthodoxy of public space, all the while remaining practical and appreciated in a popular context. He invited people to laugh, to come together, to see things differently.
Over the years, Claude has been invited worldwide to present dozens of lectures featuring the firm’s work and design approach. Driven by the desire to give back as he himself had benefited from the generosity of others in his early career, Claude bestowed a major gift in 2020 — the Claude Cormier Award in Landscape Architecture — to the University of Toronto to support creative excellence and bolster landscape architecture recognition.
A major retrospective entitled Serious Fun: The Landscapes of Claude Cormier by Marc Treib and Susan Herrington, was published in 2021, highlighting the importance and uniqueness of his work. The recent renaming of his firm of 15 professionals to CCxA marked the passing of the torch to his long-standing collaborators — Sophie Beaudoin, Marc Hallé, Guillaume Paradis, and Yannick Roberge — committed to perpetuate a unique approach at the crossroads of design and art, nature and artifice.
The CCxA team extends its thoughts and support to his family and many friends."
The Cultural Landscape Foundation (TCLF) also published a tribute to Cormier.
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