Project Background

Built in 1925, the building at 1500 boulevard Robert-Bourassa originally housed Montreal’s largest department store. In the early 1930s, three floors were added, and the ninth became home to the famed L’Île-de-France restaurant. From 1961 until its closure in 1999, the Eaton Centre occupied the site. After acquiring the property, Ivanhoé Cambridge commissioned La bande à Paul to bring new life to the restored Art Deco storefront windows on the building’s long-vacant 9th floor.

What La bande à Paul Brought to the Table

La bande à Paul proposed reactivating the restored Art Deco storefront windows on the building’s 9th floor with visuals evoking the ambience of L’Île-de-France. Five distinct viewpoints highlight the restaurant’s signature architectural features, offering a glimpse into this iconic space designed by Jacques Carlu. The illustrations were entrusted to Pascal Blanchet, a visual artist drawn to Art Deco and streamline aesthetics, who had visited the restaurant as a child. His stylized images were conceived as layered theatrical scenes: three-dimensional dioramas playing with planes and perspective. Integrated lighting animates each miniature stage, lending depth and atmosphere to the nostalgic compositions.